PHP MVC which URLs belong to?

To separate concerns, I would break it down like this:

/**
 * Responsible for processing and rendering user output
 */
interface View {

    public function render();
}

/**
 * Used just to further formalize the messages between Photo and View
 */
interface PhotoView extends View {

    public function setPhotoData($id, $title, $link);
}

/**
 * Among other things knows how to generate URLs to routes
 */
interface Router {

    /**
     * Returns the URL to route based on route name
     * @param string $routeName
     * @param array $params
     */
    public function urlTo($routeName, $params = null);
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

I'm not going to implement every class, there are many options you can use for example for templating engine and router.

An example of a controller for displaying an id based image could be:

class PhotoController {

    public function displayAction($photoId) {
        $photo = Photo::findById($photoId);

        $templateFile = $this->pathTo('photo-template.php');

        //can be a singleton for example, it holds all the routes for the application
        //and knows how to render them based on the name and parameters
        $router = AppRouter::instance();

        return $photo->render(new ConcretePhotoView($templateFile, $router));
    }

}

      

        
        
        
      

    

In this example, the photo should be able to fetch itself from the DB and then display itself in the PhotoView:

class Photo {

    private $id;
    private $title;
    private $sourceLink;

    //other methods...

    public function render(PhotoView $view) {
        $view->setPhotoData($this->id, $this->title, $this->sourceLink);

        return $view->render();
    }

}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Let's say the HTML template photo-template.php

looks like this:

<a href="<?= $userLogin['href'] ?>"><?= $userLogin['label'] ?></a>
<a href="<?= $userRegister['href'] ?>"><?= $userRegister['label'] ?></a>
<div>
    <img src="<?= $photo['src'] ?>" title="<?= $photo['title'] ?>" />
    <a href="<?= $photoLink['href'] ?>"><?= $photoLink['label'] ?></a>
</div>

      

        
        
        
      

    

It should be clear enough what variables are required for this template. No logic in it, just pure display, although some basic control would be fine.

All that's left is the ConcretePhotoView code that will use the provided template file and router to adapt data between the Photo domain object and the specific html template:

class ConcretePhotoView implements PhotoView {

    private $templateEngine;
    private $router;

    public function __construct($templateFile, Router $router) {
        $this->templateEngine = new SomeTemplateEngine($templateFile);
        $this->router = $router;
    }

    public function render() {
        //router has a route userLogin with no params
        $this->templateEngine->assign('userLogin', array(
            'href' => $this->router->urlTo('userLogin'),
            'label' => 'Login'
        ));

        $this->templateEngine->assign('userRegister', array(
            //router has a route named userRegister that requires no params
            'href' => $this->router->urlTo('userRegister'),
            'label' => 'Register'
        ));

        return $this->templateEngine->render();
    }

    public function setPhotoData($id, $title, $link) {
        $this->templateEngine->assign('photo', array(
            'src' => $link,
            'title' => $title
        ));

        $this->templateEngine->assign('photoLink', array(
            //router has a route named photo that requires an id
            'href' => $this->router->urlTo('photo', array('id' => $id)),
            'label' => $title
        ));
    }

}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Finally, to answer the question "Who owns the URLs?" - Router. This knowledge is encapsulated and specific to the application configuration. Other objects use it to create links.