archived-symfony-docs/components/http_foundation.rst

.. index::
   single: HTTP
   single: HttpFoundation
   single: Components; HttpFoundation

The HttpFoundation Component
============================

    The HttpFoundation component defines an object-oriented layer for the HTTP
    specification.

In PHP, the request is represented by some global variables (``$_GET``,
``$_POST``, ``$_FILES``, ``$_COOKIE``, ``$_SESSION``, ...) and the response is
generated by some functions (``echo``, ``header()``, ``setcookie()``, ...).

The Symfony HttpFoundation component replaces these default PHP global
variables and functions by an object-oriented layer.

Installation
------------

.. code-block:: terminal

    $ composer require symfony/http-foundation

.. include:: /components/require_autoload.rst.inc

.. seealso::

    This article explains how to use the HttpFoundation features as an
    independent component in any PHP application. In Symfony applications
    everything is already configured and ready to use. Read the :doc:`/controller`
    article to learn about how to use these features when creating controllers.

.. _component-http-foundation-request:

Request
-------

The most common way to create a request is to base it on the current PHP global
variables with
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::createFromGlobals`::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

    $request = Request::createFromGlobals();

which is almost equivalent to the more verbose, but also more flexible,
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::__construct` call::

    $request = new Request(
        $_GET,
        $_POST,
        [],
        $_COOKIE,
        $_FILES,
        $_SERVER
    );

.. _accessing-request-data:

Accessing Request Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Request object holds information about the client request. This information
can be accessed via several public properties:

* ``request``: equivalent of ``$_POST``;

* ``query``: equivalent of ``$_GET`` (``$request->query->get('name')``);

* ``cookies``: equivalent of ``$_COOKIE``;

* ``attributes``: no equivalent - used by your app to store other data (see :ref:`below <component-foundation-attributes>`);

* ``files``: equivalent of ``$_FILES``;

* ``server``: equivalent of ``$_SERVER``;

* ``headers``: mostly equivalent to a subset of ``$_SERVER``
  (``$request->headers->get('User-Agent')``).

Each property is a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag`
instance (or a sub-class of), which is a data holder class:

* ``request``: :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag`;

* ``query``:   :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag`;

* ``cookies``: :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag`;

* ``attributes``: :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag`;

* ``files``:   :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\FileBag`;

* ``server``:  :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ServerBag`;

* ``headers``: :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\HeaderBag`.

All :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag` instances have
methods to retrieve and update their data:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::all`
    Returns the parameters.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::keys`
    Returns the parameter keys.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::replace`
    Replaces the current parameters by a new set.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::add`
    Adds parameters.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::get`
    Returns a parameter by name.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::set`
    Sets a parameter by name.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::has`
    Returns ``true`` if the parameter is defined.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::remove`
    Removes a parameter.

The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag` instance also
has some methods to filter the input values:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::getAlpha`
    Returns the alphabetic characters of the parameter value;

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::getAlnum`
    Returns the alphabetic characters and digits of the parameter value;

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::getBoolean`
    Returns the parameter value converted to boolean;

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::getDigits`
    Returns the digits of the parameter value;

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::getInt`
    Returns the parameter value converted to integer;

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag::filter`
    Filters the parameter by using the PHP :phpfunction:`filter_var` function.

All getters take up to two arguments: the first one is the parameter name
and the second one is the default value to return if the parameter does not
exist::

    // the query string is '?foo=bar'

    $request->query->get('foo');
    // returns 'bar'

    $request->query->get('bar');
    // returns null

    $request->query->get('bar', 'baz');
    // returns 'baz'

When PHP imports the request query, it handles request parameters like
``foo[bar]=baz`` in a special way as it creates an array. So you can get the
``foo`` parameter and you will get back an array with a ``bar`` element::

    // the query string is '?foo[bar]=baz'

    $request->query->get('foo');
    // returns ['bar' => 'baz']

    $request->query->get('foo[bar]');
    // returns null

    $request->query->get('foo')['bar'];
    // returns 'baz'

.. _component-foundation-attributes:

Thanks to the public ``attributes`` property, you can store additional data
in the request, which is also an instance of
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ParameterBag`. This is mostly used
to attach information that belongs to the Request and that needs to be
accessed from many different points in your application.

Finally, the raw data sent with the request body can be accessed using
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getContent`::

    $content = $request->getContent();

For instance, this may be useful to process a JSON string sent to the
application by a remote service using the HTTP POST method.

