Commit 3113e684 by Qiang Xue

minor edits [skip ci]

parent d3108278
Saying Hello
============
In this section, we will describe how to add to your application a new page that displays "Hello".
In this section, we will describe how to create a new page displaying "Hello" in your application.
To achieve this goal, you will create an [action](structure-controllers.md) as well as
a [view](structure-views.md). Yii dispatches the page request to the action which in turn
renders the view with "Hello" to the user.
a [view](structure-views.md):
* The application will dispatch the page request to the action;
* And the action will in turn render the view that shows "Hello" to the end user.
Through this tutorial, you will learn
......@@ -16,16 +18,23 @@ Through this tutorial, you will learn
Creating an Action
------------------
[Actions](structure-controllers.md) are the only objects that end users can directly refer to and request
for execution. Actions are grouped by [controllers](structure-controllers.md). The execution result of
an action is the response that an end user will receive.
For the "Hello" task, you will create a `say` [action](structure-controllers.md) which reads
a `message` parameter from a request and displays the message back to the user. If the request
does not provide a `message` parameter, the action will display the default "Hello".
> Info: [Actions](structure-controllers.md) are the objects that end users can directly refer to for
execution. Actions are grouped by [controllers](structure-controllers.md). The execution result of
an action is the response that an end user will receive.
For the "Hello" task, you will create a `say` action which reads a `message` parameter from
a request and displays the message content back to the user. If the `message` parameter is not given,
it will use the default value "Hello". For simplicity, you may put this action in an existing
controller `SiteController` which is defined in the class file `controllers/SiteController.php`:
Actions must be declared in [controllers](structure-controllers.md). For simplicity, you may
declare the `say` action in the existing controller `SiteController` which is defined
in the class file `controllers/SiteController.php`:
```php
namespace app\controllers;
use yii\web\Controller;
class SiteController extends Controller
{
// ...existing code...
......@@ -38,27 +47,29 @@ class SiteController extends Controller
```
In the above code, the `say` action is defined as a method named `actionSay` in `SiteController`.
Yii uses the prefix `action` to differentiate action methods from non-action methods in the class.
Yii uses the prefix `action` to differentiate action methods from non-action methods in a controller class.
The name after the `action` prefix is treated as the ID of the corresponding action.
> Info: Actions defined by action methods are called *inline actions*. Yii will create an [[yii\base\InlineAction|InlineAction]]
object during runtime which will call the corresponding action method to handle a request.
> Info: Action IDs are in lower case. If an action ID has multiple words, they should be concatenated by dashes,
e.g., `create-comment`. Action method names are derived from action IDs by removing dashes from the IDs,
turning the first letter in each word into upper case, and prefixing them with `action`. For example,
the action ID `create-comment` corresponds to the action method name `actionCreateComment`.
The action method takes a parameter `$message` which defaults to `"Hello"`. When the application
receives a request and determines the `say` action is responsible to handle the request, it will
receives a request and determines that the `say` action is responsible for handling the request, it will
populate this parameter with the same named parameter found in the request.
Within the action method, the [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]] method is called which
renders a [view](structure-views.md) named `say` and passes along the `message` parameter. The rendering
result is returned by the action method, which will be taken by the application and displayed to the end user.
Within the action method, [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]] is called to render
a [view](structure-views.md) named `say`. The `message` parameter is also passed to the view
so that it can be echoed there. The rendering result is returned by the action method, which will be taken
by the application and displayed to the end user.
Creating a View
---------------
[Views](structure-views.md) are scripts that you write to compose response content.
For the "Hello" task, you will create a `say` view which echoes the `message` parameter
passed from the `say` action when it calls `render()`:
For the "Hello" task, you will create a `say` view to echo the `message` parameter received from the action method:
```php
<?php
......@@ -67,17 +78,17 @@ use yii\helpers\Html;
<?= Html::encode($message) ?>
```
The `say` view should be saved in the file `views/site/say.php`. When the method [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]]
is called in an action, it will look for a PHP file named as `views/ControllerID/ActionID/ViewName.php`.
Note that in the above code, the `message` parameter is [[yii\helpers\Html::encode()|HTML-encoded]]
before being echoed. This is necessary because the parameter is coming from end users who may attempt
before being echoed. This is necessary because the parameter comes from end users who may attempt
[cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting) by embedding
malicious JavaScript code in the parameter.
The `say` view should be saved in the file `views/site/say.php`. When the method [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]]
is called in an action, it will look for a PHP file named as `views/ControllerID/ActionID/ViewName.php`.
> Tip: You may put more content in the `say` view. They can be HTML tags, plain text, or even PHP statements.
In fact, the `say` view is just a PHP script which is executed by the [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]] method.
The content echoed by the view script will be forwarded by the application as the response to the end user.
You may put more content in the `say` view. They can be HTML tags, plain text, or even PHP statements.
In fact, the `say` view is just a PHP script which is executed by the [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]] method.
The content echoed by the view script will be forwarded by the application as the response to the end user.
How It Works
......@@ -94,6 +105,9 @@ the application. If you omit the `message` parameter in the URL, you would see t
This is because `message` is passed as a parameter to the `actionSay()` method, and when it is omitted,
the default value of `"Hello"` will come into play.
> Info: The new page shares the same header and footer as other pages because the [[yii\web\Controller::render()|render()]]
method will automatically embed the result of the `say` view in a so-called [layout](structure-views.md) `views/layouts/main.php`.
The `r` parameter requires more explanation. It stands for [route](runtime-routing.md) which is a globally unique ID
referring to an action. Its format is `ControllerID/ActionID`. When the application receives
a request, it will check this parameter and use the `ControllerID` part to determine which controller
......@@ -102,13 +116,20 @@ to determine which action should be instantiated to do the real work. In our cas
will be resolved into the `SiteController` controller class and the `say` action. As a result,
the `SiteController::actionSay()` method will be called to handle the request.
> Info: Like actions, controllers also have IDs that uniquely identify them in an application.
Controller IDs use the same naming rules as action IDs. Controller class names are derived from
controller IDs by removing dashes from the IDs, turning the first letter in each word into upper case,
and suffixing them with the word `Controller`. For example, the controller ID `post-comment` corresponds
to the controller class name `PostCommentController`.
Summary
-------
In this section, you have touched the controller part and the view part in the MVC design pattern.
You created an action as part of a controller to handle requests. And you also created a view script
to compose response content. There is no model involved in this task because the only data used is
the simple `message` parameter.
You created an action as part of a controller to handle requests. And you also created a view
to compose response content. There is no model involved because the only data used is the simple `message` parameter.
You also have learned the route concept which is the bridge between user requests and controller actions.
In the next section, you will get into touch with the model part through building HTML forms.
In the next section, you will learn how to create a model and add a new page with an HTML form.
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