Codelicious

Since I started using Zend Framework about 2.5 years ago, I have developed several applications in it, some of them using Zend_Acl.

Even though these applications work just fine, I have yet to discover an easy way to implement Zend_Acl in a uniform way and plugging it into my own framework so that I can easily set it up on future projects.

I am currently working on a application involving three user roles with very distinct features to them. I have first tried using Zend_Acl to handle all of these permissions correctly, but have found it to be quite a pain. Most of my controllers end up containing three times the number of actions they would normally contain, or, even worse, I would have to implement several switches in one single action to facilitate the different features required by each of the user roles.

To make my life a bit easier, I have fiddled around with Zend_Controller_Router_Route and have come up with a way to use one uniform URI scheme that points to different controllers, based on the user role. This is done without priorly setup routes, which saves me quite a lot of work.

All is done by extend Zend_Controller_Router_Route_Module and querying the ACL in the match() and assemble() methods.

<?php 

class App_Controller_Router_Route_Rolebasedcontroller extends Zend_Controller_Router_Route_Module
{
	/**
	 * Roles that should be rewritten automatically
	 *
	 * @var array
	 */
	protected $_rewriteRoles = array('employee', 'executive');

	/**
	 * Exceptions that should not be rewritten
	 *
	 * @var array
	 */
	protected $_exceptions = array(
	   array(
	       'module' => 'auth',
	       'controller' => 'index'
	   ),
	   array(
	       'module' => 'core',
	       'controller' => 'profile'
	   )
	);

    /**
     * Matches a user submitted path. Assigns and returns an array of variables
     * on a successful match.
     *
     * If a request object is registered, it uses its setModuleName(),
     * setControllerName(), and setActionName() accessors to set those values.
     * Always returns the values as an array.
     *
     * @param string $path Path used to match against this routing map
     * @return array An array of assigned values or a false on a mismatch
     */
	public function match($path, $partial = false)
	{
		$result = parent::match($path, $partial);

		$role = Plano_Acl::getInstance()->getCurrentRole();

		if (null !== $role && in_array($role, $this->_rewriteRoles))
		{
            if (!$this->hasException($result['module'], $result['controller'], $result['action']))
            {
				if (isset($result[$this->_controllerKey]))
				{
					$result[$this->_controllerKey] = ucfirst($role) . '-' . ucfirst($result[$this->_controllerKey]);
				}
            }
		}

		return $result;
	}

    /**
     * Assembles user submitted parameters forming a URL path defined by this route
     * Removes fole prefixes when required
     *
     * @param array $data An array of variable and value pairs used as parameters
     * @param bool $reset Weither to reset the current params
     * @return string Route path with user submitted parameters
     */
    public function assemble($data = array(), $reset = false, $encode = true, $partial = false)
    {
        if (!$this->_keysSet) {
            $this->_setRequestKeys();
        }

        $params = (!$reset) ? $this->_values : array();

        foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
            if ($value !== null) {
                $params[$key] = $value;
            } elseif (isset($params[$key])) {
                unset($params[$key]);
            }
        }

        $params += $this->_defaults;

        $url = '';

        if ($this->_moduleValid || array_key_exists($this->_moduleKey, $data)) {
            if ($params[$this->_moduleKey] != $this->_defaults[$this->_moduleKey]) {
                $module = $params[$this->_moduleKey];
            }
        }
        unset($params[$this->_moduleKey]);

        $controller = $params[$this->_controllerKey];

        // remove role prefix from url when required
        $role = Plano_Acl::getInstance()->getCurrentRole();

        if (null !== $role && in_array($role, $this->_rewriteRoles))
        {
        	if (strtolower(substr($params[$this->_controllerKey], 0, strlen($role))) == strtolower($role))
        	{
        		// Controller is in the form Role-Controller, so we should use strlen()+1 to extract the controller part
        		$controller = lcfirst(substr($params[$this->_controllerKey], strlen($role) + 1));
        	}
        }

        unset($params[$this->_controllerKey]);

        $action = $params[$this->_actionKey];
        unset($params[$this->_actionKey]);

        foreach ($params as $key => $value) {
            $key = ($encode) ? urlencode($key) : $key;
            if (is_array($value)) {
                foreach ($value as $arrayValue) {
                    $arrayValue = ($encode) ? urlencode($arrayValue) : $arrayValue;
                    $url .= '/' . $key;
                    $url .= '/' . $arrayValue;
                }
            } else {
                if ($encode) $value = urlencode($value);
                $url .= '/' . $key;
                $url .= '/' . $value;
            }
        }

        if (!empty($url) || $action !== $this->_defaults[$this->_actionKey]) {
            if ($encode) $action = urlencode($action);
            $url = '/' . $action . $url;
        }

        if (!empty($url) || $controller !== $this->_defaults[$this->_controllerKey]) {
            if ($encode) $controller = urlencode($controller);
            $url = '/' . $controller . $url;
        }

        if (isset($module)) {
            if ($encode) $module = urlencode($module);
            $url = '/' . $module . $url;
        }

        return ltrim($url, self::URI_DELIMITER);
    }	

    /**
     * Check wether the specified request is excempted
     *
     * @param string $module
     * @param controller $controller
     * @param action $action
     * @return boolean
     */
    protected function hasException($module = null, $controller = null, $action = null)
    {
    	$e = false;

    	foreach ($this->_exceptions as $exception)
    	{
    		if (null !== $module)
    		{
    			$e = (isset($exception['module']) && $exception['module'] == $module);
	            if (true === $e && null !== $controller)
	            {
	                $e = (isset($exception['controller']) && $exception['controller'] == $controller);

		            if (true === $e && null !== $action)
		            {
		                if (isset($exception['action']))
		                {
		                    $e = ($exception['action'] == $action);
		                }
		            }
	            }
	            if (true === $e) break;
    		}
    	}

    	return $e;
    }
}