6.3. Accessing the Request

The first argument of any action method is the request object, called sfWebRequest in symfony. You're already familiar with the getParameter('myparam') method, used to retrieve the value of a request parameter by its name. Table 6-1 lists the most useful sfWebRequest methods.

Table 6-1 - Methods of the sfWebRequest Object

• Works with prototype, Prototype, Mootools, and jQuery

** Sometimes blocked by proxies

For multipart requests to which users attach files, the sfWebRequest object provides a means to access and move these files, as shown in Listing 6-14. These methods are deprecated in symfony 1.1 (see the form framework and the sfValidatorFile class for more information).

Listing 6-14 - The sfWebRequest Object Knows How to Handle Attached Files

class mymoduleActions extends sfActions
{
  public function executeUpload($request)
  {
    if ($request->hasFiles())
    {
      foreach ($request->getFileNames() as $uploadedFile)
      {
        $fileName  = $request->getFileName($uploadedFile);
        $fileSize  = $request->getFileSize($uploadedFile);
        $fileType  = $request->getFileType($uploadedFile);
        $fileError = $request->hasFileError($uploadedFile);
        $uploadDir = sfConfig::get('sf_upload_dir');
        $request->moveFile($uploadedFile, $uploadDir.'/'.$fileName);
      }
    }
  }
}

You don't have to worry about whether your server supports the $_SERVER or the $_ENV variables, or about default values or server-compatibility issues — the sfWebRequest methods do it all for you. Besides, their names are so evident that you will no longer need to browse the PHP documentation to find out how to get information from the request.