The MvcEvent

The MVC layer of Zend Framework 2 incorporates and utilizes a custom Zend\EventManager\Event implementation - Zend\Mvc\MvcEvent. This event is created during Zend\Mvc\Application::bootstrap() and is passed directly to all the events that method triggers. Additionally, if your controllers implement the Zend\Mvc\InjectApplicationEventInterface, MvcEvent will be injected into those controllers.

The MvcEvent adds accessors and mutators for the following:

• Application object.
• Request object.
• Response object.
• Router object.
• RouteMatch object.
• Result - usually the result of dispatching a controller.
• ViewModel object, typically representing the layout view model.

The methods it defines are:

• setApplication($application)
• getApplication()
• setRequest($request)
• getRequest()
• setResponse($response)
• getResponse()
• setRouter($router)
• getRouter()
• setRouteMatch($routeMatch)
• getRouteMatch()
• setResult($result)
• getResult()
• setViewModel($viewModel)
• getViewModel()
• isError()
• setError()
• getError()
• getController()
• setController($name)
• getControllerClass()
• setControllerClass($class)

The Application, Request, Response, Router, and ViewModel are all injected during the bootstrap event. Following the route event, it will be injected also with the RouteMatch object encapsulating the results of routing.

Since this object is passed around throughout the MVC, it is a common location for retrieving the results of routing, the router, and the request and response objects. Additionally, we encourage setting the results of execution in the event, to allow event listeners to introspect them and utilize them within their execution. As an example, the results could be passed into a view renderer.

Order of events

The following events are triggered, in the following order:

MvcEvent Events

Name	Constant	Description
bootstrap	MvcEvent::EVENT_BOOTSTRAP	Bootstrap the application by creating the ViewManager.
route	MvcEvent::EVENT_ROUTE	Perform all the route work (matching...).
dispatch	MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH	Dispatch the matched route to a controller/action.
dispatch.error	MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR	Event triggered in case of a problem during dispatch process (unknown controller...).
render	MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER	Prepare the data and delegate the rendering to the view layer.
render.error	MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER_ERROR	Event triggered in case of a problem during the render process (no renderer found...).
finish	MvcEvent::EVENT_FINISH	Perform any task once everything is done.

Those events are extensively describe in the following sections.

MvcEvent::EVENT_BOOTSTRAP

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

MvcEvent::EVENT_BOOTSTRAP Listeners

Class	Priority	Method Called	Itself Triggers	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\ViewManager	10000	onBootstrap	none	Prepares the view layer (instantiate a Zend\Mvc\View\Http\ViewManager).

Triggerers

This event is triggered by the following classes:

MvcEvent::EVENT_BOOTSTRAP Triggerers

Class	In Method
Zend\Mvc\Application	bootstrap

MvcEvent::EVENT_ROUTE

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

MvcEvent::EVENT_ROUTE Listeners

Class	Priority	Method Called	Itself Triggers	Description
Zend\Mvc\ModuleRouteListener	1	onRoute	none	This listener determines if the module namespace should be prepended to the controller name. This is the case if the route match contains a parameter key matching the MODULE_NAMESPACE constant.
Zend\Mvc\RouteListener	1	onRoute	MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR (if no route is matched)	Tries to match the request to the router and return a RouteMatch object.

Triggerers

This event is triggered by the following classes:

MvcEvent::EVENT_ROUTE Triggerers

Class	In Method	Description
Zend\Mvc\Application	run	It also has a short circuit callback that allows to stop the propagation of the event if an error is raised during the routing.

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

Console context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Console context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH Listeners for Console context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\InjectNamedConsoleParamsListener	1000	injectNamedParams	Merge all the params (route matched params and params in the command) and add them to the Request object.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\CreateViewModelListener	-80	createViewModelFromArray	If the controller action returned an associative array, it casts it to a ConsoleModel object.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\CreateViewModelListener	-80	createViewModelFromString	If the controller action returned a string, it casts it to a ConsoleModel object.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\CreateViewModelListener	-80	createViewModelFromNull	If the controller action returned null, it casts it to a ConsoleModel object.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\InjectViewModelListener	-100	injectViewModel	Inserts the ViewModel (in this case, a ConsoleModel) and adds it to the MvcEvent object. It either (a) adds it as a child to the default, composed view model, or (b) replaces it if the result is marked as terminable.

Http context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Http context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH Listeners for Http context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\CreateViewModelListener	-80	createViewModelFromArray	If the controller action returned an associative array, it casts it to a ViewModel object.
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\CreateViewModelListener	-80	createViewModelFromNull	If the controller action returned null, it casts it to a ViewModel object.
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\RouteNotFoundStrategy	-90	prepareNotFoundViewModel	It creates and return a 404 ViewModel.
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\InjectTemplateListener	-90	injectTemplate	Inject a template into the view model, if none present. Template is derived from the controller found in the route match, and, optionally, the action, if present.
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\InjectViewModelListener	-100	injectViewModel	Inserts the ViewModel (in this case, a ViewModel) and adds it to the MvcEvent object. It either (a) adds it as a child to the default, composed view model, or (b) replaces it if the result is marked as terminable.