Identifying a Request
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In your application, you need a way to identify a request; most of the time,
this is done via the "path info" of the request, which can be accessed via the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getPathInfo` method::

    // for a request to http://example.com/blog/index.php/post/hello-world
    // the path info is "/post/hello-world"
    $request->getPathInfo();

Simulating a Request
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Instead of creating a request based on the PHP globals, you can also simulate
a request::

    $request = Request::create(
        '/hello-world',
        'GET',
        ['name' => 'Fabien']
    );

The :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::create` method
creates a request based on a URI, a method and some parameters (the
query parameters or the request ones depending on the HTTP method); and of
course, you can also override all other variables as well (by default, Symfony
creates sensible defaults for all the PHP global variables).

Based on such a request, you can override the PHP global variables via
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::overrideGlobals`::

    $request->overrideGlobals();

.. tip::

    You can also duplicate an existing request via
    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::duplicate` or
    change a bunch of parameters with a single call to
    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::initialize`.

Accessing the Session
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have a session attached to the request, you can access it via the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getSession` method;
the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::hasPreviousSession`
method tells you if the request contains a session which was started in one of
the previous requests.

Processing HTTP Headers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Processing HTTP headers is not a trivial task because of the escaping and white
space handling of their contents. Symfony provides a
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\HeaderUtils` class that abstracts
this complexity and defines some methods for the most common tasks::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\HeaderUtils;

    // Splits an HTTP header by one or more separators
    HeaderUtils::split('da, en-gb;q=0.8', ',;');
    // => [['da'], ['en-gb','q=0.8']]

    // Combines an array of arrays into one associative array
    HeaderUtils::combine([['foo', 'abc'], ['bar']]);
    // => ['foo' => 'abc', 'bar' => true]

    // Joins an associative array into a string for use in an HTTP header
    HeaderUtils::toString(['foo' => 'abc', 'bar' => true, 'baz' => 'a b c'], ',');
    // => 'foo=abc, bar, baz="a b c"'

    // Encodes a string as a quoted string, if necessary
    HeaderUtils::quote('foo "bar"');
    // => '"foo \"bar\""'

    // Decodes a quoted string
    HeaderUtils::unquote('"foo \"bar\""');
    // => 'foo "bar"'

Accessing ``Accept-*`` Headers Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can access basic data extracted from ``Accept-*`` headers
by using the following methods:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getAcceptableContentTypes`
    Returns the list of accepted content types ordered by descending quality.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getLanguages`
    Returns the list of accepted languages ordered by descending quality.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getCharsets`
    Returns the list of accepted charsets ordered by descending quality.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request::getEncodings`
    Returns the list of accepted encodings ordered by descending quality.

If you need to get full access to parsed data from ``Accept``, ``Accept-Language``,
``Accept-Charset`` or ``Accept-Encoding``, you can use
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\AcceptHeader` utility class::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\AcceptHeader;

    $acceptHeader = AcceptHeader::fromString($request->headers->get('Accept'));
    if ($acceptHeader->has('text/html')) {
        $item = $acceptHeader->get('text/html');
        $charset = $item->getAttribute('charset', 'utf-8');
        $quality = $item->getQuality();
    }

    // Accept header items are sorted by descending quality
    $acceptHeaders = AcceptHeader::fromString($request->headers->get('Accept'))
        ->all();

The default values that can be optionally included in the ``Accept-*`` headers
are also supported::

    $acceptHeader = 'text/plain;q=0.5, text/html, text/*;q=0.8, */*;q=0.3';
    $accept = AcceptHeader::fromString($acceptHeader);

    $quality = $accept->get('text/xml')->getQuality(); // $quality = 0.8
    $quality = $accept->get('application/xml')->getQuality(); // $quality = 0.3

Accessing other Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``Request`` class has many other methods that you can use to access the
request information. Have a look at
:class:`the Request API <Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Request>`
for more information about them.

