Pro PHP- Patterns, Frameworks, Testing and More

CHAPTER 15 ■ INTRODUCTION TO THE ZEND FRAMEWORK^225

The Request Object

The following five request object methods all work the same and allow you to interact with the

standard input streams:

getQuery($key = null, $default = null)

getPost($key = null, $default = null)

getCookie($key = null, $default = null)

getServer($key = null, $default = null)

getEnv($key = null, $default = null)

If you pass a null key parameter, you will get the entire array of information. If you pass a

key, you will get the value for that key only. You can also pass a default value so that if there is

no matching key, that value will be returned. In the case that no key is found and no default is

passed, null will be returned.

If you need to access the HTTP request headers, you will use the getHeader() method by

passing in the header name. Remember that HTTP headers are case-sensitive.

getHeader($header)

Parameters are a key part of any MVC implementation. They are an alternative to get variables

and make your sites more attractive to search engines. To use parameters in a Zend Framework

application, the URL is divided up like so:

http://example.com/controller/action/key1/value1/key2/value2...

By using parameters, you can pass critical query information, such as a customer ID, to

your scripts without using get information. Using parameters is one of the best ways to make

sure that a search engine spider will fetch your dynamic content, as most spiders ignore query

variables.

The getParam() method will also access query and post information if the requested key

cannot be found in the URL parameters.

getParam($key, $default = null)

The getParams() method returns an array of all parameters, and query and post information.

getParams()

To determine the current HTTP request method—GET, POST, HEAD, and so on—you can use

the following method:

getMethod()

Alternatively, you can use one of the is convenience functions:

isPost()

■Tip To obtain a reference to the current request object from within a controller/action context, you may

call $this->getRequest() on the controller instance.

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