Moving AJAX to server - ajax

Right now I have HTML blocks that involve a script to call data from another DB (outside of concrete5) and I've been using XHTTP Posts to retrieve the data.
The problem:
The scripts currently exist on the client side (e.g. you can see it by inspecting element) and I think it is being called from the client's device. Once I close down access to that external DB, this won't work anymore. I need these requests to come from my website and not the client.
The need:
I know there is a way to move these requests to within Concrete5, so that concrete5 is making the requests and not the client. I'm just not sure how to go about doing this. Any advice would be really appreciated.

You could do this by creating an end point.. which is an address on your website that returns data when called.
so for example calling
www.domain.com/api/getusers{id}
Could return a JSON object for users.
A quick example.
in your application/bootstrap/app.php file you can add.
Route::register(
'/api/getusers/{id}',
'application\Controller\endpoints::getUsers'
);
Then you add a controller in application/controllers/endpoints.php
<?php
namespace Application\Controller;
use Concrete\Core\Controller\Controller;
use \Concrete\Core\Http\Request;
class Endpoints extends Controller {
/* Get all a Regions Expeditions */
public function getUsers()
{
$id = Request::getInstance()->get('id');
$userid = $th->sanitize($id);
/* Do something with $id */
echo json_encode($output);
}
}
?>
More info can found here http://c5hub.com/learning/ajax-57-style/

Related

Separate AJAX controller vs current controller?

I have a question more regarding style and organization that anything else. I often find myself having a single page (controller) that requires multiple ajax calls. Rather than creating a separate controller just for the AJAX calls because that would mean more controllers I just do the following:
class Management extends MY_Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
$this->protect->protect();
if ($this->uri->segment(2, 0) !== 0 && !$this->input->is_ajax_request()) {
exit('No direct script access allowed');
}
}
public function index()
{
$this->load->model('management_model');
$data['row_config'] = $this->management_model->getConfigRows();
$data['row_users'] = $this->management_model->getUsers();
$data['roles'] = $this->management_model->getRoles();
$this->tpl->head();
$this->load->view('management/scripts');
$this->tpl->body();
if ($this->messages->hasMessages()) {
$this->output->append_output($this->messages->display());
}
$this->load->view('management/manage', $data);
$this->load->view('management/current_users', $data);
$this->load->view('management/modals', $data);
$this->tpl->footer();
}
public function get_user_details()
{
$user = new \Auth\ASUser($_POST['userId']);
echo json_encode($user->getAll());
}
public function delete_user()
{
$user = new \Auth\ASUser($_POST['userId']);
$user->deleteUser(true);
}
As the index is the only page where I actually need to render a proper view, and the rest are ajax calls I just check the URI segment to see if something other than the index exists and then check if its an ajax request.
Is this bad practice? Should I separate the AJAX calls and the view controller?
Honestly, i don't think that there is a pattern on where you should add your ajax functions, especially in Codeigniter which is loosely coupled for most of it's structure.
In my opinion you should ask yourself the below, in order to find where you should place your ajax calls.
Are the returned data from the ajax call, related to the Controller i am already?
Will i ever use again the same method/functionality in another Controller or somewhere else?
Do i need the already defined constructor of the Controller, which i think i should place the ajax call?
Do i count on the DRY principle of software development?
Is my code flexible, reusable, etc.?
Each project has it's own philosophy and workflow. The design pattern and the data structure that you will decide you will follow, will solve most of your questions in your coding-style.
Your question is asking an opinion which is contrary to Stack Overflow's SOP. But I'll offer my opinion anyway.
Is this bad practice? I don't think so. That said, why make a controller larger than it needs to be? If your Ajax is handling the full CRUD functionality for some page then the controller could be quite large. You might be better served by a separate controller.
An Ajax call is a distinct request to the server - essentially the same as directing the browser to a separate page on some other browser tab. Why not make that request to a controller that is dedicated to Ajax? It could be argued that such a controller produces better "Separation of Concerns". That is good practice.
There is one technique to make certain this controller is only used when requested by an ajax call. A couple lines of code in the controller will make the determination.
class Some_ajax_handler extends CI_Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
if(!is_ajax()){
show_404();
}
parent :: __construct();
//if needed, do the rest of your construct here
}
public function get_user_details()
{
$user = new \Auth\ASUser($_POST['userId']);
echo json_encode($user->getAll());
}
}
The call to show_404(); ends with a call to exit() so you don't need a return; statement or else block in the controller. You can be confident that any method that gets called on this controller is indeed an ajax request.
On the other hand, if a controller's view uses Ajax to get the contents for a select input, or some other simple GET call, then creating a separate controller seems like overkill.
BTW, there is a CI library simplifying Ajax calls HERE that you might find interesting.
The one criticism I offer isn't about ajax but about your use of new which is contrary to the "Codeigniter way" for loading and utilizing other classes (libraries). But I guess that's a different topic.

