debuggable

Sorry this post took me a while. The last couple days have been sort of busy and a lot of things on my lists didn't get done. Anyway, I'll continue right where I stopped, with the Dispatcher:

The heart of CakePHP - The Dispatcher

In the previous post I was showing how to use the Dispatcher::dispatch() function. Now what's more interesting, is what it actually does and in what order.

1. Build the $params array. The first thing the Dispatcher::dispatch() function does is to perform an array_merge between $this->parseParams($url) and $additionalParams. Dispatcher::parseParams() is quite interesting as well. The first thing it does is to create a new Instance of the Router and call Router::parse($from_url). This returns an array with fields like 'controller', 'action', etc.. After that all variables from $_GET, $_POST and $_FILE are being merged into the $params array as well and finally returned to the Dispatcher function.
2. Find the base url: The next thing Dispatcher::dispatch() does, is to find the base url, that all controller actions, routes, etc. happen within. This url is then assigned to $this->base. All the base url retrieving logic is implemented in Dispatcher::baseUrl().
3. Load/Include the requested Controller: From now on I'll focus on the most important things going on because it would be insane to go into every little detail. The next block of code basically sees if $params['controller'] is emtpy, and if yes object::cakeError() is invoked to show the 'missingController' page all of us know. If the controller field is not empty, the first thing CakePHP tries to do is to load this controller (via loadController) from within /app/controllers. If that fails, CakePHP looks if there is a plugin with the name of $params['controller'] (via loadPluginController), and if not, missingController is invoked as well.
4. Possible Plugin Logic: In case there was a plugin found, the next thing that happens is some plugin logic that does not get executed for normal Controller requests. It's basically some $params shifting magic (Dispatcher::_restructureParams()), and most notably the point where loadPluginModels() get's executed.
5. Executing the Admin Route: If you have CAKE_ADMIN defined in your /app/config/core.php, then this is the point where the 'admin_' prefix (or whatever CAKE_ADMIN is set to) is added to the $params['action'] parameter. And here you also have a check that protects CAKE_ADMIN routes as private actions. This basically means if somebody would call /posts/admin_index instead of /admin/posts/index he wouldn't get very far.
6. Render a possible missingController error: If at some point in the code above $missingController was set to true, this is the point where $this->cakeError('missingController', ...) is invoked. If not, $controller is being assigned a new instance of our $ctrlClass.
7. Action exists? Action private?: The next couple of lines are dedicated to perform some checks on the $params['action'] parameter. The following things happen in the order I mention them: If $params['action'] is empty, it is set to 'index' instead. If the Controller has an action with the name $params['action'] but it starts with '_', $privateAction is set to true. If the Controller does not have an action $params['action'], or it happens to be named: 'beforeFilter', 'beforeRender' or 'afterFilter', $missingAction is set true.
8. Set Controller variables: Now it's time for all of the Controller variables to be set with interesting information. This includes the 'autoRender', 'base', 'here', 'webroot', 'params', 'action', 'data', 'passedArgs', 'autoLayout', 'webservices' and 'plugin'.
9. Load Components & Models: The Dispatcher now calls $controller->_initComponents() which attaches all components as references to the Controller object, but does not yet call their startup() function. After that, the same thing happens with Models when calling $controller->constructClasses().
10. Render possible missingAction/privateActione errors: If there had been a missingAction or privateAction error before, this is the point where $this->cakeError() get's called to render those.
11. Invoke the controller: The last call in Dispatcher::dispatch() goes to Dispatcher::_invoke(), but since it's still the same operation we are doing, I'll continue writing about things like before. The _invoke function directly executes Dispatcher::start(), which does the following things: If Controller::beforeFilter is a string/array, call the/all function(s) in this string/array (Warning: This is depracted!). Afterwards Controller::beforeFilter() get's executed without further checking. And the last thing happening in Dispatcher::start() is that all component's startup() functions get called. So back in Dispatcher::_invoke() there comes a check whether we are scaffolding or not, and if no, our Controller action get's called via call_user_func_array. Then, if $controller->autoRender is set to true, $controller->render() is called, and finally the afterFilter get's executed. Depending on whether there was some rendering going on or not either the raw output or the action's return value are getting returned to Dispatcher::dispatch() which directly returns this value back to the point where the initial call came from.

That's it, you've just witnessed the miracle of birth ... er dispatching. I've skipped some minor things here and there, but in general this together with Part I should be a good guide to the things happening before all your wonderful application code kicks in. Of course, there is a lot more like all the Model and View stuff. But talking about all of this would take for ever, bore you to death and would only be useful to very few of us. However, if you guys would be interested in it, I would post a Part III where I would just do some pointing at classes and code snippets a CakePHP user should have read to get a better understanding of the things going on in the background.

Oh, and today is probably also going to be the day I'll buy myself some yummy Cake ... : /. I'm not sure if I'll be able to take the picture and everything today, but I'll try my best. Hmm ... after that I should probably close this blog since nobody is going to hire me in the field of web development any more and I'll have to look for a new area to work in : /.

--Felix Geisendörfer aka the_undefined