Core Concepts

Core Concepts

This section covers the three building blocks you'll use every day in StackCTL: Routing, Controllers, and Views & Layouts. Understanding how these three pieces connect is the key to understanding how the framework works.

How a Request Flows Through StackCTL

Every page load follows the same path:

1. The browser sends a request to your app (e.g. GET /articles)
2. The Router matches the URI to a registered route in routes/web.php
3. Any middleware on that route runs first (auth checks, role checks, etc.)
4. The Controller method is called — it fetches data, runs logic, and decides what to render
5. The View receives the data and renders HTML, wrapped in a layout
6. The final HTML is sent back to the browser

That's the full cycle — every request in a StackCTL app follows this exact path.

In This Section

• Routing — How to register routes, use route parameters, group routes, and name them for use in views
• Controllers — How to create controllers, handle form data, use the Query class, and respond to requests
• Views & Layouts — How views are structured, how layouts wrap them, and how data flows from controller to template

For route-level access control, see the Auth & Middleware doc. For database queries inside controllers, see the Query doc.