Laravel: Grab data from the Controller from inside a view composer

Atm I'm creating this view composer for fun. It is collecting .js filenames and then passing it to the layout to be linked. The filenames used depend on the current page. For example a lower ranked page like Slides, doesn't include ajax requests used in UserManagement. Please don't ask me why I would do this xD. Im planning to validate requests anyway. Just being bored.
Anyways, as I'm quite new to laravel I'm still looking for more efficient ways to do things.
Atm Im accessing the file names staticly. The Controller now looks like this
class Controller extends BaseController
{
public static $js_file_names = [];
use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests;
}
In the pagecontroller I construct the filenames:
class SlidesController extends Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::$js_file_names = ['ccs', 'ajax-updates'];
}
And finaly I retreive them inside the registered Viewcomposer like this:
(during development $use_filenames has all files as default)
public function __construct()
{
$filenames = Controller::$js_file_names;
if( !empty($filenames) )
$this->use_filenames = $filenames;
var_dump($this->use_filenames);die;
}
It all seems to be working fine, but the big question is, is there a better way to access controller data from inside a viewcomposer? Every time I try to google this, I get results like 'passing data to views' etc, which is not rly the problem.
Update:
Another idea I had is to store all the filenames to be used in an array inside the viewcomposer itself, and check if the current page exists in that array. This would keep the controllers cleaner.
Using a view composer doesn't really make sense in this situation. Since your controllers already 'know' which files they intent to share, you may as well just pass them to the view like so:
class SlidesController extends Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
View::share('user_filenames', ['ccs', 'ajax-updates']);
}
}
A composer is more for sharing concrete elements such as collections of users, a service provider or some other class instance, for example.

Pass data from routes.php to a controller in Laravel

I am attempting to create a route in Laravel for a dynamic URL to load a particular controller action. I am able to get it to route to a controller using the following code:
Route::get('/something.html', array('uses' => 'MyController#getView'));
What I am having trouble figuring out is how I can pass a variable from this route to the controller. In this case I would like to pass along an id value to the controller action.
Is this possible in Laravel? Is there another way to do this?
You are not giving us enough information, so you need to ask yourself two basic questions: where this information coming from? Can you have access to this information inside your controller without passing it via the routes.php file?
If you are about to produce this information somehow in your ´routes.php´ file:
$information = WhateverService::getInformation();
You cannot pass it here to your controller, because your controller is not really being fired in this file, this is just a list of available routes, wich may or may not be hit at some point. When a route is hit, Laravel will fire the route via another internal service.
But you probably will be able to use the very same line of code in your controller:
class MyController extends BaseController {
function getView()
{
$information = WhateverService::getInformation();
return View::make('myview')->with(compact('information'));
}
}
In MVC, Controllers are meant to receive HTTP requests and produce information via Models (or services or repositores) to pass to your Views, which can produce new web pages.
If this information is something you have in your page and you want to sneak it to your something.html route, use a POST method instead of GET:
Route::post('/something.html', array('uses' => 'MyController#getView'));
And inside your controller receive that information via:
class MyController extends BaseController {
function getView()
{
$information = Input::get('information');
return View::make('myview')->with(compact('information'));
}
}

symfony2 controller needs two ways of return-values, one for symfony-application (inside symfony) one for mobile (json)

