Controller

API reference › yii › base › Controller

class	yii\base\Controller
Extends	Component » BaseObject
Implements	ViewContextInterface, Configurable
Since	2.0
Source	framework/base/Controller.php

2 subclasses

• yii\console\Controller
• yii\web\Controller

Controller is the base class for classes containing controller logic.

For more details and usage information on Controller, see the guide article on controllers.

Properties

Property	Type	Description	Defined by
$action	Action<static>|null	The action that is currently being executed. Default: null.	Controller
$behaviors read-only	array<Behavior<static>>	List of behaviors attached to this component.	Component
$defaultAction	string	The ID of the action that is used when the action ID is not specified in the request. Default: 'index'.	Controller
$id	string	The ID of this controller. Default: null.	Controller
$layout	string|null|false	The name of the layout to be applied to this controller’s views. Default: null.	Controller
$module	yii\base\T	The module that this controller belongs to. Default: null.	Controller
$modules read-only	Module[]	All ancestor modules that this controller is located within.	Controller
$request	Request|array|string	The request. Default: 'request'. Available since 2.0.36.	Controller
$response	Response|array|string	The response. Default: 'response'. Available since 2.0.36.	Controller
$route read-only	string	The route (module ID, controller ID and action ID) of the current request.	Controller
$uniqueId read-only	string	The controller ID that is prefixed with the module ID (if any).	Controller
$view	View|yii\web\View	The view object that can be used to render views or view files.	Controller
$viewPath	string	The directory containing the view files for this controller.	Controller

Methods

Method	Description	Defined by
__construct()		Controller
__call()	Calls the named method which is not a class method.	Component
__clone()	This method is called after the object is created by cloning an existing one.	Component
__get()	Returns the value of a component property.	Component
__isset()	Checks if a property is set, i.e. defined and not null.	Component
__set()	Sets the value of a component property.	Component
__unset()	Sets a component property to be null.	Component
actions()	Declares external actions for the controller.	Controller
afterAction()	This method is invoked right after an action is executed.	Controller
attachBehavior()	Attaches a behavior to this component.	Component
attachBehaviors()	Attaches a list of behaviors to the component.	Component
beforeAction()	This method is invoked right before an action is executed.	Controller
behaviors()	Returns a list of behaviors that this component should behave as.	Component
bindActionParams()	Binds the parameters to the action.	Controller
canGetProperty()	Returns a value indicating whether a property can be read.	Component
canSetProperty()	Returns a value indicating whether a property can be set.	Component
className() static	Returns the fully qualified name of this class.	BaseObject
createAction()	Creates an action based on the given action ID.	Controller
detachBehavior()	Detaches a behavior from the component.	Component
detachBehaviors()	Detaches all behaviors from the component.	Component
ensureBehaviors()	Makes sure that the behaviors declared in behaviors() are attached to this component.	Component
findLayoutFile()	Finds the applicable layout file.	Controller
getBehavior()	Returns the named behavior object.	Component
getBehaviors()	Returns all behaviors attached to this component.	Component
getModules()	Returns all ancestor modules of this controller.	Controller
getRoute()	Returns the route of the current request.	Controller
getUniqueId()	Returns the unique ID of the controller.	Controller
getView()	Returns the view object that can be used to render views or view files.	Controller
getViewPath()	Returns the directory containing view files for this controller.	Controller
hasEventHandlers()	Returns a value indicating whether there is any handler attached to the named event.	Component
hasMethod()	Returns a value indicating whether a method is defined.	Component
hasProperty()	Returns a value indicating whether a property is defined for this component.	Component
init()	Initializes the object.	Controller
off()	Detaches an existing event handler from this component.	Component
on()	Attaches an event handler to an event.	Component
render()	Renders a view and applies layout if available.	Controller
renderContent()	Renders a static string by applying a layout.	Controller
renderFile()	Renders a view file.	Controller
renderPartial()	Renders a view without applying layout.	Controller
run()	Runs a request specified in terms of a route.	Controller
runAction()	Runs an action within this controller with the specified action ID and parameters.	Controller
setView()	Sets the view object to be used by this controller.	Controller
setViewPath()	Sets the directory that contains the view files.	Controller
trigger()	Triggers an event.	Component
bindInjectedParams() protected final	Fills parameters based on types and names in action method signature.	Controller

Events

Event	Type	Description	Defined by
EVENT_BEFORE_ACTION	ActionEvent	An event raised right before executing a controller action. Event name: 'beforeAction'.	Controller
EVENT_AFTER_ACTION	ActionEvent	An event raised right after executing a controller action. Event name: 'afterAction'.	Controller

Property details

$action

public yii\base\Action<static>|null $action = null

The action that is currently being executed.

This property will be set by run() when it is called by Application to run an action.

$defaultAction

public string $defaultAction = 'index'

The ID of the action that is used when the action ID is not specified in the request.

