How to Create a Controller in Magento 2

If you’ve worked with Magento 2, you’ve probably come across the term controller. Controllers are the entry points for handling requests in Magento. They decide what happens when a user visits a certain URL.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through how to create a custom controller in Magento 2, step by step.

What is a Controller in Magento 2?

In Magento 2, a controller is a PHP class responsible for handling requests and returning responses. For example:

• Visiting example.com/customer/account/login triggers a Login controller.
• Visiting example.com/checkout/cart triggers the Cart controller.

Controllers live inside modules and typically:

1. Receive the request.
2. Execute some logic.
3. Return a response (HTML, JSON, redirect, etc.).

Step 1: Create a Custom Module

Before creating a controller, we need a module. Let’s call it Ecommet_HelloWorld.

Create the folder structure:

app/code/Ecommet/HelloWorld/

Add registration.php:

<?php
use Magento\Framework\Component\ComponentRegistrar;

ComponentRegistrar::register(
    ComponentRegistrar::MODULE,
    'Ecommet_HelloWorld',
    __DIR__
);

Add etc/module.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Module/etc/module.xsd">
    <module name="Ecommet_HelloWorld" setup_version="1.0.0"/>
</config>

Enable the module:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade
php bin/magento module:status Ecommet_HelloWorld

Step 2: Create the Controller File

Magento controllers follow this path:

app/code/Vendor/Module/Controller/{RouteName}/{ActionName}.php

For our example:

app/code/Ecommet/HelloWorld/Controller/Index/Index.php

Create Index.php:

<?php
namespace Ecommet\HelloWorld\Controller\Index;

use Magento\Framework\App\ActionInterface;
use Magento\Framework\Controller\ResultFactory;
use Magento\Framework\Controller\ResultInterface;

class Index implements ActionInterface
{
    /**
     * @var ResultFactory
     */
    private $resultFactory;

    public function __construct(ResultFactory $resultFactory)
    {
        $this->resultFactory = $resultFactory;
    }

    public function execute(): ResultInterface
    {
        $result = $this->resultFactory->create(ResultFactory::TYPE_RAW);
        $result->setContents("Hello World from Magento 2 (ActionInterface)!");
        return $result;
    }
}

Magento recommends using controller interfaces:

• Magento\Framework\App\ActionInterface – Generic controller (works for all HTTP methods).
• Magento\Framework\App\Action\HttpGetActionInterface – For GET requests.
• Magento\Framework\App\Action\HttpPostActionInterface – For POST requests.

Step 3: Define a Route

Now, we need a route that maps the URL to our controller.

Create file:

app/code/Ecommet/HelloWorld/etc/frontend/routes.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:App/etc/routes.xsd">
    <router id="standard">
        <route id="helloworld" frontName="helloworld">
            <module name="Ecommet_HelloWorld"/>
        </route>
    </router>
</config>

Here:

• id="helloworld" – Route ID.
• frontName="helloworld" – Appears in URL.

Step 4: Access Your Controller

Now flush the cache:

php bin/magento cache:flush

Open the browser and visit:

http://yourdomain.com/helloworld/index/index

You should see:

Hello World from Magento 2 Controller!

Step 5: Types of Responses

Magento controllers can return different response types:

• Page Result (renders a layout + template):

$resultPage = $this->resultFactory->create(ResultFactory::TYPE_PAGE);
return $resultPage;

• Redirect Result (redirect to another URL):

$resultRedirect = $this->resultFactory->create(ResultFactory::TYPE_REDIRECT);
$resultRedirect->setUrl('/customer/account');
return $resultRedirect;

• JSON Result (useful for APIs / AJAX):

$resultJson = $this->resultFactory->create(ResultFactory::TYPE_JSON);
$resultJson->setData(['success' => true, 'message' => 'Hello JSON!']); 
return $resultJson;