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PHP

Posted by Keith Kelly
Keith Kelly
21,326 Points

MVC

In the MVC video Randy explains that separating the controller code is an advanced application.

What I am wondering is why couldn't we create a separate controller php file (similar to what we did with the model) and call it with a require_once in the the head of the page?

2 Answers

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

My guess and understanding of it is doing it that way, you would have the view calling the controller, and instead you would want the controller calling the view, which becomes quite advanced to write the logic to do so.

The controller should call the right view, and populate the view with the right data from the model. A CMS example I can think of right away is wordpress. When you navigate to a post or page, Wordpress calls the right view (single.php, single-{custom-post-type}.php, home.php, etc) and populates it with data from the model, which is pulling out of the database. If Wordpress can't find the right view code, it's smart enough to fall back in a hierarchy format, all the way back to the index.php if it needs to.

Thats my understanding of it all.

Keith Kelly
Keith Kelly
21,326 Points

OK. That seems to make more sense.

If I am thinking of this correctly could you have an index page that, based on a page type returned, can load the view pages with a conditional?

For example:

if($page_type == "home") {
    include(ROOT_PATH . "inc/partial-home.html.php");
} elseif($page_type == "product" {
    include(ROOT_PATH . "inc/partial-product.html.php");
} //And so on...
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

I believe so, and I think that is how WP accomplishes it. The nitty gritty starts to get heavy on the programming side, and I am not a programmer.

Keith Kelly
Keith Kelly
21,326 Points

Thanks for the clarification!

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

No problem, wish I could be a little more clear. You might find it interesting to read through some of the core Wordpress files to see how one file calls another, and see if you can pick out what is the M-V-C code.