Defaults to ‘index’.

$layout

public string|null|false $layout = null

The name of the layout to be applied to this controller’s views.

This property mainly affects the behavior of render(). Defaults to null, meaning the actual layout value should inherit that from $module’s layout value. If false, no layout will be applied.

Method details

__construct()

public function __construct(string $id, yii\base\T $module, array<string, mixed> $config = [])

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$id	string	The ID of this controller.
$module	yii\base\T	The module that this controller belongs to.
$config	array<string, mixed>	Name-value pairs that will be used to initialize the object properties.

actions()

public function actions(): array<array-key, class-string|array{class: class-string}>

Declares external actions for the controller.

This method is meant to be overwritten to declare external actions for the controller. It should return an array, with array keys being action IDs, and array values the corresponding action class names or action configuration arrays. For example,

return [
    'action1' => 'app\components\Action1',
    'action2' => [
        'class' => 'app\components\Action2',
        'property1' => 'value1',
        'property2' => 'value2',
    ],
];

Yii::createObject() will be used later to create the requested action using the configuration provided here.

Returns

array<array-key, class-string|array{class: class-string}>

afterAction()

public function afterAction(yii\base\Action<static> $action, mixed $result): mixed

This method is invoked right after an action is executed.

The method will trigger the EVENT_AFTER_ACTION event. The return value of the method will be used as the action return value.

If you override this method, your code should look like the following:

public function afterAction($action, $result)
{
    $result = parent::afterAction($action, $result);
    // your custom code here
    return $result;
}

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$action	Action<static>	The action just executed.
$result	mixed	The action return result.

Returns

mixed: The processed action result.

beforeAction()

public function beforeAction(yii\base\Action<static> $action): bool

This method is invoked right before an action is executed.

The method will trigger the EVENT_BEFORE_ACTION event. The return value of the method will determine whether the action should continue to run.

In case the action should not run, the request should be handled inside of the beforeAction code by either providing the necessary output or redirecting the request. Otherwise the response will be empty.

If you override this method, your code should look like the following:

public function beforeAction($action)
{
    // your custom code here, if you want the code to run before action filters,
    // which are triggered on the [[EVENT_BEFORE_ACTION]] event, e.g. PageCache or AccessControl

    if (!parent::beforeAction($action)) {
        return false;
    }

    // other custom code here

    return true; // or false to not run the action
}

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$action	Action<static>	The action to be executed.

Returns

bool: Whether the action should continue to run.

bindActionParams()

public function bindActionParams(yii\base\Action<static> $action, array<array-key, mixed> $params): mixed[]

Binds the parameters to the action.

This method is invoked by Action when it begins to run with the given parameters.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$action	Action<static>	The action to be bound with parameters.
$params	array<array-key, mixed>	The parameters to be bound to the action.

Returns

mixed[]: The valid parameters that the action can run with.

createAction()

public function createAction(string $id): yii\base\Action<static>|null

Creates an action based on the given action ID.

The method first checks if the action ID has been declared in actions(). If so, it will use the configuration declared there to create the action object. If not, it will look for a controller method whose name is in the format of actionXyz where xyz is the action ID. If found, an InlineAction representing that method will be created and returned.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$id	string	The action ID.

Returns

Action<static>|null: The newly created action instance. Null if the ID doesn’t resolve into any action.

findLayoutFile()

public function findLayoutFile(yii\base\View $view): string|bool

Finds the applicable layout file.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$view	View	The view object to render the layout file.

Returns

string|bool: The layout file path, or false if layout is not needed. Please refer to render() on how to specify this parameter.

Throws

• InvalidArgumentException: if an invalid path alias is used to specify the layout.

getModules()

public function getModules(): yii\base\Module[]

Returns all ancestor modules of this controller.

The first module in the array is the outermost one (i.e., the application instance), while the last is the innermost one.

Returns

Module[]: All ancestor modules that this controller is located within.

getRoute()

public function getRoute(): string

Returns the route of the current request.

Returns

string: The route (module ID, controller ID and action ID) of the current request.

getUniqueId()

public function getUniqueId(): string

Returns the unique ID of the controller.

Returns

string: The controller ID that is prefixed with the module ID (if any).

getView()

public function getView(): yii\base\View|yii\web\View

Returns the view object that can be used to render views or view files.

The render(), renderPartial() and renderFile() methods will use this view object to implement the actual view rendering. If not set, it will default to the “view” application component.

Returns

View|yii\web\View: The view object that can be used to render views or view files.

getViewPath()

public function getViewPath(): string

Returns the directory containing view files for this controller.

The default implementation returns the directory named as controller $id under the $module’s $viewPath directory.

Returns

string: The directory containing the view files for this controller.

init()

public function init(): mixed

Initializes the object.

This method is invoked at the end of the constructor after the object is initialized with the given configuration.

