Question

I am wondering about HTML form processing in MVC. I use Kohana at the moment, but the question is generic in nature. So I want to gather opionions and recommendations about two approaches :

1. Keeping procesing in action, that displays the form:

   class Controler_Sample
   {
       public function action_one
       {
           $view = View::factory('form');
   
           if($_POST)
           {
               $model = new Model_SomeModel;
               //validate
               try($model->values($_POST)->save();
               {
                   //on success go to action with success logic using post redirect get pattern
                   $this->request->redirect('Sample/sucess')
               }
               catch(Exception $e)
               {
                   //on fail attach error message to form view
                   $view->set('errors',$e->errors);
               } 
           }
           echo $view;
   
       }
   }
   

2. Keeping form processing in other action, than this one displaying it

   class Controler_Sample
   {
       public function action_one
       {
           //display form, with errors if there are anny passed in GET
           echo View::factory('form')
                set->('errors',$this->request->get('errors',FALSE);
       }
   
       public function action_two
       {
           if($_POST)
           {
               $model = new Model_SomeModel;
               //validate
               try($model->values($_POST)->save();
               {
                   //on success go to action two using post redirect get pattern
                   $this->request->redirect('Sample/success')
               }
               catch(Exception $e)
               {
                   //on fail create new hmvc call to action_one with errors in GET
                   //im don't remember the syntax, let's assume it's here ok :D
               } 
           }
       }
   }
   

3. Other architecture that you preffer?

I see that the first approach is faster to type and process, but the second is more reusable – the action_two, that processes the form could be called from forms or ajax in other places in APP.

What do you think ?

Answer 1

I say the second approach is better.

It adheres to the single responsibility principle, and is you say yourself, it’s easier to reuse the code.