Editing Symfony Controllers

[[Category:Symfony]] [[Category:PHP]] [[Category:Web Development]]

== Overview ==

A controller is a PHP callable you create that takes information from the HTTP request and constructs and returns an HTTP response (as a Symfony Response object).<ref>[http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/controller.html Symfony > Documentation > The Book > Controller]</ref>

Typically, a controller is a method of a controller class:<ref>[http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/controller.html#a-simple-controller A Simple Controller], Symfony documentation</ref> 

<syntaxhighlight lang="php" highlight="6-7,9-10">
// src/AppBundle/Controller/HelloController.php
namespace AppBundle\Controller;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

/** controller class... */
class HelloController
{
    /** ...and the methods are the various "controllers" */
    public function indexAction($name)
    {
        return new Response('<html><body>Hello '.$name.'!</body></html>');
    }
}
</syntaxhighlight>

== Requests, Controller, Response Lifecycle ==

Every request handled by a Symfony project goes through the same simple lifecycle. The framework takes care of all the repetitive stuff: you just need to write your custom code in the controller function:

* Each request is handled by a single front controller file (e.g. `app.php` or `app_dev.php`) that bootstraps the application;
* The `Router` reads information from the request (e.g. the URI), finds a route that matches that information, and reads the `_controller` parameter from the route;
* The controller from the matched route is executed and the code inside the controller creates and returns a `Response` object;
* The HTTP headers and content of the `Response` object are sent back to the client.<ref>[http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/controller.html#requests-controller-response-lifecycle Requests, Controller, Response Lifecycle], Symfony documentation</ref>

== Notes ==
<references />