Controller as a Service

As of OXID eShop version 7.3, you can register OXID controllers as services in the Dependency Injection Container (DIC).

The registration occurs in services.yaml, similarly to other services, and it is possible to register such controller services for components, modules or projects.

Unlike traditional controllers, the initialization of new controllers is performed by the DIC without calling the oxNew function.

Also, it’s impossible to extend such controllers using the oxNew/extend section in a module’s metadata.php file.

Instead, consider using service decoration as described below.

Note

For modules it’s an alternative way to register controllers.

If you register a controller as a service, do not register it again in metadata.php.

Controller Class

New service controllers are very similar to standard controllers; they must extend OxidEsalesEshopCommunityCoreControllerBaseController or implement OxidEsalesEshopCommunityInternalFrameworkControllerViewControllerInterface.

Example

namespace MyModule;

use OxidEsales\EshopCommunity\Core\Controller\BaseController;

class MyModuleController extends BaseController
{
    protected $_sThisTemplate = '@moduleId/my_module_controller';

    public function helloWorld(): void
    {
        echo 'Hello world!';
    }
}

Service Registration

Register your controller in a services.yaml file of your module, component or project.

Controller service visibility must be declared as public and its description must contain special controller tags:

• name: “oxid.view_controller”

• controller_key: “some-unique-controller-key”

controller_key must contain a unique value because it will be used to identify your controller by the cl parameter in the URL, similar to other OXID controllers.

Example

MyModule\MyModuleController:
  tags:
    - { name: 'oxid.view_controller', controller_key: 'my_controller_key' }
  public: true

Following this example, we should be able to call our controller via the following URL:

https://<shop-url>/index.php?cl=my_controller_key

Important

All dependent services used in your service controllers MUST be instantiated by the DIC using constructor or setter injection.

Avoid retrieving them directly from the Container using ContainerFacade, ContainerFactory, or similar patterns.

Good example (constructor injection):

class MyModuleController extends BaseController
{
    public function __construct(
        private readonly ContextInterface $context
    ) {}

    public function helloWorld(): void
    {
        $this->context->...;
    }
}

Bad example (using ContainerFacade which is not recommended due to testing issues, for example):

class MyModuleController extends BaseController
{
    public function helloWorld(): void
    {
        $context = ContainerFacade::get(ContextInterface::class);
        $this->context->...;
    }
}

Extending Controllers

As we mentioned earlier, the standard oxNew extension method doesn’t work for services.

But you can decorate them like any other service. For more information, see the Symfony documentation.

Note

Because each Controller Decorator must implement OxidEsalesEshopCommunityInternalFrameworkControllerViewControllerInterface, you may find yourself creating a lot of boilerplate code when trying to change only one method’s behavior.

Instead, make your decorator inherit from OxidEsalesEshopCommunityInternalFrameworkControllerAbstractControllerDecorator.

This approach will help make your decorators smaller and they will contain code only for methods that you really want to modify.

For example, if you want to decorate only the init() function:

Example

namespace MyModule;

use OxidEsales\EshopCommunity\Internal\Framework\Controller\AbstractControllerDecorator;
use OxidEsales\EshopCommunity\Internal\Framework\Controller\ViewControllerInterface;

class ControllerAsServiceDecorator extends AbstractControllerDecorator
{
    public function __construct(protected readonly ViewControllerInterface $originalController)
    {
    }

    public function init()
    {
        $this->doSomethingExtra();
        // and don't forget to call original method!
        $this->originalController->init();
    }
}

Then register your decorator in a services.yaml, remember that decorators must be public.

Example

MyModule\ControllerAsServiceDecorator:
  decorates: Oxid\ControllerAsService
  arguments: [ '@.inner' ]
  public: true