Back in the controller

You get the ready Blog objects delivered in an array. "Ready" means in this context, that every Blog object already has all it's Post objects and their Comment and Tag objects.

These blogs are delivered to the object, which is responsible for the output for further processing: the so called View. If we make no own choice, like in our example, the TemplateView of Fluid is automatically available under the class variable $this->view.

With the method assign() we "bind" the array with our blogs to the variable name "blogs" of the TemplateView. It can be addressed with this name in the template. The method render() of the TemplateView starts the generation of the HTML code.

Before we leave our small, contemplative action island and dig into the deep of the Fluid template, let's take a look at the abbreviations and simplifications Extbase offers at this point.

Since we need the BlogRepository in all actions, we move the code for it's initialization to the method initializeAction(). This method is called by Extbase prior to each call of an action. There the necessary repositories are instantiated:

public function initializeAction() {
   $this->blogRepository = GeneralUtility::makeInstance('\MyVendor\BlogExample\Domain\Repository\BlogRepository');
   $this->administratorRepository = GeneralUtility::makeInstance('\MyVendor\BlogExample\Domain\Repository\AdministratorRepository');
}

This approach offers no performance gain (rather a negligible disadvantage), but we avoid duplicate code. In addition to the method initializeAction(), that is worked off before the call of _each_ action, Extbase calls, if available, the method initializeIndexAction(). The string IndexAction needs to be replaced by the name of those action, in before that method should be called. In short: You can create an own method for initialization of each action.

The second step is the combination of the rows to query the repository and to bind the variable name to a row. Finally you waive to explicit call the method render(). If the action does not return a result with return $content by itself (either because the call is missing or returns NULL), Extbase automatically calls the method render().

Note

This automatism can be confusing, because you have to specify return ''; explicitly vice versa, to suppress the rendering process. Sometimes this might be handy to discover errors.

Come with us on another tour: dive into Fluid - the new template engine of TYPO3 - and get to know the magnificent underwater world full of colorful Fluid tags and ViewHelper.