All contexts

Those listeners are attached for both contexts:

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH Listeners for both contexts

Class	Priority	Method Called	Itself Triggers	Description
Zend\Mvc\DispatchListener	1	onDispatch	MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR (if an exception is raised during dispatch processes)	Try to load the matched controller from the service manager (and throws various exceptions if it does not).
Zend\Mvc\AbstractController	1	onDispatch	none	The onDispatch method of the AbstractController is an abstract method. In AbstractActionController for instance, it simply calls the action method.

Triggerers

This event is triggered by the following classes:

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH Triggerers

Class	In Method	Description
Zend\Mvc\Application	run	It also has a short circuit callback that allows to stop the propagation of the event if an error is raised during the routing.
Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractController	dispatch	If a listener returns a Response object, it stops propagation. Note: every AbstractController listen to this event and execute the onBootstrap method when it is triggered.

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

Console context only

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR Listeners for Console context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\RouteNotFoundStrategy	1	handleRouteNotFoundError	Detect if an error is a route not found condition. If a “controller not found” or “invalid controller” error type is encountered, sets the response status code to 404.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\ExceptionStrategy	1	prepareExceptionViewModel	Create an exception view model and set the status code to 404.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\InjectViewModelListener	-100	injectViewModel	Inserts the ViewModel (in this case, a ConsoleModel) and adds it to the MvcEvent object. It either (a) adds it as a child to the default, composed view model, or (b) replaces it if the result is marked as terminable.

Http context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Http context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR Listeners for Http context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\RouteNotFoundStrategy	1	detectNotFoundError	Detect if an error is a 404 condition. If a “controller not found” or “invalid controller” error type is encountered, sets the response status code to 404.
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\RouteNotFoundStrategy	1	prepareNotFoundViewModel	Create and return a 404 view model.
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\ExceptionStrategy	1	prepareExceptionViewModel	Create an exception view model and set the status code to 404
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\InjectViewModelListener	-100	injectViewModel	Inserts the ViewModel (in this case, a ViewModel) and adds it to the MvcEvent object. It either (a) adds it as a child to the default, composed view model, or (b) replaces it if the result is marked as terminable.

All contexts

Those listeners are attached for both contexts:

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR Listeners for both contexts

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\DispatchListener	1	reportMonitorEvent	Used to monitoring when Zend Server is used.

Triggerers

MvcEvent::EVENT_DISPATCH_ERROR Triggerers

Class	In Method
Zend\Mvc\DispatchListener	onDispatch
Zend\Mvc\DispatchListener	marshallControllerNotFoundEvent
Zend\Mvc\DispatchListener	marshallBadControllerEvent

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

Console context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Console context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER Listeners for Console context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\DefaultRenderingStrategy	-10000	render	Render the view.

Http context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Http context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER Listeners for Http context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\DefaultRenderingStrategy	-10000	render	Render the view.

Triggerers

This event is triggered by the following classes:

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER Triggerers

Class	In Method	Description
Zend\Mvc\Application	completeRequest	This event is triggered just before the MvcEvent::FINISH event.

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER_ERROR

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

Console context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Console context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER_ERROR Listeners for Console context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\ExceptionStrategy	1	prepareExceptionViewModel	Create an exception view model and set the status code to 404.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\InjectViewModelListener	-100	injectViewModel	Inserts the ViewModel (in this case, a ConsoleModel) and adds it to the MvcEvent object. It either (a) adds it as a child to the default, composed view model, or (b) replaces it if the result is marked as terminable.

Http context only

Those listeners are only attached in a Http context:

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER_ERROR Listeners for Http context only

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\ExceptionStrategy	1	prepareExceptionViewModel	Create an exception view model and set the status code to 404.
Zend\Mvc\View\Console\InjectViewModelListener	-100	injectViewModel	Inserts the ViewModel (in this case, a ViewModel) and adds it to the MvcEvent object. It either (a) adds it as a child to the default, composed view model, or (b) replaces it if the result is marked as terminable.

Triggerers

This event is triggered by the following classes:

MvcEvent::EVENT_RENDER_ERROR Triggerers

Class	In Method	Description
Zend\Mvc\View\Http\DefaultRenderingStrategy	render	This event is triggered if an exception is raised during rendering.

MvcEvent::EVENT_FINISH

Listeners

The following classes are listening to this event (they are sorted from higher priority to lower priority):

MvcEvent::EVENT_FINISH Listeners

Class	Priority	Method Called	Description
Zend\Mvc\SendResponseListener	-10000	sendResponse	It triggers the SendResponseEvent in order to prepare the response (see the next page for more information about SendResponseEvent).

Triggerers

This event is triggered by the following classes:

MvcEvent::EVENT_FINISH Triggerers

Class	In Method	Description
Zend\Mvc\Application	run	This event is triggered once the MvcEvent::ROUTE event returns a correct ResponseInterface.
Zend\Mvc\Application	run	This event is triggered once the MvcEvent::DISPATCH event returns a correct ResponseInterface.
Zend\Mvc\Application	completeRequest	This event is triggered after the MvcEvent::RENDER (this means that, at this point, the view is already rendered).