Responses

The purpose of Rhubarb is to generate responses. Responses are encapsulated in Response objects and just like the Request object it has sub types which best represent individual types of response.

Response objects have a content which should be set by calling setContent on the response object:

$response = new JsonResponse();
$response->setContent([
    "foo" => "bar"
    ]);

The actual content type should match the type of response object being returned.

Response objects store an HTTP response code and a list of response headers in addition to the content. If you need to modify the response code it is usually best to extend the response class. For example a 401 Not Authorised response should be issued by returning a NotAuthorisedResponse object rather than trying to change the response code of a normal HtmlResponse.

Standard response objects

HtmlResponse

The normal response for HTML page responses

JsonResponse

A response encapsulating a JSON payload

XmlReponse

A response encapsulating an XML payload

BinaryResponse

Used to push binary data to the client

FileResponse

Used to push a local file to the client as a download

NotAuthorisedResponse

Used to issue a 401 response

RedirectResponse

Issues a Location header to a new URL

Setting the response code

A response should carry an appropriate HTTP response code. The default will be a 200 response for a normal HtmlResponse. To change the response code call setResponseCode() and setResponseMessage() with the appropriate code and message.

The Response object defines a range of constants mapped to common response codes for your convenience.

Setting HTTP headers

To set a header call the setHeader function on the response object:

$response = new HtmlResponse();
$response->setHeader('Cache-Control', 'no-cache');

Headers are not set until the response is transmitted to the browser. Thus if you set a header on the response but a later exception causes a different response to be transmitted your headers will not (correctly) end up with the client.

Forcing a response

Sometimes in the middle of generating a standard response your application may need to abort the generation of the standard response and issue another type of response instead. If you're using a pattern like MVP the code that needs to issue the new response has no control over the actual generation of the response class.

On occasions like this simply throw a ForceResponseException passing the response you would like returned to the client.

This exception is handled by the Application class and it will immediately push your response to the client and terminate.

if (!$user->isAdministrator()){
    // This user shouldn't have access - kick them out!
    throw new ForceResponseException(new NotAuthorisedResponse());
}