WordPress Controllers

Introduction

In the files (i.e. controllers) that WordPress uses when it matches a route (e.g. page.php, single.php), you can now use a class rather than writing procedural code.

// page-home.php

/*
 * Template Name: Home Template
 */

namespace App;

use Timber\Timber;
use Rareloop\Lumberjack\Post;
use Rareloop\Lumberjack\Http\Responses\TimberResponse;

class PageHomeController
{
    public function handle()
    {
        $context = Timber::get_context();

        $context['post'] = new Post;

        return new TimberResponse('home', $context);
    }
}

The name of the controller is important:

  • It should be under the namespace App.

  • The class name must be an UpperCamelCase version of the filename with the word Controller on the end (without spaces, dashes and underscores). If the controller name is not correctly Lumberjack will not throw any errors - instead you will just get a blank page.

The handle method will automatically be called on your controller.

Changing the naming convention

If you wish to change how Lumberjack looks for controller class names, you can hook into the lumberjack_controller_name filter.

add_filter('lumberjack_controller_name', function ($controllerName) {
    // e.g. Look for 'HomeController' instead of 'PageHomeController'
    return str_replace('Page', '', $controllerName);
});

Or if you wish to change the namespace you can use the lumberjack_controller_namespace filter.

add_filter('lumberjack_controller_namespace', function ($controllerName) {
    // e.g. Look for 'MyApp\PageHomeController' instead of 'App\PageHomeController'
    return 'MyApp\\'
});

Controller for the 404 page

In WordPress, you have a 404.php file. PHP Classes cannot start with a number so following the usual naming convention will not work here.

Instead Lumberjack will look for a controller called Error404Controller

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