Chapter 3: Routing & Controllers in Zend Framework 3

In this chapter, we continue building our Blog module from Chapter 2.
You will learn how to define routes, create controllers, and connect them with views inside the Blog module.

By the end, you’ll have a working /blog page with a detail view for each post.

✅ Introduction to Routing

• Routing maps a URL request to a specific controller and action.
• Each module has its own routes defined in config/module.config.php.
• Controllers inside the module handle the requests and return responses (usually ViewModel).

✅ Defining Routes in Blog Module

// module/Blog/config/module.config.php
<?php
use Laminas\ServiceManager\Factory\InvokableFactory;

return [
    'router' => [
        'routes' => [
            'blog' => [
                'type' => 'Literal',
                'options' => [
                    'route'    => '/blog',
                    'defaults' => [
                        'controller' => Blog\Controller\PostController::class,
                        'action'     => 'index',
                    ],
                ],
                'may_terminate' => true,
                'child_routes' => [
                    'detail' => [
                        'type' => 'Segment',
                        'options' => [
                            'route'    => '/detail[/:id]',
                            'constraints' => [
                                'id' => '[0-9]+',
                            ],
                            'defaults' => [
                                'action' => 'detail',
                            ],
                        ],
                    ],
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],
    'controllers' => [
        'factories' => [
            Blog\Controller\PostController::class => InvokableFactory::class,
        ],
    ],
    'view_manager' => [
        'template_path_stack' => [
            __DIR__ . '/../view',
        ],
    ],
];

• /blog → Loads PostController::indexAction.
• /blog/detail/:id → Loads PostController::detailAction with a numeric ID.

✅ Creating PostController

// module/Blog/src/Controller/PostController.php
namespace Blog\Controller;

use Laminas\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Laminas\View\Model\ViewModel;

class PostController extends AbstractActionController
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        // Example blog posts
        $posts = [
            ['id' => 1, 'title' => 'First Blog Post'],
            ['id' => 2, 'title' => 'Second Blog Post'],
        ];

        return new ViewModel([
            'posts' => $posts,
        ]);
    }

    public function detailAction()
    {
        $id = $this->params()->fromRoute('id', 0);

        return new ViewModel([
            'postId' => $id,
        ]);
    }
}

• Controllers extend AbstractActionController.
• indexAction() shows all posts.
• detailAction() displays details of a specific post using id.

✅ Creating Views

// module/Blog/view/blog/post/index.phtml
<h2>Blog Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php foreach ($this->posts as $post): ?>
  <li>
    <a href="/blog/detail/<?= $post['id'] ?>">
      <?= $this->escapeHtml($post['title']); ?>
    </a>
  </li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

// module/Blog/view/blog/post/detail.phtml
<h2>Blog Post Detail</h2>
<p>You are viewing post with ID: <?= $this->escapeHtml($this->postId); ?></p>

• index.phtml lists blog posts.
• detail.phtml shows the selected post ID.

✅ Best Practices

• Keep routes for each module inside its own module.config.php.
• Use Segment for dynamic parameters like :id.
• Return ViewModel objects to pass data to views.
• Keep controllers lightweight—business logic should go in services or models.

✅ Exercises

• Add a new route /blog/create mapped to PostController::createAction.
• Update index.phtml to display a “View Details” link for each post.
• Pass post titles into detail.phtml instead of just the ID.
• Create another controller CategoryController with its own routes and views.

Congratulations! 🎉 You have completed Chapter 3: Routing & Controllers in Zend Framework 3.
Your Blog module now has functional routes, controllers, and views.

In the next chapter, we’ll cover Views & Layouts in detail.