Question

I have been working on my own library/framework for the learning experience for a while. MVC is one of those things that took me a while to really understand but I do finally “Get it”.

Below is some sample code for a basic MVC setup in PHP. I think I am in the right direction so far, where I need a little help is down in the “Example controller” near the bottom, you will see where I can create a view, I just need to figure out how to best get my data from a model file into that controller class. Please help with example code if you can, hopefully I am making sense.

Also I am welcome to any comments/suggestions on any of the code

Abstract Controller class…

/**
 * MVC Example Project
 */


/**
* Extend this class with your Controllers
* Reference to the model wrapper / loader functions via $this->model
* Reference to the view functions via $this->view
*/
abstract class Core_Controller {
    protected $view;
    protected $model;

    function __construct($dependencyContainer){
        $this->view = new Core_View();
        //$this->view = $dependencyContainer->get(view);


    }

}

Abstract Model class…

/**
* Extend this class with your models and reference to the database object via $this->$db
*/
abstract class Core_Model {
    protected $db;
    protected $session;

    function __construct($dependencyContainer) {
        $this->db = $dependencyContainer->get(database);
        $this->session = $dependencyContainer->get(session);
    }

}

View class, might make it abstract as well…

class Core_View {

    protected $data;

    # Load a view file (views/$view.php);
    # $param data this gets extracted and be thus be used inside the view
    # When loading another view from inside the view file the data is 'cached' so you
    # don't have to pass them again
    public function load($view,$data = null) {

        if($data) {
            $this->data = $data;
            extract($data);
        } elseif($this->data != null) {
                extract($this->data);
        }

        require(APP_PATH . "Views/$view.php");
    }

    public function set($data = null) {

        if($data) {
            $this->data = $data;
            extract($data);
        } elseif($this->data != null) {
                extract($this->data);
        }

    }
}

Example putting it together…

/**
 * Example Controller
 */
class User_Controller extends Core_Controller {

    public function profile()
    {
        $profileData = array();
        $profileData = //GET from Model

        $this->view->load('userProfile', $profileData);
    }
}
?>

Answer 1

Will you use a Data access layer (DAL) / Object-relational mapping (ORM)? Take a look at Zend_Db, Doctrine or Propel

I’d say that you’re missing the part of the application that manipulate your models. It could be your controller, but isn’t a good practice. So we need a model mapper.

The best way to get model data from your controller is simply calling it. But generally we use a kind of "pointer" which knows how to populate your object model. This pointer is called "Mappers" (Data Mapper Pattern):

$MyModelMapper = new MyModelMapper();
$Profile = $MyModelMapper->getProfileById($id); // return Core_Model.

This function will perform a database query and will populate one specific model with the data. You could also get an array of objects for a "list" action for example.

Then you’ll pass this model to your view.

I think you should take a look at the Zend Framewok quick start. It will give you some ideas.

See this question too: What's the difference between DAO and Data Mapper