Multiple controllers in Joomla

Question

I am totally Joomla noob and trying to figure out how to control MVC in Joomla. I've read this "Developing a MVC Component" in Joomla basic tutorial and understand that the main controller is located under components/com_component/controller.php & other file is components/com_helloworld/helloworld.php which is pointing to controller.php file to execute the request. The question is, I want to create new controller folder and put all controllers in that folder like below. How to do that?

Any advise is really appreciated. Thank you so much!!

Answer 1

I think you're confusing the purpose of your main / master controller (controller.php) and subcontrollers (everything in the /controllers folder). For more on this, see the docs.

The main controller is typically used to do what you mention in your comment (render a view based on the view parameter, usually specified in the URL). In controller.php, the function that does this is called display(). So the following URL:

http://example.com/index.php?option=com_mycomponent&view=test

Will result in calling the display() function in controller.php and loads the view test in /views/test.

Subcontrollers, in the controllers folder, are generally used for CRUD tasks, but can be called easily by using a task URL parameter. For example:

http://example.com/index.php?option=com_mycomponent&task=test.process

Will result in calling the process() function in /controllers/test.php - notice the task parameter is <controllerName>.<functionName>

You'll see this used a lot to do actions that don't need a view, e.g in com_content to publish / checkin / checkout / delete articles (where the task is article.publish etc.,which means the controller at controllers/article.php and the function publish(), and instead of a dedicated view the controller just redirects back to the list view).

For more information on how all the Joomla MVC parts fit together, see this wiki article.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Joomla MVC follows a naming convention to choose the file and class names.

This folder holds additional controllers, if needed by the application.

   /site/controllers/{controllername}.php
   This file holds the controller class {ComponentName}Controller{ControllerName}. This class must extend the base class JController.

You find more information in Joomla Docs, here

Answer 3

If by all controllers you mean everything but controller.php, then placing them in that folder will work just fine. You call a specific controller with the task variable. For instance if you want to call the save method of the employer controller then you set the task to employer.save

I hope this helps. Happy Joomla!ng