I'm developing an API using Zend Framework 1.12.3. I'm using Zend_Rest_Route, but I would like to have hierarchical URLs:
I'm considering of using this approach, since I'd have to assign certain subjects to certain professors, and I belive that this schema solves it neatly.
However, I'm having a hard time achieving hierarchical URLs. I've already tried:
Zend_Controller_Router_Route with Chains, in the config .ini file, but since both the controller and the action have to be specified, when accessing http://api.example.com/professors/:professorId/subjects it always pointed to the same action (i.e., whatever the call method was - POST, PUT, GET, DELETE - it always pointed to the action specified in the config .ini file). For example, had I specified the getAction in the config file, using chains it would always call the getAction, no matter what was the method I've used. Currently, when having a POST call, it actually calls the postAction() (similarly happens for PUT, GET, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD and OPTIONS). My Controller file looks like this:
class V1_ProfessorsController extends REST_Controller
{
public function optionsAction()
{
// code goes here
}
public function headAction()
{
// code goes here
}
public function indexAction()
{
// code goes here - list of resources
}
public function getAction()
{
// code goes here
}
public function postAction()
{
// code goes here
}
public function putAction()
{
// code goes here
}
public function patchAction()
{
// code goes here
}
public function deleteAction()
{
// code goes here
}
}
Subclassing the Zend_Rest_Route and overriding the match() function as pointed out here. The thing is, that while this does work when calling http://api.example.com/professors/:professorId/subjects, it still uses the same ProfessorsController that is used when calling http://api.example.com/professors. I'm not sure about this, but I believe that it would be best having its own controller (e.g. ProfessorsSubjectsController).
Also, I've got a question. How should the hierarchical routes work? Would it be better to have different controllers for different resources/subresources? E.g., having ProfessorsController for http://api.example.com/professors/:professorId and ProfessorsSubjectsController for http://api.example.com/professors/:professorId/subjects/:subjectId ?
I found a solution somewhere that I modified slightly. This is a custom route class that does what I think we both want it to do.
<?php
require_once "modules.inc";
class Rest_Controller_Route extends Zend_Controller_Router_Route
{
/**
* @var Zend_Controller_Front
*/
protected $_front;
protected $_actionKey = 'action';
/**
* Prepares the route for mapping by splitting (exploding) it
* to a corresponding atomic parts. These parts are assigned
* a position which is later used for matching and preparing values.
*
* @param Zend_Controller_Front $front Front Controller object
* @param string $route Map used to match with later submitted URL path
* @param array $defaults Defaults for map variables with keys as variable names
* @param array $reqs Regular expression requirements for variables (keys as variable names)
* @param Zend_Translate $translator Translator to use for this instance
*/
public function __construct(Zend_Controller_Front $front, $route, $defaults = array(), $reqs = array(), Zend_Translate $translator = null, $locale = null)
{
$this->_front = $front;
$this->_dispatcher = $front->getDispatcher();
parent::__construct($route, $defaults, $reqs, $translator, $locale);
}
/**
* Matches a user submitted path with parts defined by a map. Assigns and
* returns an array of variables on a successful match.
*
* @param string $path Path used to match against this routing map
* @return array|false An array of assigned values or a false on a mismatch
*/
public function match($path, $partial = false)
{
$return = parent::match($path, $partial);
// add the RESTful action mapping
if ($return) {
$request = $this->_front->getRequest();
$path = $request->getPathInfo();
$params = $request->getParams();
$path = trim($path, '/');
if ($path != '') {
$path = explode('/', $path);
}
$lastParam = array_pop($path);
// Determine Action
$requestMethod = strtolower($request->getMethod());
if ($requestMethod == 'head') {
if (is_numeric($lastParam)) {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'head';
$return["id"] = $lastParam;
}
} else if ($requestMethod != 'get') {
if ($request->getParam('_method')) {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = strtolower($request->getParam('_method'));
} elseif ( $request->getHeader('X-HTTP-Method-Override') ) {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = strtolower($request->getHeader('X-HTTP-Method-Override'));
} else {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = $requestMethod;
}
// Map PUT, DELETE and POST to actual create/update/delete actions
// based on parameter count (posting to resource or collection)
switch( $return[$this->_actionKey] ){
case 'post':
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'post';
break;
case 'put':
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'put';
$return["id"] = $lastParam;
break;
case 'delete':
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'delete';
$return["id"] = $lastParam;
break;
}
} else {
// if the last argument in the path is a numeric value, consider this request a GET of an item
if (is_numeric($lastParam)) {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'get';
$return["id"] = $lastParam;
} else {
if (isset($data[0]) && is_numeric($data[0])) {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'get';
$return["id"] = $lastParam;
} else {
$return[$this->_actionKey] = 'index';
}
}
}
}
return $return;
}
}
To use this, create all your routes like this in your bootstrap or index.php, two examples:
$route = new Rest_Controller_Route($front, 'customers/*', array('controller' => 'customers'));
$router->addRoute('customers', $route);
$route = new Rest_Controller_Route($front, 'customers/:customer_id/documents/*', array('controller' => 'customers-documents'));
$router->addRoute('customersdocuments', $route);
This works as a charm for me. Thou, consider that this is not my final solution so there might be dragons that I haven't discovered so be aware. :)