Controller

WordPress package to enable a controller when using Blade with Sage

• Installation
• Setup
• Usage
  • Overview
  • Basic Controller
  • Using Functions
  • Using Components
  • Inheriting the Tree/Hierarchy
  • Creating Global Properties
  • Advanced Custom Fields Module
  • Template Override Option
  • Lifecycles
  • Disable Option
• Blade Debugger
• Blade Coder

Installation

Composer:

Sage ships with Controller. However, should you need to install, browse into the Sage theme directory and run;

$ composer require soberwp/controller:2.1.1

Upgrading to 2.x.x:

Please note that versions 2.x.x are newer releases than 9.x.x-beta. The 9 was used to match Sage 9 versioning at the time.

Controller 2.x.x uses PSR4 autoloading to load Controller classes. This is considered best practice. You will need to update the following files from 9.0.0-beta versions.

Folder controllers/ changes to Controllers/, class file names changes to camelcase App.php and FrontPage.php. Controller namespaces changes to namespace App\Controllers;

Requirements:

• PHP >= 7.0

Setup

By default Controller uses namespace Controllers.

Controller takes advantage of PSR-4 autoloading. To change the namespace, use the filter below within functions.php

add_filter('sober/controller/namespace', function () {
    return 'Data';
});

Usage

Overview:

• Controller class names follow the same hierarchy as WordPress.
• The Controller class name should match the filename
  • For example App.php should define class as class App extends Controller
• Create methods within the Controller Class;
  • Use public function to return data to the Blade views/s
    • The method name becomes the variable name in Blade
    • Camel case is converted to snake case. public function ExampleForUser in the Controller becomes $example_for_user in the Blade template
    • If the same method name is declared twice, the latest instance will override the previous
  • Use public static function to use run the method from your Blade template which returns data. This is useful for loops
    • The method name is not converted to snake case
    • You access the method using the class name, followed by the method. public static function Example in App.php can be run in Blade using App::Example()
    • If the same method name is declared twice, the latest instance will override the previous
  • Use protected function for internal methods. These will not be exposed to Blade. You can run them within __construct
    • Dependency injection with type hinting is available through __construct

The above may sound complicated on first read, so let's take a look at some examples to see how simple Controller is to use.

Basic Controller;

The following example will expose $images to resources/views/single.blade.php

app/Controllers/Single.php

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class Single extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Return images from Advanced Custom Fields
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function images()
    {
        return get_field('images');
    }
}

resources/views/single.blade.php

@if($images)
  <ul>
    @foreach($images as $image)
      <li><img src="{{$image['sizes']['thumbnail']}}" alt="{{$image['alt']}}"></li>
    @endforeach
  </ul>
@endif

Using Functions;

You can use static methods to run a function from within your view.

This is useful if you are within the loop and want to return data for each post item.

app/Controllers/Archive.php

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class Archive extends Controller
{
    public static function title()
    {
        return get_post()->post_title;
    }
}

resources/views/archive.php

@extends('layouts.app')

@section('content')

  @while (have_posts()) @php(the_post())
    {{ Archive::title() }}
  @endwhile

@endsection

Using Components;

You can also create reusable components and include them in any Controller class using PHP traits.

app/Controllers/Partials/Images.php

<?php

namespace App\Controllers\Partials;

trait Images
{
    public function images()
    {
        return get_field('images');
    }
}

You can now include the Images trait into any view to pass on variable $images;

app/Controllers/Single.php

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class Single extends Controller
{
    use Partials\Images;
}

Inheriting the Tree/Hierarchy;

By default, each Controller overrides its template hierarchy depending on the specificity of the Controller (the same way WordPress templates work).

You can inherit the data from less specific Controllers in the hierarchy by implementing the Tree.

For example, the following app/Controllers/Single.php example will inherit methods from app/Controllers/Singular.php;

app/Controllers/Single.php

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;
use Sober\Controller\Module\Tree;

class Single extends Controller implements Tree
{

}

If you prefer you can also do this;

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class Single extends Controller
{
    protected $tree = true;
}

You can override a app/Controllers/Singular.php method by declaring the same method name in app/Controllers/Single.php;

Creating Global Properties;

Methods created in app/Controllers/App.php will be inherited by all views and can not be disabled as resources/views/layouts/app.php extends all views.

app/Controllers/App.php

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class App extends Controller
{
    public function siteName()
    {
        return get_bloginfo('name');
    }
}

Advanced Custom Fields Module;

Controller has an useful Advanced Custom Fields helper module to automate passing on fields.

The automated fields will use the variable names from Advanced Custom Fields and pass them onto the view. Controller also passes on options values by default.

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class Single extends Controller
{
    // Pass on all fields from Advanced Custom Fields to the view
    protected $acf = true;

    // Pass on only field_1 from Advanced Custom Fields to the view
    protected $acf = 'field_1';

    // Pass on multiple fields from Advanced Custom Fields to the view
    protected $acf = ['field_1', 'field_2'];
}

Clone fields will return the value of each the fields in a separate variable, unless the Prefix Field Names option is enabled in which case the the cloned fields will be returned in an object with the field name given to the clone field.

The values are returned as objects, however you can disable this to keep them as arrays.

add_filter('sober/controller/acf/array', function () {
    return true;
});

Template Override Option;

You should only use overrides in edge-case scenarios. Sticking to the WordPress hierarchy is recommended usage. However, one edge-case is the 404 template.

In your Blade view, you would have 404.blade.php as it begins with a number. In this case, you could rename your Controller class FourZeroFour.php and use parameter $template = '404';

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

use Sober\Controller\Controller;

class FourZeroFour extends Controller
{
    protected $template = '404';
}

Lifecycles;

Controller Classes come with two lifecycle hooks for greater control.

public function __before()
{
    // runs after this->data is set up, but before the class methods are run
}

public function __after()
{
    // runs after all the class methods have run
}

Disable Option;

protected $active = false;

Blade Debugger;

In your Blade views, resources/views, you can use the following to assist with debugging;

• @debug
• @dump(__var__)

Blade Coder;

In your Blade views, resources/views, you can use the following to assist with jump-starting coding;

• @code
• @code('__name of variable as string__')

To wrap the code in if statements, use @codeif

• @codeif
• @codeif('__name of variable as string__')

Updates

• Change the composer.json version to 2.1.1
• Check CHANGELOG.md for any breaking changes before updating.

$ composer update

Other

• For updates follow @withjacoby
• You can also hire me for WordPress or frontend work