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#Controllers

Note: You are viewing the Sails.js v0.9.x documentation. If you're looking for information on v0.8.x, please visit here.

What is a Controller?

Sails controllers work very similarly to controllers in other MVC frameworks. Think of controllers as being the middleman between your model and your views.

Where are Controllers Defined?

Controllers are defined in the /api/controllers/ folder. By default when you create a controller using the command line, you can add additional arguments that represent the controller actions.

sails generate controller comment create destroy tag like

generates:

// Comment controller with generated actions.
var CommentController = {
	create: function(req, res) {

	},

	destroy: function(req, res) {

	},

	tag: function(req, res) {

	},

	like: function(req, res) {

	}
}

module.exports = CommentController;

How do I use the controller once I’ve created it?

After a controller has been defined, Sails will automatically map out routes to give you easy access.
For the controller above, the routes would be the following:
http://localhost:1337/comment/create
http://localhost:1337/comment/destroy
http://localhost:1337/comment/tag
http://localhost:1337/comment/like

Additionally, thanks to blueprints, you also get these methods by default:
get /:controller/:id?
post /:controller
put /:controller/:id
delete /:controller/:id

/:controller/find/:id?
/:controller/create
/:controller/update/:id
/:controller/destroy/:id

To turn off the CRUD routes, simply set the ‘shortcuts’ flag to false in config/controllers.js,
and to turn off REST routes, simply set the ‘rest’ flag to false in config/conttrollers.js

The Request Object

req.param()

Whether it was sent as POSTed JSON, to look up the value of a request parameter, do:

var foo = req.param('foo');

If you need to dive deeper into request parameters, check out the express guide.

req.isSocket

Whether or not this request was sent over Socket.io

req.isAjax

Whether or not this is an AJAX/xhr request

req.isJson

Whether or not this request is JSONish (has a JSON “Accept” or “Content-Type” header)

The Response Object

When responding to a request, Sails uses many of the same res methods as Express.

res.view([view, options[, fn]])

This method is an enhanced version of Express’s res.render(). The method res.view() automatically renders the appropriate view based on the controller and action. The original function is still accessible via res.render().

res.send(body|status[, headers|status[, status]])

From the express guide. The res.send() method is a high level response utility allowing you to pass objects to respond with json, strings for html, Buffer instances, or numbers representing the status code. The following are all valid uses:

	res.send(); // 204
	res.send(new Buffer('wahoo'));
	res.send({ some: 'json' });
	res.send('<p>some html</p>');
	res.send('Sorry, cant find that', 404);
	res.send('text', { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' }, 201);
	res.send(404);

By default the Content-Type response header is set, however if explicitly assigned through res.send() or previously with res.header() or res.contentType() it will not be set again.

Note that this method ends the response, so you will want to use node’s res.write() for multiple writes or streaming.

res.json(obj[, headers|status[, status]])

From the express guide. Send a JSON response with optional headers and status. This method is ideal for JSON-only APIs, however res.send(obj) will send JSON as well, though not ideal for cases when you want to send for example a string as JSON, since the default for res.send(string) is text/html.

	res.json(null);
	res.json({ user: 'tj' });
	res.json('oh noes!', 500);
	res.json('I dont have that', 404);

res.redirect(url[, status])

From the express guide. Redirect to the given url with a default response status of 302.

	res.redirect('/', 301);
	res.redirect('/account');
	res.redirect('http://google.com');
	res.redirect('home');
	res.redirect('back');

res.viewExists

Whether or not the view for this controller exists.

Accessing your models

In many cases, the reason you have a controller at all is that you want to do custom stuff with your models. Otherwise, you could just use the defaults!

For example, your controller might look like:

// Keep in mind you'd probably want to do this transactionally, in case the chicken is being pecked 
var ChickenController = {

  // Peck the chicken specified by id (subtract 50 HP)
  peck: function (req,res) {
    Chicken.find(req.param('id')).exec(function (err, chicken) {
      if (err) return res.send(err,500);
      if (!chicken) return res.send("No other chicken with that id exists!", 404);
      if (chicken.hp <= 0) return res.send("The other chicken is already dead!", 403);

      // Subtract 50 HP from the chicken
      chicken.hp -= 50;

      // Persist the change
      chicken.save(function (err) {
        if (err) return res.send(err,500);

        // Report back with the new state of the chicken
        res.json(chicken);
      });
    });

  }
};
module.exports = ChickenController;

Check out the page on Models to learn more.