The HttpKernel Component

HttpKernel: Driven by Events

The HttpKernel::handle() method works internally by dispatching events. This makes the method both flexible, but also a bit abstract, since all the "work" of a framework/application built with HttpKernel is actually done in event listeners.

To help explain this process, this document looks at each step of the process and talks about how one specific implementation of the HttpKernel - the Symfony Framework - works.

Initially, using the HttpKernel does not take many steps. You create an event dispatcher and a controller and argument resolver (explained below). To complete your working kernel, you'll add more event listeners to the events discussed below:

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use Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RequestStack;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Controller\ArgumentResolver;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Controller\ControllerResolver;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernel;

// create the Request object
$request = Request::createFromGlobals();

$dispatcher = new EventDispatcher();
// ... add some event listeners

// create your controller and argument resolvers
$controllerResolver = new ControllerResolver();
$argumentResolver = new ArgumentResolver();

// instantiate the kernel
$kernel = new HttpKernel($dispatcher, $controllerResolver, new RequestStack(), $argumentResolver);

// actually execute the kernel, which turns the request into a response
// by dispatching events, calling a controller, and returning the response
$response = $kernel->handle($request);

// send the headers and echo the content
$response->send();

// trigger the kernel.terminate event
$kernel->terminate($request, $response);

See "A full working example" for a more concrete implementation.

For general information on adding listeners to the events below, see Creating an Event Listener.

1) The kernel.request Event

Typical Purposes: To add more information to the Request, initialize parts of the system, or return a Response if possible (e.g. a security layer that denies access).

Kernel Events Information Table

The first event that is dispatched inside HttpKernel::handle is kernel.request, which may have a variety of different listeners.

Listeners of this event can be quite varied. Some listeners - such as a security listener - might have enough information to create a Response object immediately. For example, if a security listener determined that a user doesn't have access, that listener may return a RedirectResponse to the login page or a 403 Access Denied response.

If a Response is returned at this stage, the process skips directly to the kernel.response event.

Other listeners initialize things or add more information to the request. For example, a listener might determine and set the locale on the Request object.

Another common listener is routing. A router listener may process the Request and determine the controller that should be rendered (see the next section). In fact, the Request object has an "attributes" bag which is a perfect spot to store this extra, application-specific data about the request. This means that if your router listener somehow determines the controller, it can store it on the Request attributes (which can be used by your controller resolver).

Overall, the purpose of the kernel.request event is either to create and return a Response directly, or to add information to the Request (e.g. setting the locale or setting some other information on the Request attributes).

2) Resolve the Controller

Assuming that no kernel.request listener was able to create a Response, the next step in HttpKernel is to determine and prepare (i.e. resolve) the controller. The controller is the part of the end-application's code that is responsible for creating and returning the Response for a specific page. The only requirement is that it is a PHP callable - i.e. a function, method on an object or a Closure.

But how you determine the exact controller for a request is entirely up to your application. This is the job of the "controller resolver" - a class that implements ControllerResolverInterface and is one of the constructor arguments to HttpKernel.

Your job is to create a class that implements the interface and fill in its method: getController(). In fact, one default implementation already exists, which you can use directly or learn from: ControllerResolver. This implementation is explained more in the sidebar below:

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namespace Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Controller;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

interface ControllerResolverInterface
{
    public function getController(Request $request): callable|false;
}

Internally, the HttpKernel::handle() method first calls getController() on the controller resolver. This method is passed the Request and is responsible for somehow determining and returning a PHP callable (the controller) based on the request's information.

3) The kernel.controller Event

Typical Purposes: Initialize things or change the controller just before the controller is executed.

Kernel Events Information Table

After the controller callable has been determined, HttpKernel::handle() dispatches the kernel.controller event. Listeners to this event might initialize some part of the system that needs to be initialized after certain things have been determined (e.g. the controller, routing information) but before the controller is executed.

