© 2015 X2Engine Inc.
Difference between revisions of "X2Model and Dynamic Fields"
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Revision as of 19:53, 21 February 2013
Introduction
Typically in Yii, when a model (see: CActiveRecord) is used to retrieve data from a table in the database, the model's attributes are simply inherited from the schema for that table. However, in order to provide the means to add and remove fields from models (and thus from database tables), in addition to providing more advanced options for setting behaviors of attributes, most of the model classes in X2EngineCRM (the ones that are associated with database tables) are extended from a class X2Model. The attributes of all such models are not derived from the database itself but from an attribute registry stored in the x2_fields table. The following columns in the fields table are of particular importance:
| Field Name | Value | Typically renders as |
|---|---|---|
| modelName | The exact name of the model class to which the field belongs, with only one exception (fields with modelName="Quotes" belong to class Quote) | Plain text (filtered/mapped to be human-readable) |
| fieldName | The name of the database column | N/A (attribute label rendered in its place) |
| attributeLabel | The attribute label (the name of the field as displayed in the UI) | Plain text |
- modified
- Whether the field has been modified by the user.
- custom
- Whether the field has been created by the user.
- type
- The type of the column. This does not merely specify the canonical MySQL type, but is used for specifying advanced behaviors for the field. See Field Types for more information.
- required
- Specifies that the model attribute cannot be null or empty, if set to 1.
- readOnly
- Signifies that the model attribute cannot be modified through user input, if set to 1.
- linkType
- In the case that the field is being used as a link, keywords set in this field signify what type of link should be generated in output.
- searchable
- If set to 1, the field's contents are included in global searches through records.
- relevance
- An integer value used for sorting search results.
- isVirtual
- If set to 1, the field does not actually correspond to a database column; rather, it is an ephemeral attribute of the model that is used for passing data from the view to the controller and vice-versa. For instance, it would be used in the case of input that needs to be collected as part of the model (initially) so that it can be put through input validation.
Field Types
The type of a field as set in x2_fields.type, as mentioned before, is not necessarily a canonical MySQL data type, but rather could be a keyword for specifying how the attribute is to be treated and rendered. For example, when rendering an attribute, X2Model and its subclasses use X2Model::renderAttribute(), wherein a case statement is used to distinguish between field types and choose a method of displaying the field.
| Type keyword | Canonical type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| assignment | VARCHAR | The attribute is rendered as a link using User::getUserLinks. The input field for it is a dropdown list of users and groups. |
| boolean | TINYINT | Self-explanatory; true or false. |
| currency | FLOAT | A currency value. Setting a field to this type enables printing currency symbols by values. |
| date | INT | Date, as a Unix timestamp. Using this type for an integer field ensures it will effectively be treated as a Unix timestamps and converted to a full date when rendered. |
| dropdown | VARCHAR | Specifies the ID of a list of items stored in x2_dropdowns to use as the permissible values for the field. |
| VARCHAR | Specifies that the contents are formatted like (and correspond to an actual) email address. | |
| int | INT | Self-explanatory |
| link | VARCHAR | If the field content is an integer, this field specifies another record that it is linked to / associated with (and the model is specified by linkType), and thus the rendered field will be a link to the view of that record. If it is text, it is treated as a URL and simply rendered. |
| phone | VARCHAR | Field is a phone number and should be treated/formatted as such when formatting for output. |
| rating | FLOAT | The CStarRating widget should be used to format this field in output. |
| text | TEXT,VARCHAR | Distinct from VARCHAR in that links within the field's data are automatically transformed using x2base::convertUrls(). |
| url | VARCHAR | Field is a URL |
| varchar | VARCHAR | Self-explanatory. |
| visibility | INT | If 1, the record's contents are public. If 0, it is private. If 2, the record is visible only to the user's groups. |
Setting automatic record links in child classes
Relevant documentation: Component Behavior, CModel::behaviors()
In cases where link and linkType are used, X2LinkableBehavior comes into play; X2Model inherits the behaviors and attributes from that class, since it is attached as a behavior. The method getLink is used for generating controller routes. In this method, it is assumed that the model has the same name as the controller/module. Thus, for every module/controller, the models used by them have the same names, with few exceptions. Thus, this should typically be taken care of already. However, in the case of any new model that is a child class of X2Model, for which the class does not or cannot follow these naming conventions (i.e. a second model inside of a module that needs to use the fields table), the following steps will be necessary:
- Override the behaviors() method so that the subclass does not have X2LinkableBehavior; have it return an empty array or an array with other desired behaviors
- Manually set the following attributes:
- baseRoute
- The route prior to any actions; may contain a module and/or a controller ID.
- viewRoute
- The route (before adding the ID as a GET parameter) used for viewing records.
- autoCompleteSource
- The route that will be used for querying auto-complete results for use in auto-completion fields.
- Create a getLink method in the child class that generates the actual link markup.
(Note: the attributes baseRoute, viewRoute and autoCompleteSource essentially tie the model to a "part" of the web application distinguished by its URL, thus allowing the application to generate URLs for usage of it.)
