README

This library is more about defining the flow of dispatch and delivery in a web application, more so than actually implementing anything.

The goal is to separate the output of headers and content from any other activities that do not produce output.

There are three important reasons to enforce this separation:

1. Separation: it is easier to understand code that deals exclusively with output or behavior, never with both.

2. Control: avoid PHP gotchas where some operation caused output to start prematurely, preventing you from sending a header or setting session a variable, etc.

3. Testing: separation enables testing in stages, e.g. testing the result of dispatch, such as the selected view-template and variables, versus actually testing what gets rendered.

Two interfaces define a pair of concepts: two types of result which may be returned e.g. by action-methods in controllers:

• Dispatchable results do not send headers or content - they simply dispatch and perform whatever action it is they perform, which could be anything, as long as it doesn't cause any headers or content to be output.

• Deliverable results actually deliver the result, which means sending headers and/or content - this could be anything, from a simple HTTP status code for redirection, to rendering a view or sending an image or file.

The two interfaces as such are similar - Dispatchable::dispatch() should return either another Dispatchable, or a Deliverable, whereas Deliverable::deliver() should return nothing and produce a response.

A simple Dispatcher class is included, which will accept a Dispatchable or Deliverable - it will dispatch() until a final Deliverable is returned, and then finally deliver() the result.

The dispatcher enforces separation and flow by throwing an exception if the final result is not a Deliverable, and it will also throw if a Dispatchable produces any output prematurely.

This may be easier to understand by actually reading the source code of the Dispatcher which is just a few lines of code.