Controllers

• Introduction
• Writing controller
  • Controller class
  • Controller properties
• Actions, views and routing
• Passing data to views
• Rendering views
• Setting the navigation context
• Controller middleware
• Controller action classes
• Using AJAX handlers
• Restricting access

#Introduction

TastyIgniter Admin implements the MVC pattern. Controllers manage admin pages and implement various features like forms and lists. This article describes how to develop admin controllers and how to configure controller methods.

Controllers are typically stored in the src/Http/Controllers directory of an extension. Controller views are .blade.php blade views that reside in the resources/views directory of an extension. The controller view directory name matches the controller class name written in lowercase. An example of a controller directory structure:

author/
  extension/
    src/
      Http/
        Controllers/
          MyController.php          <=== Controller class
    resources/
      views/
        mycontroller/               <=== Controller view directory
          edit.blade.php            <=== Controller view file

#Writing controller

#Controller class

Each controller is simply a class that extends the Igniter\Admin\Classes\AdminController class. Here is an example of a controller class:

namespace Author\Extension\Http\Controllers;

class MyController extends \Igniter\Admin\Classes\AdminController
{
    public function index() // Controller action
    {
        return $this->makeView('index');
    }
}

#Controller properties

Controllers defines a number of properties to configure the controller's behavior. The following properties are available:

Property	Description
$pageTitle	The page title to display in the admin interface.
$bodyClass	The CSS class to apply to the admin page body.
$currentUser	The currently logged-in administrator.
$defaultView	The default view file to render when no view is returned from the action.
$suppressView	A boolean value that determines whether to suppress the view rendering.
$layout	The layout file to use for rendering the controller views.
$requiredPermissions	An array of permission keys that determine the access level needed to access the controller. If an administrator has any of the permissions listed, they are granted access to the controller pages.
$skipRouteRegister	A boolean value that determines whether to skip automatically registering the controller routes.
$guarded	An array of controller methods that can not be called as actions. Can be extended in the controller constructor.

Note These properties can be set in the class definition, in the controller constructor or in the action method.

#Actions, views and routing

Actions are methods within the controller that handle specific tasks. They interact with the model, manipulate data, and load views. Routing is used to map URLs to these controller actions.

For example, the URL for the index action of the MyController controller in the Author.Extension extension would be:

http://site.com/admin/author/extension/mycontroller/index

#Passing data to views

Data can be passed from the controller to the view using the $this->vars property. This property is an array that holds the data to be passed to the view. Here is an example of passing data to the view:

public function index()
{
    $this->vars['records'] = Record::all();
}

The variables passed with the $this->vars property can now be accessed directly in your view:

@foreach ($records as $record)
    {{ $record->name }}
@endforeach

#Rendering views

Views are rendered using the makeView method. This method takes the view file name as an argument and returns the rendered view. Here is an example of rendering a view:

public function index()
{
    return $this->makeView('index');
}

#Setting the navigation context

Extensions can register admin navigation menus and submenus in the Extension class. The navigation context can be set in the controller to highlight the active menu item in the admin interface. The AdminMenu::setContext method is used to set the navigation context. Here is an example of setting the navigation context:

public function __construct()
{
    parent::__construct();
 
    AdminMenu::setContext('nav-item', 'parent-item');
}

#Controller middleware

For example, TastyIgniter includes a middleware that verifies the user of your application is authenticated. If the user is not authenticated, the middleware will redirect the user to the login screen. However, if the user is authenticated, the middleware will allow the request to proceed further into the application.

Controller middleware is executed after the request is processed by TastyIgniter, but before the response is sent to the browser, allowing you to perform actions or modify the request/response during this lifecycle stage.

To define middleware for your controller, you may specify it in the __construct() method of your Admin controller by calling the middleware() method. Here is an example of defining middleware for a controller:

public function __construct()
{
    parent::__construct();
 
    $this->middleware(function ($request, $response) {
        // Middleware functionality
    });
}

You can also control which actions will use your middleware by using the only() and except() modifiers. For example, to restrict the middleware to only run on the index action or on every action except the index action, you could do the following:

public function __construct()
{
    parent::__construct();
 
    $this->middleware(function ($request, $response) {
        // Middleware functionality
    })->only('index');
    
    // Or
    
    $this->middleware(function ($request, $response) {
        // Middleware functionality
    })->except('index');
}

#Controller action classes

Action classes are behaviours that can be attached to controllers to extend their functionality. Action classes are useful for sharing common controller logic across multiple controllers. To attach an action class to a controller, you can set the $implement property on the controller class.

Here is an example of attaching an action class to a controller:

namespace Author\Extension\Http\Controllers;

class MyController extends \Igniter\Admin\Classes\AdminController
{
    public array $implement = [\Author\Extension\Http\Actions\MyAction::class];
    
    //
}

Each controller action is simply a class that extends the Igniter\System\Classes\ControllerAction class. Here is an example of a controller action class:

namespace Author\Extension\Http\Actions;

class MyAction extends \Igniter\System\Classes\ControllerAction
{
    public function __construct($controller)
    {
        parent::__construct($controller);
        
        // Configure the action
    }
    
    public function index() // Action method
    {
        return $this->makeView('index');
    }
}

#Using AJAX handlers

Controllers can define AJAX handlers to handle AJAX requests. AJAX handlers are methods with the name starting with "on" string that return an array of data, throw an exception or redirect to another page (see AJAX event handlers). Here is an example of defining an AJAX handler:

public function onAction()
{
    if (Request::input('someVar') != 'someValue') {
        throw new ApplicationException('Invalid value');
    }
    
    return ['data' => 'value'];
}

The AJAX handler can be triggered with the data-request attribute in the view:

<button
    data-request="onAction"
    data-request-data="someVar: 'someValue'"
    data-request-success="alert('Success!')"
>Click me</button>

#Restricting access

Access to controller actions can be restricted using the $requiredPermissions property. This property holds an array of permission keys that determine the access level needed. If an administrator has any of the permissions listed, they are granted access to the controller pages.

Here is an example of how to restrict access to a controller using permissions:

namespace Author\Extension\Http\Controllers;

class MyController extends \Igniter\Admin\Classes\AdminController
{
    public null|string|array $requiredPermissions = ['Author.Extension.ManageRecord'];
    
    //
}

See more about restricting access to admin pages and restricting access to admin controller actions.