Invalid controller class from custom component ajax call to json method

Question

I have an existing J3 component admin view which fires off a Javascript Ajax call to a Json controller and fetches back data which I then incorporate into that view. I'm trying to replicate how I've done that into a J4 component but I can't seem to get it working.

The controller is at: administrator/components/com_erycdirectory/src/Controller/InputDataController.json.php

The namespace for that controller is Eryc\Component\ErycDirectory\Administrator\Controller, the class name is InputDataController and it extends \JControllerLegacy

The function in this controller that I want to access remotely is called getInputsByDirectoryId() and it is currently set to echo out a json encoded array with a single hard-coded key/value pair in it until I can get it working. Then I'll update it to fetch a model to access the database with.

The Ajax call in the template is being sent to

'index.php?option=com_erycdirectory&task=inputdata.getinputsbydirectoryid&format=json'

The error that comes back is "Invalid controller class: inputdata". Any suggestions as to what I might be missing would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

In J4 default MVC factory uses PSR-4 autoloading. So InputDataController.json.php filename is invalid, your controller class will not be found at all. Secondly, default component dispatcher doesn't use format for creating controllers anymore. The simple solution here is to rename the file to InputDataController.php.

If you want to customize the class structure, you can extend Joomla\CMS\MVC\Factory\MVCFactory and Joomla\CMS\Dispatcher\ComponentDispatcher or create your own implementations of Joomla\CMS\MVC\Factory\MVCFactoryInterface and Joomla\CMS\Dispatcher\DispatcherInterface.