Video editing form controller action method

Question

My project uses Zend Framework 2.

I'm trying to determine if I am doing too much in my controller as a rule for my development. I have built my controllers like this for a while and haven't run into many problems but I wanted to get some feedback from this community.

This specific action handles a video management form that contains an image upload form. Is the controller for editing information about videos doing too much?

Here is the action from my controller:

public function editAction() {
 $id = $this->params('id',null);
 $sl = $this->getServiceLocator();
 $form = $sl->get('AdminVideoForm');
 $image_form = $sl->get('VideoImageUploadForm');
 $image_form->setAttribute('action',$this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video/upload-image') . '?video_id=' . $id);
 $model = [
 'form' => $form,
 'image_form' => $image_form
 ];
 $current_video = $this->videoTable->fetchById($id);
 if(!$current_video) {
 $this->flashMessenger()->setNamespace('video-admin')->addMessage('Invalid Video ID');
 return $this->redirectToListing();
 }
 $model['id'] = $id;
 $model['video'] = $current_video;
 $form->bind($current_video);
 $request = $this->getRequest();
 if($request->getQuery('returnTo')) {
 $model['returnTo'] = $request->getQuery('returnTo');
 }
 else {
 $model['returnTo'] = $this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video');
 }
 $form->setAttribute('action',$this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video/edit',['id' => $id]) . '?returnTo=' . rawurlencode($model['returnTo']));
 if($request->isPost()) {
 $form->setData($request->getPost());
 if($form->isValid()) {
 $this->videoTable->saveVideo($form->getData());
 return $this->redirectToListing();
 }
 }
 return $model;
}

Answer 1

The method is 37 lines total, which does seem somewhat long yet is not uncommon in many projects. One could move things around a bit to avoid assigning variables like $model, $image_form, etc. when they are not used (e.g. in early returns):

• the early return when the $current_video could possibly be moved closer to the assignment of $id
• the early return when $request->isPost() is true-thy and the form is valid could be moved up

The setting of $model['returnTo'] could be simplified with a ternary operator:

$returnTo = $request->getQuery('returnTo');
$model['returnTo'] = $returnTo ? $returnTo : $this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video');

The ternary short cut ?: , A.K.A. "the Elvis operator" has been available since PHP 5.3 and can be used to simplify this:

$model['returnTo'] = $request->getQuery('returnTo') ?: $this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video');

Elvis face superimposed with characters

The code below has not been tested but shows an example of how it could be simplified somewhat. I made a few modifications per the PSR-12 style guide - e.g. adding a space after a comma when separating function/method parameters, limiting line length to 120 characters (which is why $urlFromRoute is declared), etc. One could possibly abstract the last 11 lines to a separate method to get the model array.

public function editAction() {
 $id = $this->params('id', null);
 $current_video = $this->videoTable->fetchById($id);
 if (!$current_video) {
 $this->flashMessenger()->setNamespace('video-admin')->addMessage('Invalid Video ID');
 return $this->redirectToListing();
 }
 $request = $this->getRequest();
 $sl = $this->getServiceLocator();
 $form = $sl->get('AdminVideoForm');
 $form->bind($current_video);
 if ($request->isPost()) {
 $form->setData($request->getPost());
 if ($form->isValid()) {
 $this->videoTable->saveVideo($form->getData());
 return $this->redirectToListing();
 }
 }
 $image_form = $sl->get('VideoImageUploadForm');
 $image_form->setAttribute('action', $this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video/upload-image') . '?video_id=' . $id);
 $returnTo = $request->getQuery('returnTo') ?: $this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video');
 $urlFromRoute = $this->url()->fromRoute('admin/video/edit', ['id' => $id]);
 $form->setAttribute('action', $urlFromRoute . '?returnTo=' . rawurlencode($returnTo));
 return [
 'video' => $current_video,
 'id' => $id,
 'form' => $form,
 'image_form' => $image_form,
 'returnTo' => $returnTo
 ];
}