Section: Developing a REST controller
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REST principles consist of using HTTP protocol features to access and manipulate a resource. It is true that POST and GET method are very-well known HTTP requests but HTTP also defines PUT and DELETE methods. Thus RESTful says a resource should be identified by a unique URI and the four HTTP methods should be used to create, modify, delete and display it.
See RESTful on wikipedia.
Now, let's dive into RESTful with Jelix
Controller ¶
As said before, the four HTTP methods are: GET, POST, DELETE, PUT. Each should be implemented in a RESTful controller.
You have to create a new controller implementing jIRestController interface. You won't be able to add actions to it other than the four defined by jIRestController:
class exampleCtrl extends jController implements jIRestController {
function get(){
}
function post(){
}
function put(){
}
function delete(){
}
}
The code of those methods is similar to those of classic actions but you should respect their meaning:
- GET is used to display a resource
- POST is used to modify a resource
- PUT is used to create a resource
- DELETE is used to delete a resource
Note: implementing jIRestController interface is mandatory to do RESTful. Jelix knows you are doing RESTful by the means of this interface and modify its internal behaviour.
Client request ¶
As said above, there is a unique URI identifying a resource and only HTTP methods indicates which action of your controller Jelix should execute.
Therefore, if you want to retrieve a REST controller url you shall not indicate an action and leave this field empty in your selector.
Example: with the example controller above, its url selector should be "module~exemple:". Note the last ":" character.
With the url result of jUrl::get("module~example:"), you will then be able to call it via xmlHttpRequest in a JS script for example. You just have to tell xmlHttpRequest which http method to use (GET, POST, DELETE or PUT).
Note ¶
There is another way to do REST in a classic controller. Scan $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] value. But this is a less "sexy" solution than a jIRestController interface. ;-)
Retrieving parameters of the request ¶
As in any controller, you can retrieve parameters with the param() method, by indicating the parameter name.
For POST and PUT requests, param() is working only if parameters are stored in the body http request with the content-type "multipart/form-data" or "application/x-www-url-encoded" (this is mostly the case with POST request).
The PUT case ¶
PHP doesn't support correctly the HTTP PUT method. It doesn't read the body of the request, even if the data format is "multipart/form-data" or "application/x-www-url-encoded" (there isn't a $_PUT global variable).
Jelix read for you the body (by reading "php://input". If the content-type of data is "multipart/form-data" or "application/x-www-url-encoded", then data are accessible from the param() method as usual. However, it doesn't detect uploaded files, so there isn't any content in $_FILE and then you have to read file properties by getting the corresponding parameters through the param() method.
If the content-type of data is not "multipart/form-data" or "application/x-www-url-encoded", you could retrieve the entire content in the special parameter __httpbody.
$data = $this->param('__httpbody');
Then you have to parse yourself the content to extract data you want. You can read $_SERVER["CONTENT_TYPE"] to get the content type of the data.
