Zend Framework: Zend_Controller_Request Output Buffering Component Proposal

Proposed Component Name	Zend_Controller_Request Output Buffering
Developer Notes	http://framework.zend.com/wiki/display/ZFDEV/Zend_Controller_Request Output Buffering
Proposers	Matthew Weier O'Phinney
Revision	1.0 - 3 March 2007: Initial proposal (wiki revision: 3)

Zend_Controller_Response should be aggregate all responses emitted by the controller chain. This has the benefit of ensuring that headers are always emitted prior to content, as well as allowing the developer to write unit tests against their front controller. A simple way to do so would be to use output buffering.

2. References

3. Component Requirements, Constraints, and Acceptance Criteria

Output buffering will happen at the dispatcher level, surrounding the call to an action method
Content captured by output buffering will be appended to the body content of the response object
Developers will be able to turn off the output buffering feature via a front controller parameter

4. Dependencies on Other Framework Components

Zend_Controller_Response_Abstract
Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard
Zend_Controller_Front

5. Theory of Operation

This feature will be on by default and transparent to the end-user.

6. Milestones / Tasks

Milestone 1: proposal
Milestone 2: working code committed to the repo and tested
Milestone 3: documentation of the feature

7. Class Index

Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard

8. Use Cases

UC-01

// sample controller that echoes data
class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        echo "In the index action of the index controller";
    }
}

// in the bootstrap
$front->returnResponse(true);
$response = $front->dispatch();

// echoes "In the index action of the index controller"
echo $response->getBody();

UC-02

// same controller/action as above
$front->setParam('disableOutputBuffering', true);
$front->returnResponse(true);
$response = $front->dispatch();

// empty string
echo $response->getBody();

9. Class Skeletons

class Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard extends Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Abstract
{
    public function dispatch(Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request, Zend_Controller_Response_Abstract $response)
    {
        // ... determine controller and action, etc

        // dispatching the method call:
        $disableOb = $this->getParam('disableOutputBuffering');
        $request->setDispatched(true);
        if ($disableOb) {
            $controller->dispatch($action);
        } else {
            ob_start();
            $controller->dispatch($action);
            $content = ob_get_flush();
            if (!empty($content)) {
                $response->appendBody($content);
            }
        }

        // continue as normal...
    }
}

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Zend_Controller_Response output buffering

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