Variable path components

A lot of times we'll need to respond to requests where some component of the path is dynamic, like when we are attending requests like /product/4739 to show some specific product id. For this, we use the REQUEST_PATH_COMPONENT_TYPE_VARIABLE_NUMERIC type instead, like this:

...

$e->Actions->mapAction(
    "viewProduct",
    new \Cherrycake\Actions\ActionHtml([
        "moduleType" => ACTION_MODULE_TYPE_APP,
        "moduleName" => "Products",
        "methodName" => "view",
        "request" => new \Cherrycake\Actions\Request([
            "pathComponents" => [
                new \Cherrycake\Actions\RequestPathComponent([
                    "type" => REQUEST_PATH_COMPONENT_TYPE_FIXED,
                    "string" => "product"
                ]),
                new \Cherrycake\Actions\RequestPathComponent([
                    "type" => REQUEST_PATH_COMPONENT_TYPE_VARIABLE_NUMERIC,
                    "name" => "productId",
                    "securityRules" => [
                        SECURITY_RULE_NOT_EMPTY,
                        SECURITY_RULE_INTEGER,
                        SECURITY_RULE_POSITIVE
                    ]
                ])
            ]
        ])
    ])
);

...

In this case, instead of passing a string like we do with the REQUEST_PATH_COMPONENT_TYPE_FIXED type for the product part of the path, we pass a name to identify the received value, and a securityRules array to be sure the value we receive is secure.

In our example, the viewProduct action is triggered when we receive a request like /product/4739, and we specify that 4739 will be stored as productId, that it cannot be empty and that it has to be a positive integer.

Check out the Security module to learn more about the securityRules and filters we can configure when mapping actions with pathComponents.

To receive the productId value that was passed when the client requested /product/4739, we simply add a request parameter to the method triggered by the action (Products::view in the example above), and we'll get a Request object that contains, among other useful things, the value of the productId path section:

function view($request) {
    echo "The requested product id is ".$request->productId;
}

See this example working in the Cherrycake Documentation examples site.