Controllers

Controllers are the glue between your app logic and the routing system. They are responsible for handling requests and returning responses. In this section, we will learn how to create a controller and how to use it.

Creating a Controller

To create a controller, you need to create a class that extends the Controller class.

import 'package:zero/zero.dart';
 
class BooksController extends Controller {
 
    BooksController(this.request): super(request);
 
    final Request request;
 
    @Path("/")
    Response getBooks()  {
        return Response.ok({
            "books": [
                {
                    "title": "The Great Gatsby",
                    "author": "F. Scott Fitzgerald"
                },
                {
                    "title": "The Da Vinci Code",
                    "author": "Dan Brown"
                }
            ]
 
        });
    }
 
    @Path("/:id")
    @Param(["id"])
    Future<Response> getBook() async {
        final id = request.params["id"];
        //... other logic
        return Response.ok({
            "book": {
                "title": "The Great Gatsby",
                "author": "F. Scott Fitzgerald"
            }
        });
    }
 
    @Path("/", method: "POST")
    @Body([
        Field("title", isRequired: true),
    ])
    Future<Response> createBook() async {
        final body = request.body;
 
        //... other logic
        return Response.created({
            "book": {
                "title": "The Great Gatsby",
                "author": "F. Scott Fitzgerald"
            }
        });
    }
}

The Controller class provides a request property that contains the current request. Each controller method must return a Response object., whether a Future or not.

Each controller method can be annotated with the @Path annotation to specify the path of the route. The path can contain parameters, which are defined using the @Param annotation.

The @Body annotation is used to specify the body of the request.

Learn more about decorators in the Decorators section.

Getting Started Routing