Controllers

Introduction

Instead of defining all of your request handling logic as anonymous functions in route files, you may wish to organize this behavior using Controller classes. Controllers can group related request handling logic into a single class. Controllers are stored in the app/Http/Controllers directory.

Basic Controllers

Defining Controllers

To create a new controller, use the make:controller Craftsman command:

node craftsman make:controller UserController

This command will place a new UserController class within your app/Http/Controllers directory.

Below is an example of a basic controller class. Note that the controller extends the base controller class included with Formidable:

app/Http/Controllers/UserController.imba

import { NotFoundException } from '@formidablejs/framework'
import { Controller } from './Controller'
import { User } from '../../Models/User'

export class UserController < Controller

    def show request
        try return await new User({ id: request.param('id') }).fetch!

        throw new NotFoundException 'User does not exist'

You can define a route to this controller action like this:

routes/api.imba

import { Route } from '@formidablejs/framework'
import { UserController } from '../app/Http/Controllers/UserController'

Route.get('/user/:id', [UserController, 'show'])

Now, when a request matches the specified route URI, the show method in the UserController class will be executed.

Helpers

The base Controller class comes with helper functions.

notFound

The notFound function throws a 404 Exception:

...
export class UserController < Controller

    def show request\FormRequest
        if User.where({ id: request.param('id') }).count! < 0
            notFound!

You may also pass a custom error message:

...
export class UserController < Controller

    def show request\FormRequest
        if User.where({ id: request.param('id') }).count! < 0
            notFound 'User does not exist'

badRequest

The notFound function throws a 400 Exception:

...
export class UserController < Controller

    def destroy request\FormRequest
        if !request.auth!.can('users:delete')
            badRequest!

And with a custom message:

The notFound function throws a 400 Exception:

...
export class UserController < Controller

    def destroy request\FormRequest
        if !request.auth!.can('users:delete')
            badRequest 'Permission denied'

validate

The validate function makes it easier to validate incoming requests:

...
export class UserController < Controller

    def update request\FormRequest
        const validator = validate(request, {
            name: 'required'
            email: 'required|email'
        })

        if validator.fails!
            throw ValidationException.withMessage(validator.errors.errors)