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POCreating and combining controllers in an MVC PHP web application
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copied!<p>Over the last few weeks I have been studying the MVC design pattern for web applications using PHP. Taking a broad view I understand how the pattern works and why it is a very good way of implementing any sort of web application from small or large.</p> <p>As I understand it we have 3 distinct layers that talk to each other via the Controller like so:</p> <p>User Input ---> View ---> Controller ---> Model</p> <p>Site Output <--- View <--- Controller <--- Model</p> <p>With my planned implementation I hope to have a model for each table in my database, and each model will have all the functions/logic necessary to manage this table. In turn each of these models will have an associated view. The Model and View will of course have a Controller which allows them to be used.</p> <p>Now this is easy to get my head around as each single, logical action requiring the database has been covered. However, what happens when a particular action requires the use of more than one table/model?</p> <p>The Admin side of the application isn’t likely to need more than one model at a time to maintain the database. The front-end or user side of the application is a different matter! Say I have a webpage that shows a list of articles for a particular section, a list of currently logged-in users and – borrowing an example from SO – site statistics such as a tag cloud.</p> <p>This one page would require at least 3 models in my planned design – Article, Users and Tags. </p> <p>Obviously my single controllers aren’t going to cut it. So what do I do?</p> <ol> <li><p>Create new monolithic controllers for my web pages?</p> <ul> <li>allow me to get the results I want</li> <li>would require a lot of duplicate coding</li> <li>really hard to maintain if changes required</li> </ul></li> <li><p>Create a “super” controller that manipulates smaller specific controllers</p> <ul> <li>allows me to get the results I want</li> <li>would be modular so changes to one script <em>shouldn’t</em> affect the others</li> <li>minimal code duplication</li> </ul></li> <li><p>Create [insert brilliant solution here]</p></li> </ol> <p>I am currently erring towards Option 2. Simply because it should in theory cut down on coding as all the necessary behaviour will exist in the smaller controllers - and everything will be easy to maintain. </p> <p>Perhaps it could look like this:</p> <p><strong>articlecontroller.php</strong></p> <pre><code><?php //Article Controller Script if($_GET['article'] = 'foo') { //magic necessary for displaying article "foo". } ?> </code></pre> <p><strong>usercontroller.php</strong></p> <pre><code><?php //User Controller Script if($_GET['user'] = 'display') { //magic necessary for displaying users } ?> </code></pre> <p><strong>supercontroller.php</strong></p> <pre><code><?php //"Super" Controller //magic for setting up page if(isset($_GET['article'])) { include('articlecontroller.php'); } if(isset($_GET['user'])) { include('usercontroller.php'); } ?> </code></pre> <p>As you can see, my super controller looks at what that particular page requires and includes the necessary controllers which do the grunt work. <strong>NB:</strong> The code is just a quick and dirty example :)</p> <p>However, I am by no means a pro so that is why I am asking you, SO. Which option is preferred? If neither what Option 3 would you suggest? Any code snippets/examples would be lovely but not required.</p> <p>If you made it this far, thank you for your time.</p> <hr> <p>I thought I would update this question [and accept an answer - forgot to do that :P]. I took a look at the concept of Fat Models/Skinny Controllers and I like how it is done, so I will definitely be taking that directions.</p> <p>I have also taken the advice to look at some of the other frameworks and how they achieve their MVC patterns. There is rather a lot to take in! Still, I have learned quite a few new things along the way, so it was of great benefit. I may have more questions in the future, but for now I have more than enough to make a start.</p> <p>Thank you all for your input.</p>

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