opensense-docs/source/development/frontend/controller.rst

===========================
Using controllers and views
===========================

-------
General
-------

After routing is performed, the controller takes care of the actual code
to execute for the request. Because we want to implement some basics for
every request that gets processed you should inherit from our base
classes to ensure basic functionality such as authorisation and CSRF
protection.

Controllers are placed in the directory /usr/local/opnsense/mvc/app/controllers/<Vendor\_name>/<Module\_name>/
and should use the standard Phalcon naming conventions, suffix Controller.php on
every class file and suffix Action on all action methods.

For a detailed description of how Controllers work in Phalcon, please
look at the Phalcon documentation at http://docs.phalconphp.com/en/latest/reference/controllers.html

----------------------
View based controllers
----------------------

For rendering standard pages we have chosen to use Volt templates, the
base controller to inherit from in this case is
OPNsense\\Base\\ControllerBase and should take care of binding a
template to the controller. Every template automatically receives
standard features (such as the menu system).

The wireframe for implementing a single action should look like this:

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
        public function indexAction()
        {
           // address some variables to pass through the view
            $this->view->my_variable1 = 'test 1';
            $this->view->my_variable2 = 'test 2';
           // pick a template
            $this->view->pick('SampleVendor/Sample/index');
        }

And the volt template SampleVendor/Sample/index.volt could contain something like:

.. code-block:: html

      the contents of my_variable1 => <b> {{ my_variable1 }} </b> <br>
      the contents of my_variable2 => <b> {{ my_variable2 }} </b> <br>

A full example can be found in the OPNsense\\Sample controller
directory.

More information on how to write Volt pages can be found here :
http://docs.phalconphp.com/en/latest/reference/volt.html

---------------------
API based controllers
---------------------

For API calls a separate class is used to derive from, which implements
a simple interface to handle calls. The main difference with the view
controllers is that an action should return a named array containing
response data instead of picking a template.

A simple index controller to echo a request back looks like this:

.. code-block:: php

    class TestController extends ApiControllerBase
    {
        /**
         * @return array
         */
        public function echoAction()
        {
            if ($this->request->hasPost("message")) {
                $message = $this->request->getPost("message");
            } else {
                $message = " " ;
            }
     
            return array("message" => $message);
        }
    }

When placed inside the API directory of Vendor/Sample can be called by sending a
post request to /api/sample/test/echo, using jQuery:

.. code-block:: javascript

            $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: "/api/sample/test/echo",
                success: function(data){
                    alert(data.message) ;
                },
                data:{message:"test message"}
            });


.. Tip::

    OPNsense ships with two standard controllers to incorporate default action scenario's, such as mutating models
    and restarting services. These can be found in our repository `here <https://github.com/opnsense/core/blob/master/src/opnsense/mvc/app/controllers/OPNsense/Base/>`__
    and are named :code:`ApiMutableModelControllerBase`, :code:`ApiMutableServiceControllerBase`. Both extend :code:`ApiControllerBase`
    as described in this chapter. The mutable model controller is explained in more detail in :doc:`using grids <../examples/using_grids>`, the
    service controller is explained in :doc:`api enable services <../examples/api_enable_services>`