Question

Avoiding Fat Controller

So I’m using Zend Framework and I have a question involving preventing fat controllers with one of my actions. Basically I am normalizing a CSV file into my database.

This means that I have to get the feed and then use my model.
The feed grabbing is just there to show how it works, but that is now an Action Helper.

I am using the Data Mapper pattern with Zend Framework. I hate that I am doing this in my Controller. All of those setProperty()->setProperty()->setProperty() look incredibly fugly and I feel like I am doing it in the wrong place? Would it be a better option to just create some kind of service layer where I pass the entire $feed and then in that class I instantiate my Models and my Mapper?

Also, I need to normalize, which means I should be using a transaction, but I’m unsure where I should start my transaction. Because of the way I am doing things currently, the only place I could ever consider is in my Controller. wow.. that would be an awful place.

How can I get the model behaviour and operations out of my controller?

ImportController.php

public function indexAction() {
        $start = $this->getRequest()->getParam('start');
        $end = $this->getRequest()->getParam('end');
        $url = "http://www.domain.com/admin/GetBookingData.aspx";       

        $client = new Zend_Http_Client();
        $client->setParameterGet('dateEnteredMin', $start);
        $client->setParameterGet('dateEnteredMax', $end);
        $client->setParameterGet('login', 'login');
        $client->setParameterGet('password', 'password');
        $client->setUri( $url );
        $client->setConfig(array(
            'maxredirects' => 0,
            'timeout'      => 30));
        // Send the request. 
        $response = $client->request();

        // Grab the feed from ->getBody and add it to $feed
        $feed = $this->csv_to_array(trim($response->getBody()));


        // The first item in the array is the heading in the CSV, so we can remove it from the array using shift().
        $title = array_shift($feed);

        // Create my Models and Mappers.
            // ***  EVERYTHING BELOW HERE IS WHAT I DON'T LIKE ***
        $bookings =         new Bookings_Models_Bookings();
        $property =         new Bookings_Models_Property();
        $clients =      new Bookings_Models_Clients();

        $bookingsMapper =   new Bookings_Models_Bookings_Mapper();
        $propertyMapper =   new Bookings_Models_Property_Mapper();
        $clientsMapper =    new Bookings_Models_Clients_Mapper();

        $bookings->setId($feed[9])
            ->setPropertyId($feed[1])
            ->setClientId($feed[2])
            ->setDate($feed[4]);
        $bookingsMapper->save($bookings);

        $property->setId($feed[1])
            ->setPropertyName($feed[23])
        $propertyMapper->save($bookings);

        $clients->setId($feed[2])
            ->setFirstName($feed[20])
            ->setLastName($feed[21])
        $clientsMapper->save($clients);

}

Answer 1

Service layer is probably the way I’d go. So you’d create a service class that looks something like this:

class Your_Service_Import
{
    public function importFromCsv($csv)
    {
        // etc.
    }
}

you’d then move all of your controller method code that’s after the csv_to_array call into that method, leaving the end of your controller method looking something like this:

$feed = $this->csv_to_array(trim($response->getBody()));

$service = new Your_Service_Import();
$service->importFromCsv($feed);

This makes it easier to test your import code (since it’s in a standalone class) and easier to reuse in other parts of your application.