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Responses, redirects, errors and JSON

How a module view answers - the $Result array instead of a Response object, the pagelayout around it, redirects with redirectTo and safe redirect targets, error pages with handleError and eZError codes, JSON and other…

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Responses, redirects, errors and JSON

This page is for developers who return Response, JsonResponse, redirect() or abort(404) from a controller. A module view returns an array, and the kernel turns it into the page. Redirects and errors go through the module object; non-HTML answers are written directly and end the request.

Contents

  1. The result array
  2. The pagelayout
  3. Redirects
  4. Errors
  5. JSON and other formats
  6. Headers and status codes
  7. Translation table

The result array

KeyMeaning
contentthe HTML of the view, usually $tpl->fetch( 'design:<path>.tpl' )
paththe breadcrumb: items array( 'text' => ..., 'url' => ... ), the last one with 'url' => false
title_paththe page title's path, when it should differ from path
pagelayoutanother pagelayout template for this view, or false for none
navigation_part, ui_contexthow the admin designs frame the page

The full list, with the keys the kernel and content views add, is the module result reference.

The pagelayout

The siteaccess's pagelayout.tpl is the base layout. It receives $module_result and prints {$module_result.content} where the view's HTML goes. A view chooses another layout by naming its template (the user views set $Result['pagelayout'] = 'loginpagelayout.tpl'), or none with false (View results, templates and the pagelayout).

Redirects

NeedCall
Redirect to an addressreturn $Module->redirectTo( '/expdemo/list' );
Redirect to another view of the same modulereturn $Module->redirectToView( 'list', array() );
Redirect to an address taken from the requestcheck it first: eZRedirectManager::safeURI( $http->postVariable( 'RedirectURI' ) ) returns the target or false
"Back to where you came from"eZRedirectManager::returnURI( $module, '/expdemo/list', eZRedirectManager::formReturnURIs() )

Use POST, redirect, GET after every successful form submission. The safe redirect helpers only follow addresses of the site (Safe redirects).

Errors 

return $Module->handleError( eZError::KERNEL_NOT_FOUND, 'kernel' );       // not found
return $Module->handleError( eZError::KERNEL_ACCESS_DENIED, 'kernel' );   // access denied; anonymous users get the login page

eZError defines further codes, among them KERNEL_NOT_AVAILABLE, KERNEL_MOVED, KERNEL_MODULE_NOT_FOUND and KERNEL_FORM_TOKEN_REFUSED. The error page is rendered by the error module with the siteaccess's design, so it can be styled like any other template. Errors that users report can be found by their reference in the logs (Finding an error by its reference).

Exceptions that escape a view are not turned into a 500 page by an exception listener you configure, as in Symfony or Laravel: handle expected failures in the view and return an error result; log unexpected ones with eZDebug::writeError() (Debugging, logging and errors).

JSON and other formats

For a small JSON answer from your own view, send it and end the request without the pagelayout:

header( 'Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8' );
echo json_encode( array( 'ok' => true, 'data' => $data ) );
eZExecution::cleanExit();

Under Velocity, cleanExit() ends the request by an exception that the server handles; never wrap it in a catch ( Exception $e ), or the page is appended to your output. For APIs, prefer the existing layers: ezjscore server functions for your pages' JavaScript, the REST API for other programs (REST and JSON APIs).

Headers and status codes

  • Set headers with PHP's header() before output; read request headers through eZSys or $_SERVER as prepared by the kernel.
  • Page caching headers for anonymous visitors are settings, not code: site.ini [HTTPHeaderSettings] (HTTP caching).
  • Request rules can answer with not found, forbidden, login or a redirect before your view runs (Middleware).

Translation table

FrameworkExponential
return $this->render( 'item.html.twig', [...] ) / return view( 'item', [...] )$tpl->setVariable(); $Result['content'] = $tpl->fetch( 'design:...' );
return $this->redirectToRoute( 'list' ) / return redirect()->route( 'list' )return $Module->redirectTo( '/expdemo/list' );
throw $this->createNotFoundException() / abort( 404 ) / raise Http404return $Module->handleError( eZError::KERNEL_NOT_FOUND, 'kernel' );
throw new AccessDeniedException() / abort( 403 )return $Module->handleError( eZError::KERNEL_ACCESS_DENIED, 'kernel' );
return new JsonResponse( $data ) / response()->json( $data )header(); echo json_encode(); eZExecution::cleanExit();

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