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Controllers.md

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Controllers.md

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Controllers

The "C" in MVC. In Magento, the controller is used for gathering request parameters, and then calling on other classes to manage this data. Controllers can also handle exceptions that occur during this process.

All frontend controller classes should extend the class Magento\Framework\App\Action\Action and all admin controller classes should extend the class Magento\Backend\App\Action.

Which controller gets called is based on the url structure frontname/actionpath/action where the frontname is controlled in a module's routes.xml file, the actionpath is the subfolder in the module's Controller folder, and the action is the PHP class within that subfolder. This differs from Magento 1 where the controller file would be directly under the controllers folder. Also, in Magento 1 the action name was a function within your controller class. In Magento 2, the action name is the entire class because controller classes can only match a single action. In Magento 1 you were able to place multiple actions within a single controller class, but this is no longer the case in Magento 2.

An example

/catalog/product/view

  • catalog matches the route frontName value in the routes.xml file located in Magento/Catalog/etc/frontend/routes.xml.
  • product matches the Product folder within Magento/Catalog/Controller/.
  • view matches the View class at Magento/Catalog/Controller/Product/View.php.

The "execute" method

All Controllers need to have an execute method. This is the method which is called by Magento\Framework\App\FrontController::dispatch when it has found a controller class which matches the request.

Controllers should return an instance of the Magento\Framework\Controller\ResultInterface class. Generally this is done with a result page factory object which gets initialzed by a View Helper.

Result Objects

The execute method should return a Result object.

Result Object Name Class Description
Page Magento\Framework\View\Result\Page Used for returning html.
JSON Magento\Framework\Controller\Result\Json Used for returning JSON data.
Forward Magento\Framework\Controller\Result\Forward Used to internally forward to another controller action. Does not redirect the user to another url.
Redirect Magento\Framework\Controller\Result\Redirect Used to redirect the user to another url.

Overriding Controllers

Controllers can be overriden just like any other class in Magento 2, using plugins or DI preferences. Use a plugin to run code before or after a controller class' execute method.

OR, you can use your own controller class in place of another controller class using preferences in a di.xml file. For example, to prefer your own controller over the Magento\Catalog\Controller\Product\View controller, place the following code in your di.xml file:

<preference for="Magento\Catalog\Controller\Product\View" 
            type="Module\Vendor\Controller\Product\View" />