Returns

mixed

Since

2.0.36

render()

public function render(string $view, array<string, mixed> $params = []): string

Renders a view and applies layout if available.

The view to be rendered can be specified in one of the following formats:

• path alias (e.g. “@app/views/site/index”);
• absolute path within application (e.g. “//site/index”): the view name starts with double slashes. The actual view file will be looked for under the view path of the application.
• absolute path within module (e.g. “/site/index”): the view name starts with a single slash. The actual view file will be looked for under the view path of $module.
• relative path (e.g. “index”): the actual view file will be looked for under $viewPath.

To determine which layout should be applied, the following two steps are conducted:

1. In the first step, it determines the layout name and the context module:

• If $layout is specified as a string, use it as the layout name and $module as the context module;
• If $layout is null, search through all ancestor modules of this controller and find the first module whose layout is not null. The layout and the corresponding module are used as the layout name and the context module, respectively. If such a module is not found or the corresponding layout is not a string, it will return false, meaning no applicable layout.

2. In the second step, it determines the actual layout file according to the previously found layout name and context module. The layout name can be:

• a path alias (e.g. “@app/views/layouts/main”);
• an absolute path (e.g. “/main”): the layout name starts with a slash. The actual layout file will be looked for under the layout path of the application;
• a relative path (e.g. “main”): the actual layout file will be looked for under the layout path of the context module.

If the layout name does not contain a file extension, it will use the default one .php.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$view	string	The view name.
$params	array<string, mixed>	The parameters (name-value pairs) that should be made available in the view. These parameters will not be available in the layout.

Returns

string: The rendering result.

Throws

• InvalidArgumentException: if the view file or the layout file does not exist.

renderContent()

public function renderContent(string $content): string

Renders a static string by applying a layout.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$content	string	The static string being rendered

Returns

string: The rendering result of the layout with the given static string as the $content variable. If the layout is disabled, the string will be returned back.

Since

2.0.1

renderFile()

public function renderFile(string $file, array<string, mixed> $params = []): string

Renders a view file.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$file	string	The view file to be rendered. This can be either a file path or a path alias.
$params	array<string, mixed>	The parameters (name-value pairs) that should be made available in the view.

Returns

string: The rendering result.

Throws

• InvalidArgumentException: if the view file does not exist.

renderPartial()

public function renderPartial(string $view, array<string, mixed> $params = []): string

Renders a view without applying layout.

This method differs from render() in that it does not apply any layout.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$view	string	The view name. Please refer to render() on how to specify a view name.
$params	array<string, mixed>	The parameters (name-value pairs) that should be made available in the view.

Returns

string: The rendering result.

Throws

• InvalidArgumentException: if the view file does not exist.

run()

public function run(string $route, array<array-key, mixed> $params = []): mixed

Runs a request specified in terms of a route.

The route can be either an ID of an action within this controller or a complete route consisting of module IDs, controller ID and action ID. If the route starts with a slash ’/’, the parsing of the route will start from the application; otherwise, it will start from the parent module of this controller.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$route	string	The route to be handled, e.g., ‘view’, ‘comment/view’, ‘/admin/comment/view’.
$params	array<array-key, mixed>	The parameters to be passed to the action.

Returns

mixed: The result of the action.

See also

• runAction()

runAction()

public function runAction(string $id, array<array-key, mixed> $params = []): mixed

Runs an action within this controller with the specified action ID and parameters.

If the action ID is empty, the method will use $defaultAction.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$id	string	The ID of the action to be executed.
$params	array<array-key, mixed>	The parameters (name-value pairs) to be passed to the action.

Returns

mixed: The result of the action.

Throws

• InvalidRouteException: if the requested action ID cannot be resolved into an action successfully.

See also

• createAction()

setView()

public function setView(yii\base\View|yii\web\View $view): mixed

Sets the view object to be used by this controller.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$view	View|yii\web\View	The view object that can be used to render views or view files.

Returns

mixed

setViewPath()

public function setViewPath(string $path): mixed

Sets the directory that contains the view files.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$path	string	The root directory of view files.

Returns

mixed

Throws

• InvalidArgumentException: if the directory is invalid

Since

2.0.7

bindInjectedParams()

final protected function bindInjectedParams(ReflectionNamedType $type, string $name, array &$args, array &$requestedParams): mixed

Fills parameters based on types and names in action method signature.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$type	ReflectionNamedType	The reflected type of the action parameter.
$name	string	The name of the parameter.
$args	array	The array of arguments for the action, this function may append items to it.
$requestedParams	array	The array with requested params, this function may write specific keys to it.

Returns

mixed

Throws

• ErrorException: when we cannot load a required service.
• InvalidConfigException: Thrown when there is an error in the DI configuration.
• yii\di\NotInstantiableException: Thrown when a definition cannot be resolved to a concrete class (for example an interface type hint) without a proper definition in the container.

Since

2.0.36