Another typical use-case for this event is to retrieve the attributes from the controller using the getAttributes() method. See the Symfony section below for some examples.

Listeners to this event can also change the controller callable completely by calling ControllerEvent::setController on the event object that's passed to listeners on this event.

4) Getting the Controller Arguments

Next, HttpKernel::handle() calls ArgumentResolverInterface::getArguments(). Remember that the controller returned in getController() is a callable. The purpose of getArguments() is to return the array of arguments that should be passed to that controller. Exactly how this is done is completely up to your design, though the built-in ArgumentResolver is a good example.

At this point the kernel has a PHP callable (the controller) and an array of arguments that should be passed when executing that callable.

5) Calling the Controller

The next step of HttpKernel::handle() is executing the controller.

The job of the controller is to build the response for the given resource. This could be an HTML page, a JSON string or anything else. Unlike every other part of the process so far, this step is implemented by the "end-developer", for each page that is built.

Usually, the controller will return a Response object. If this is true, then the work of the kernel is just about done! In this case, the next step is the kernel.response event.

But if the controller returns anything besides a Response, then the kernel has a little bit more work to do - kernel.view (since the end goal is always to generate a Response object).

6) The kernel.view Event

Typical Purposes: Transform a non-Response return value from a controller into a Response

Kernel Events Information Table

If the controller doesn't return a Response object, then the kernel dispatches another event - kernel.view. The job of a listener to this event is to use the return value of the controller (e.g. an array of data or an object) to create a Response.

This can be useful if you want to use a "view" layer: instead of returning a Response from the controller, you return data that represents the page. A listener to this event could then use this data to create a Response that is in the correct format (e.g HTML, JSON, etc).

At this stage, if no listener sets a response on the event, then an exception is thrown: either the controller or one of the view listeners must always return a Response.

7) The kernel.response Event

Typical Purposes: Modify the Response object just before it is sent

Kernel Events Information Table

The end goal of the kernel is to transform a Request into a Response. The Response might be created during the kernel.request event, returned from the controller, or returned by one of the listeners to the kernel.view event.

Regardless of who creates the Response, another event - kernel.response is dispatched directly afterwards. A typical listener to this event will modify the Response object in some way, such as modifying headers, adding cookies, or even changing the content of the Response itself (e.g. injecting some JavaScript before the end </body> tag of an HTML response).

After this event is dispatched, the final Response object is returned from handle(). In the most typical use-case, you can then call the send() method, which sends the headers and prints the Response content.

8) The kernel.terminate Event

Typical Purposes: To perform some "heavy" action after the response has been streamed to the user

Kernel Events Information Table

The final event of the HttpKernel process is kernel.terminate and is unique because it occurs after the HttpKernel::handle() method, and after the response is sent to the user. Recall from above, then the code that uses the kernel, ends like this:

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// sends the headers and echoes the content
$response->send();

// triggers the kernel.terminate event
$kernel->terminate($request, $response);

As you can see, by calling $kernel->terminate after sending the response, you will trigger the kernel.terminate event where you can perform certain actions that you may have delayed in order to return the response as quickly as possible to the client (e.g. sending emails).

9) Handling Exceptions: the kernel.exception Event

Typical Purposes: Handle some type of exception and create an appropriate Response to return for the exception

Kernel Events Information Table

If an exception is thrown at any point inside HttpKernel::handle(), another event - kernel.exception is dispatched. Internally, the body of the handle() method is wrapped in a try-catch block. When any exception is thrown, the kernel.exception event is dispatched so that your system can somehow respond to the exception.

Each listener to this event is passed a ExceptionEvent object, which you can use to access the original exception via the getThrowable() method. A typical listener on this event will check for a certain type of exception and create an appropriate error Response.

For example, to generate a 404 page, you might throw a special type of exception and then add a listener on this event that looks for this exception and creates and returns a 404 Response. In fact, the HttpKernel component comes with an ErrorListener, which if you choose to use, will do this and more by default (see the sidebar below for more details).