Modify Route Params before hitting the controller

Question

Modify Route Params before hitting the controller

Christoph Melzer Feb '20

Created Feb '20	Last Reply Aug '20	Replies 5	Views 200	Votes 0

Christoph Melzer 1.4k

Feb '20

Hey!

I'm currently writing an API (Phalcon Micro, version 3.4) that is versioned. That means, my routes look something like this: e.g. /2.1/my/application/exampleuser or with parameters: /{version}/my/application/{username}

These parameters are automatically passed to the Controller::Action Method by Phalcon. So my Controller / Action for beforementioned route looks like this:

class ExampleController extends \Phalcon\Di\Injectable
{
    public function userAction(int $version, string $username)
    {
        // my code here
    }
}

Now, I really don't want to add the version parameter to every single action. What I would like to do is to add a Middleware (e.g. hook into the micro:beforeExecuteRoute Event), get the version from the parameters and remove that route parameter so my userAction will look like this instead:

public function userAction(string $username)
{
    // my code here
}

What I already tried is to modify the parameter list via the dispatcher:$application->dispatcher->setParams($modifiedParams); but without any success. The parameters for this also seem to be only available within the controller itself and not in the middleware.

I would like to know how I can achieve what I want. Can this be done with Phalcon itself, or do I have to write some kind of a script to do so (or tweak nginx configuration)?

If there's any information missing, let me know.

talal424 · Answer 1 · 2020-02-17T15:19:14-07:00

you can do by altering the defined route

maybe you can share with us how you defined your routes

Christoph Melzer · Answer 2 · 2020-02-18T01:12:24-07:00

Sure, have a look here on how I'm defining and mounting my routes. At least part of it is a custom logic. My route definition looks like this:

return [
    [
        'class'   => \App\Http\Controller\ExampleController::class,     // the controller that should be used to handle the request
        'prefix'  => '/{version}/my',                                   // route prefix
        'methods' => [
            'get'   => [
                '/application/{username}' => [
                    'action'  => 'userAction',                          // the action handling the request
                    'options' => [                                      // list of options I may apply to the route, only internal usage and not of relevance for this issue
                        'requiredAuthentication' => false
                    ],
                ],
            ],
            'post' => [
                // more routes for post
            ]
        ],
    ],
];

This array is then used to create new \Phalcon\Mvc\Micro\Collection Objects adding the routes. This looks basically like this (there's a class around it I did not add here, and I removed error handling for simplicity):

foreach ($this->routes as $route) {                                     // $this->route is the array from above
    $collection = new \Phalcon\Mvc\Micro\Collection();

    $class = $route['class'];
    $collection->setHandler(new $class($this->diContainer));            // setting the handler (controller) class
    if (array_has($route, 'prefix')) {                                  // setting the route prefix if there is one
        $collection->setPrefix($route['prefix']);
    }

    foreach ($route['methods'] as $verb => $methods) {                  // looping over all the http methods and ...
            foreach ($methods as $endpoint => $configuration) {         // ... over all the endpoints within each method to add the uri to the collection
                $collection->$verb($endpoint, $configuration['action'], $configuration['action']);
            }
        }
    $this->application->mount($collection);
}

Everything else after mounting the routes up to the point where the action is executed is basically Phalcon standard. The only additional logic is, that I hook into the micro:beforeExecuteRoute again to call an initialize method of my controller.

Can you explain a bit further on what you mean by altering the defined route? I cannot follow on this one.

talal424 · Answer 3 · 2020-02-18T08:47:48-07:00

'prefix' => '/{version}/my' this tells the router is that {version} is a required "paramater" not just required

what you need is change {version} to a regex that can verify the input is what you need


$collection = new \Phalcon\Mvc\Micro\Collection;

// this will pass {version} as a paramater
$collection->setPrefix('/{version}/my'); 

// basicly the same except it must match the regex ([0-9]{1,2}\.[0-9]{1,2})
$collection->setPrefix('/{version:([0-9]{1,2}\.[0-9]{1,2})}/my'); 

// this is what you want. must supply a version but its not a paramater
$collection->setPrefix('/([0-9]{1,2}\.[0-9]{1,2})/my');

just change regex to your needs

Christoph Melzer · Answer 4 · 2020-02-19T02:51:32-07:00

I know that I can simply use a regular expression so version is no longe a parameter. In fact, when doing so, there's no way (or at least I don't know a way) to grab the information about the version from the url without manually parsing it (Yes, I can do something like substr($url, ...) I just thought maybe phalcon provides a way). I tried to find a way, that I can add the version as a named parameter and remove it within a middleware, so it is not passed to the controller.