Overriding the Request
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ``Request`` class should not be overridden as it is a data object that
represents an HTTP message. But when moving from a legacy system, adding
methods or changing some default behavior might help. In that case, register a
PHP callable that is able to create an instance of your ``Request`` class::

    use App\Http\SpecialRequest;
    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

    Request::setFactory(function (
        array $query = [],
        array $request = [],
        array $attributes = [],
        array $cookies = [],
        array $files = [],
        array $server = [],
        $content = null
    ) {
        return new SpecialRequest(
            $query,
            $request,
            $attributes,
            $cookies,
            $files,
            $server,
            $content
        );
    });

    $request = Request::createFromGlobals();

.. _component-http-foundation-response:

Response
--------

A :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response` object holds all the
information that needs to be sent back to the client from a given request. The
constructor takes up to three arguments: the response content, the status
code, and an array of HTTP headers::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

    $response = new Response(
        'Content',
        Response::HTTP_OK,
        ['content-type' => 'text/html']
    );

This information can also be manipulated after the Response object creation::

    $response->setContent('Hello World');

    // the headers public attribute is a ResponseHeaderBag
    $response->headers->set('Content-Type', 'text/plain');

    $response->setStatusCode(Response::HTTP_NOT_FOUND);

When setting the ``Content-Type`` of the Response, you can set the charset,
but it is better to set it via the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setCharset` method::

    $response->setCharset('ISO-8859-1');

Note that by default, Symfony assumes that your Responses are encoded in
UTF-8.

Sending the Response
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before sending the Response, you can optionally call the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::prepare` method to fix any
incompatibility with the HTTP specification (e.g. a wrong ``Content-Type`` header)::

    $response->prepare($request);

Sending the response to the client is done by calling the method
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::send`::

    $response->send();

Setting Cookies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The response cookies can be manipulated through the ``headers`` public
attribute::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Cookie;

    $response->headers->setCookie(Cookie::create('foo', 'bar'));

The
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ResponseHeaderBag::setCookie`
method takes an instance of
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Cookie` as an argument.

You can clear a cookie via the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\ResponseHeaderBag::clearCookie` method.

Note you can create a
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Cookie` object from a raw header
value using :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Cookie::fromString`.

Managing the HTTP Cache
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response` class has a rich set
of methods to manipulate the HTTP headers related to the cache:

* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setPublic`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setPrivate`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::expire`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setExpires`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setMaxAge`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setSharedMaxAge`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setTtl`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setClientTtl`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setLastModified`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setEtag`;
* :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setVary`;

.. note::

    The methods :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setExpires`,
    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setLastModified` and
    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setDate` accept any
    object that implements ``\DateTimeInterface``, including immutable date objects.

The :method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::setCache` method
can be used to set the most commonly used cache information in one method
call::

    $response->setCache([
        'etag'          => 'abcdef',
        'last_modified' => new \DateTime(),
        'max_age'       => 600,
        's_maxage'      => 600,
        'private'       => false,
        'public'        => true,
    ]);

To check if the Response validators (``ETag``, ``Last-Modified``) match a
conditional value specified in the client Request, use the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response::isNotModified`
method::

    if ($response->isNotModified($request)) {
        $response->send();
    }

If the Response is not modified, it sets the status code to 304 and removes the
actual response content.

.. _redirect-response:

Redirecting the User
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To redirect the client to another URL, you can use the
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\RedirectResponse` class::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RedirectResponse;

    $response = new RedirectResponse('http://example.com/');

.. _streaming-response:

Streaming a Response
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\StreamedResponse` class allows
you to stream the Response back to the client. The response content is
represented by a PHP callable instead of a string::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\StreamedResponse;

    $response = new StreamedResponse();
    $response->setCallback(function () {
        var_dump('Hello World');
        flush();
        sleep(2);
        var_dump('Hello World');
        flush();
    });
    $response->send();

.. note::

    The ``flush()`` function does not flush buffering. If ``ob_start()`` has
    been called before or the ``output_buffering`` ``php.ini`` option is enabled,
    you must call ``ob_flush()`` before ``flush()``.

    Additionally, PHP isn't the only layer that can buffer output. Your web
    server might also buffer based on its configuration. Some servers, such as
    Nginx, let you disable buffering at the config level or by adding a special HTTP
    header in the response::

        // disables FastCGI buffering in Nginx only for this response
        $response->headers->set('X-Accel-Buffering', 'no')

.. _component-http-foundation-serving-files:

Serving Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When sending a file, you must add a ``Content-Disposition`` header to your
response. While creating this header for basic file downloads is straightforward,
using non-ASCII filenames is more involving. The
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\HeaderUtils::makeDisposition`
abstracts the hard work behind a simple API::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\HeaderUtils;
    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ResponseHeaderBag;

    $fileContent = ...; // the generated file content
    $response = new Response($fileContent);

    $disposition = HeaderUtils::makeDisposition(
        HeaderUtils::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT,
        'foo.pdf'
    );

    $response->headers->set('Content-Disposition', $disposition);

Alternatively, if you are serving a static file, you can use a
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\BinaryFileResponse`::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\BinaryFileResponse;

