The Front controller

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The application object is associated with front controller class

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The main characteristics of front controller class:

• collect the routers into array;
• get request and request from application;
• dispatch the request;
• handle the url rewrite

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The routers are declared in the xml by const XML_STORE_ROUTERS_PATH = 'web/routers';

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The match process:

• break down the module, controller and action;
• match the url definition in the configuration file;

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How to find the controller class:

    public function getControllerFileName($realModule, $controller)
    {
        $parts = explode('_', $realModule);
        $realModule = implode('_', array_splice($parts, 0, 2));
        $file = Mage::getModuleDir('controllers', $realModule);
        if (count($parts)) {
            $file .= DS . implode(DS, $parts);
        }
        $file .= DS.uc_words($controller, DS).'Controller.php';
        return $file;
    }

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The path is module path plus controller directory plus TestController.php

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$controllerInstance = Mage::getControllerInstance($controllerClassName, $request, $front->getResponse());

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    public static function getControllerInstance($class, $request, $response, array $invokeArgs = array())
    {
        return new $class($request, $response, $invokeArgs);
    }