For example: Imagine the application flow is like this: My routes are initialized the way I wrote before. Afterwards my FancyMiddleware is called (by hooking into the micro:beforeExecuteRoute Event) then the controller is executed.

// route:
return [
    [
        'class'   => \App\Http\Controller\ExampleController::class,     // the controller that should be used to handle the request
        'prefix'  => '/{version}/my',                                   // route prefix
        'methods' => [
            'get'   => [
                '/application/{username}' => [
                    'action'  => 'userAction',                          // the action handling the request
                    'options' => [                                      // list of options I may apply to the route, only internal usage and not of relevance for this issue
                        'requiredAuthentication' => false
                    ],
                ],
            ],
            'post' => [
                // more routes for post
            ]
        ],
    ],
];

// FancyMiddleware
class FancyMiddleware extends Plugin {
    public function beforeExecuteRoute(\Phalcon\Events\Event $event, \Phalcon\Mvc\Micro $app) {
        $params = $app->router->getParams();
        if (array_key_exists('version', $params) {
            $app->getDi()->setShared('version', $params['version'];
            // code to remove version from params ---- this is what I am looking for
        }
    }
}

// Controller
class MyController extends \Phalcon\Di\Injectable {
    public function userAction(string $username) {
        // my code, version is no longer passed to this method, since it is removed
    }
}

talal424 · Answer 5 · 2020-02-19T07:14:36-07:00

i'm sure you have your reasons.

did you think about using closures instead of collection

you may want to trace how phalcon does end up calling your method

Hus3s · Answer 6 · 2020-03-04T01:12:58-07:00

TellPopeyes Before looking at the selection algorithm, we need to understand some things about controller actions .

AlvinHoffman · Answer 7 · 2020-08-28T21:55:14-07:00

I know that I can simply use a regular expression so version is no longe a parameter. In fact, when doing so, there's no way (or at least I don't know a way) to grab the information about the version from the url without manually parsing it (Yes, I can do something like substr($url, ...) I just thought maybe phalcon provides a way). I tried to find a way, that I can add the version as a named parameter and remove it within a middleware, so it is not passed to the controller.

For example: Imagine the application flow is like this: My routes are initialized the way I wrote before tell pizza hut . Afterwards my FancyMiddleware is called (by hooking into the micro:beforeExecuteRoute Event) then the controller is executed.
// route:
return [
  [
       'class'   => \App\Http\Controller\ExampleController::class,     // the controller that should be used to handle the request
       'prefix'  => '/{version}/my',                                   // route prefix
       'methods' => [
           'get'   => [
               '/application/{username}' => [
                   'action'  => 'userAction',                          // the action handling the request
                   'options' => [                                      // list of options I may apply to the route, only internal usage and not of relevance for this issue
                       'requiredAuthentication' => false
                   ],
               ],
           ],
           'post' => [
               // more routes for post
           ]
       ],
   ],
];
// FancyMiddleware
class FancyMiddleware extends Plugin {
  public function beforeExecuteRoute(\Phalcon\Events\Event $event, \Phalcon\Mvc\Micro $app) {
      $params = $app->router->getParams();
      if (array_key_exists('version', $params) {
          $app->getDi()->setShared('version', $params['version'];
          // code to remove version from params ---- this is what I am looking for
      }
  }
}
// Controller
class MyController extends \Phalcon\Di\Injectable {
  public function userAction(string $username) {
      // my code, version is no longer passed to this method, since it is removed
  }
}

Your information is very interesting. Thank you for sharing..I can achieve what I want. Can this be done with Phalcon itself, or do I have to write some kind of a script to do so