    $file = 'path/to/file.txt';
    $response = new BinaryFileResponse($file);

The ``BinaryFileResponse`` will automatically handle ``Range`` and
``If-Range`` headers from the request. It also supports ``X-Sendfile``
(see for `Nginx`_ and `Apache`_). To make use of it, you need to determine
whether or not the ``X-Sendfile-Type`` header should be trusted and call
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\BinaryFileResponse::trustXSendfileTypeHeader`
if it should::

    BinaryFileResponse::trustXSendfileTypeHeader();

.. note::

    The ``BinaryFileResponse`` will only handle ``X-Sendfile`` if the particular header is present.
    For Apache, this is not the default case.

    To add the header use the ``mod_headers`` Apache module and add the following to the Apache configuration:

    .. code-block:: apache

        <IfModule mod_xsendfile.c>
          # This is already present somewhere...
          XSendFile on
          XSendFilePath ...some path...

          # This needs to be added:
          <IfModule mod_headers.c>
            RequestHeader set X-Sendfile-Type X-Sendfile
          </IfModule>
        </IfModule>

With the ``BinaryFileResponse``, you can still set the ``Content-Type`` of the sent file,
or change its ``Content-Disposition``::

    // ...
    $response->headers->set('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
    $response->setContentDisposition(
        ResponseHeaderBag::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT,
        'filename.txt'
    );

It is possible to delete the file after the request is sent with the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\BinaryFileResponse::deleteFileAfterSend` method.
Please note that this will not work when the ``X-Sendfile`` header is set.

If the size of the served file is unknown (e.g. because it's being generated on the fly,
or because a PHP stream filter is registered on it, etc.), you can pass a ``Stream``
instance to ``BinaryFileResponse``. This will disable ``Range`` and ``Content-Length``
handling, switching to chunked encoding instead::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\BinaryFileResponse;
    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\Stream;

    $stream  = new Stream('path/to/stream');
    $response = new BinaryFileResponse($stream);

.. note::

    If you *just* created the file during this same request, the file *may* be sent
    without any content. This may be due to cached file stats that return zero for
    the size of the file. To fix this issue, call ``clearstatcache(true, $file)``
    with the path to the binary file.

.. _component-http-foundation-json-response:

Creating a JSON Response
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any type of response can be created via the
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\Response` class by setting the
right content and headers. A JSON response might look like this::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

    $response = new Response();
    $response->setContent(json_encode([
        'data' => 123,
    ]));
    $response->headers->set('Content-Type', 'application/json');

There is also a helpful :class:`Symfony\\Component\\HttpFoundation\\JsonResponse`
class, which can make this even easier::

    use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;

    // if you know the data to send when creating the response
    $response = new JsonResponse(['data' => 123]);

    // if you don't know the data to send when creating the response
    $response = new JsonResponse();
    // ...
    $response->setData(['data' => 123]);

    // if the data to send is already encoded in JSON
    $response = JsonResponse::fromJsonString('{ "data": 123 }');

The ``JsonResponse`` class sets the ``Content-Type`` header to
``application/json`` and encodes your data to JSON when needed.

.. caution::

    To avoid XSSI `JSON Hijacking`_, you should pass an associative array
    as the outer-most array to ``JsonResponse`` and not an indexed array so
    that the final result is an object (e.g. ``{"object": "not inside an array"}``)
    instead of an array (e.g. ``[{"object": "inside an array"}]``). Read
    the `OWASP guidelines`_ for more information.

    Only methods that respond to GET requests are vulnerable to XSSI 'JSON Hijacking'.
    Methods responding to POST requests only remain unaffected.

JSONP Callback
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you're using JSONP, you can set the callback function that the data should
be passed to::

    $response->setCallback('handleResponse');

In this case, the ``Content-Type`` header will be ``text/javascript`` and
the response content will look like this:

.. code-block:: javascript

    handleResponse({'data': 123});

Session
-------

The session information is in its own document: :doc:`/components/http_foundation/sessions`.

Learn More
----------

.. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
    :glob:

    /components/http_foundation/*
    /controller
    /controller/*
    /session/*
    /http_cache/*

.. _Nginx: https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/xsendfile/
.. _Apache: https://tn123.org/mod_xsendfile/
.. _`JSON Hijacking`: http://haacked.com/archive/2009/06/25/json-hijacking.aspx
.. _OWASP guidelines: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_AJAX_Security_Guidelines#Always_return_JSON_with_an_Object_on_the_outside