I'm trying to build a restful JSON api for my Symfony2 Application.
I'm using the http://jmsyst.com/libs/serializer JMS\Serializer Bundle to serialize my Entities to JSON.
I have this example Controller-Action:
public function getFarmerByNameAction(Request $request) {
$this->setLocale($request);
$name = $request->get("name");
$farmer = $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository("FarmerguideBackendBundle:Farmer")->findByName($name);
// Return json response
return new Response($this->jsonify($farmer));
}
Since I'm using this serializer very often (I know I should do something like a singleton or whatever, but currently I don't have the time for that, I was just playing with the framework) I've put the code inside a function which does the serializing.
private function jsonify($object) {
// Serialize to json
$serializer = new Serializer(array(new GetSetMethodNormalizer()), array('json' => new
JsonEncoder()));
$json = $serializer->serialize($object, 'json');
return $json;
}
My problem is the following:
This code is inside a BackendController, which does NOT contain any gui-specific information. So just a RESTful API.
In another Controller, let's say WebappController I have the code to access these backendfunctions and do some stuff with twig-files and render()-methods.
I want to access all these information via mobile over ajax (therefore I need this json return value)
What's the best-practice here? Is it better to say: Well if it's a ajax-call (check with if($request->isXmlHttpRequest())) , do jsonify right before returning the repsonse and if it's not return the entities (I need entities for twig-templates..) Or is there another approach?
Or is it even better to work with $request->getFormatType() and making the ajax call with contentType="application/json; charset=utf-8"
Here is how KnpBundles handles it https://github.com/KnpLabs/KnpBundles/blob/master/src/Knp/Bundle/KnpBundlesBundle/Controller/DeveloperController.php#L35
I guess you need to clearify what your intentions are. Because right now it seems as if your WebappController would just be a client to your Backendcontroller. Something like:
$result = file_get_contents('/path/to/backend/method/1/3');
You then simply go ahead and decode the json.
That is some additional overhead of course. If you want to get entities, I would suggest to create a Service for all your backend methods and return the entities there. You then simply call those methods from your BackendController and your WebappController. You then would only jsonify the entities in your BackendController and render the appropriate templates in your WebappController.

how to achieve MVC in my Zend Framework

currently i am doing a project in zend the way i am doing is working perfectly but i am sure its not the way i am suppose to do i mean i am not following MVC and i want to apply MVC in my zend app.
i am pasting code of one simple module which will describe what i am doing .kindly correct me where i am making faults.
my controller
class ContactsController extends Zend_Controller_Action{
public function contactsAction(){
if(!Zend_Auth::getInstance()->hasIdentity()){
$this->_redirect('login/login');
}
else{
$request = $this->getRequest();
$user = new Zend_Session_Namespace('user');
$phone_service_id = $user->p_id;
$instance = new Contacts();
$select = $instance->Get_Contacts($p_id);
$adapter = new Zend_Paginator_Adapter_DbSelect($select);
$paginator = new Zend_Paginator($adapter);
.
.
//more code
}
plz note this 2 line in my controller
$instance = new Contacts();
$select = $instance->Get_Contacts($pid);
this is my contacts class in models
class Contacts extends Zend_Db_Table{
function Get_Contacts($p_id){
$DB = Zend_Db_Table_Abstract::getDefaultAdapter();
$select = $DB->select()
->from('contact', array('contact_id','contact_first_name','contact_mobile_no','contact_home_no','contact_email','contact_office_no'))
->where('pid = ?', $p_id)
->order('date_created DESC');
return $select;
}
}
after this i simple assign my result to my view.
note please
as its working but there is not private data members in my class,my class is not a blue print.there are no SETTERS AND GETTERS .how can i make my code that best suits MVC and OOP??
The most simple answer: you are already almost MVC. You use a Zend_Controller_Action to grab some data and pass this on to a view layer where you render the html. The only missing part is your model, which is mixed up between the controller and your data gateway (where you implemented a table data gateway pattern, that Zend_Db_Table thing).
I gave a pretty thorough explanation in an answer to another question how I'd properly set up the relations between Controller and Model. I also combined this with a Form, to handle data input, filtering and validation. Then to bundle some common functions, I introduced a Service layer between the Model and Controller.
With the controller, you perform some actions (list all my contacts, create a new contact, modify a contact) and the model is purely containing the data (id, name, phone, address). The service helps to group some functions (findContactByName, findContactById, updateContactWithForm).
If you know how to split Controller, Mode, Form and Service, your controller can become something like this:
class ContactsController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
public function indexAction ()
{
if (!$this->hasIdentity()) {
$this->_redirect('login/login');
}
$service = new Application_Service_Contacts;
$contacts = $service->getContacts();
$paginator = $service->getPaginator($contacts);
$this->view->paginator = $paginator;
}
protected function hasIdentity ()
{
return Zend_Auth::getInstance->hasIdentity();
}
}
It is your personal taste what you want to do in your controller: I'd say you put as less as possible in your controllers, but you need to keep the control. So: a call to get data happens in the controller, retrieving this data happens somewhere else. Also: a call to convert a dataset into something else happens in the controller, the conversion happens somewhere else.
This way you can change the outcome in controllers extremely fast if you provided enough methods to your service classes to fetch the data. (Note I took the Zend_Auth to another function: if you have other actions, you can use this same function. Also, if you want to change something in your authentication, you have one place where this is located instead of every action in the controller)
keep one thing in mind when u learn new technology so first read thier own documentation. No one can explain better than them. Its hard to understand firstly but when you study it you will usedto and than u will love it like me Zend Offical Site

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