Using controllers and views

General

After routing is performed, the controller takes care of the actual code to execute for the request. Because we want to implement some basics for every request that gets processed you should inherit from our base classes to ensure basic functionality such as authorisation and CSRF protection.

Controllers are placed in the directory /usr/local/opnsense/mvc/app/controllers/<Vendor_name>/<Module_name>/ and should use the folloging naming conventions, suffix Controller.php on every class file and suffix Action on all action methods.

View based controllers

For rendering standard pages we have chosen to use Volt templates, the base controller to inherit from in this case is OPNsense\Base\ControllerBase and should take care of binding a template to the controller. Every template automatically receives standard features (such as the menu system).

The wireframe for implementing a single action should look like this:

<?php
    public function indexAction()
    {
       // address some variables to pass through the view
        $this->view->my_variable1 = 'test 1';
        $this->view->my_variable2 = 'test 2';
       // pick a template
        $this->view->pick('SampleVendor/Sample/index');
    }

And the volt template SampleVendor/Sample/index.volt could contain something like:

the contents of my_variable1 => <b> {{ my_variable1 }} </b> <br>
the contents of my_variable2 => <b> {{ my_variable2 }} </b> <br>

A full example can be found in the OPNsense\Sample controller directory.

More information on how to write Volt pages can be found here : https://docs.phalcon.io/latest/volt/

User forms

When designers need forms for users to input data, they can use the getForm() method on our standard controller to feed a simple xml file as definition for the template engine to use. The example section contains a step by step guide how to use these.

The getForm() method itself merely passes the structure to the view, which can use this information to render forms on page load (statically). In our standard layout partials we offer some different record types which we will detail below:

Attributes

Name	Description
id	unique id of the attribute
type	type of input or field. For a list of valid types, use the Type table below
label	attribute label (visible text)
size	size (width in characters) attribute if applicable
height	height (length in characters) attribute if applicable
help	help text
advanced	property “is advanced”, only display in advanced mode
hint	input control hint
style	css class(es) to add, helps identifying items easier using jQuery selectors
width	width in pixels if applicable
allownew	allow new items (for list) if applicable
readonly	if true, input fields will be readonly

Types

Name	Description
header	Header row
text	Single line of text
password	Password field for sensitive input. The contents will not be displayed.
textbox	Multiline text box
checkbox	Checkbox
dropdown	Single item selection from dropdown
select_multiple	Multiple item select from dropdown
hidden	Hidden fields not for user interaction
info	Static text (help icon, no input or editing)

API based controllers

For API calls a separate class is used to derive from, which implements a simple interface to handle calls. The main difference with the view controllers is that an action should return a named array containing response data instead of picking a template.

A simple index controller to echo a request back looks like this:

class TestController extends ApiControllerBase
{
    /**
     * @return array
     */
    public function echoAction()
    {
        if ($this->request->hasPost("message")) {
            $message = $this->request->getPost("message");
        } else {
            $message = " " ;
        }

        return ["message" => $message];
    }
}

When placed inside the API directory of Vendor/Sample can be called by sending a post request to /api/sample/test/echo, using jQuery:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "/api/sample/test/echo",
    success: function(data){
        alert(data.message) ;
    },
    data:{message:"test message"}
});

Tip

OPNsense ships with two standard controllers to incorporate default action scenario’s, such as mutating models and restarting services. These can be found in our repository here and are named ApiMutableModelControllerBase, ApiMutableServiceControllerBase. Both extend ApiControllerBase as described in this chapter. The mutable model controller is explained in more detail in using grids, the service controller is explained in api enable services

Searchable recordsets

The tip in the previous chapter described how to use grids when using models, but in some cases there are datasets without being bound to a model. For example when traversing legacy data or gathering system statistics.

For this reason we added the method searchRecordsetBase() in ApiControllerBase. Using this method offers the ability to hook a recordset into the same search functionality as being available in model grids.

The following parameters are being offered:

Name	Description
$records	array as record set, e.g. [ [‘id’ => ‘1’], [‘id’ => ‘2’], … ]
$fields	Optional list of fields when not all data should be returned
$defaultSort	Optional default sort order (fielndname in recordset)
$filter_funct	Optional pluggable filter function, which is call with the record in question
$sort_flags	Default set to `SORT_NATURAL \| SORT_FLAG_CASE`

Note

In order to filter sets on fields, make sure all records contain the requested field. Currently it’s not possible to omit fields when being sorted.

Implementing this into your own controller should be as simple as:

class TestController extends ApiControllerBase
{
    /**
     * @return array
     */
    public function searchAction()
    {
        $records = [];
        $records[] = ['id' => '1', 'description' => 'test 1'];
        $records[] = ['id' => '2', 'description' => 'test 2'];
        $records[] = ['id' => '3', 'description' => 'test 3'];
        return $this->searchRecordsetBase($records);
    }
}

Easy csv export/import helpers

In order to export or import csv structured data, some helpers are available to ease these operations. The ApiControllerBase adds a simple recordset export method (exportCsv()) and ApiMutableModelControllerBase contains a method to import data (importCsv()).

When data is being exported from a model using an ArrayField type, the asRecordSet() method can be used to extract the data easily.

The smallest functional example to download a file from a controller implemented with ApiMutableModelControllerBase would look like:

public function downloadAction()
{
    $this->exportCsv($this->getModel()->path->to->items->asRecordSet());
}

Feeding data back into the model:

public function uploadReservationsAction()
{
    if ($this->request->isPost() && $this->request->hasPost('payload')) {
        return $this->importCsv(
            'path.to.items',
            $this->request->getPost('payload'),
            ['my_key']
        );
    }
}