Using base controller in YII

In many frameworks, the concept of a base controller that is being extended by other ones is
described right in the guide. In Yii, it is not in the guide as you can achieve flexibility in many
other ways. Still, using base controller is possible and can be useful.
Getting ready
A new application using yiic webapp is to be set up.
Let's say we want to add some controllers that will be accessible only when the user is
logged in. We can surely set this constraint for each controller separately, but we will do
it in a better way.
How to do it...
1. First, we will need a base controller that our user-only controllers will use. Let's create
SecureController.php in protected/components with the following code:
<?php
class SecureController extends Controller
{
public function filters()
{
return array(
'accessControl',
);
}
public function accessRules()
{
return array(
array('allow',
'users'=>array('@'),
),
array('deny',
'users'=>array('*'),
),
);
}
}
2. Now, go to the Gii controller generator and enter SecureController into the Base
Class field. You will get something like this:
class TestController extends SecureController
{
public function actionIndex()
{
$this->render('index');
}
…
}
3. Now, your TestController index will be only accessible if the user is logged in,
even though we have not declared it explicitly in the TestController class.
How it works...
The trick is nothing more than a basic class inheritance. If filters or accessRules is not
found in TestController, then it will be called from SecureController.