Solar Models vs. Zend Framework Models

Posted on Thu, 07 Jan, 2010 by pmjones

Today, Michelangelo van Dam posted this narrative relating his experience with Zend Framework models:

http://www.dragonbe.com/2010/01/zend-framework-data-models.html

I read the article, and wondered how hard it would be to replicate his narrative using the Solar Framework model system. Turns out it’s pretty easy: there’s a lot of work that Solar does for you.

  1. Download a Solar system, move it to your localhost directory and make sure that the tmp and sqlite directories are accessible to the web server.

    $ wget http://svn.solarphp.com/system/download/solar-system-1.0.0beta2.tgz
$ tar -zxf solar-system-1.0.0beta2.tgz
$ cp -r solar/* /var/www/htdocs # or your localhost directory
$ cd /var/www/htdocs         # or your localhost directory
$ chmod -R 777 tmp sqlite

  2. Create tables and data in sqlite/example.sq3. There are two changes from Michelangelo’s code: the table names are plural, and rename the column type_id to address_type_id. (These are easy enough to change in the model class definitions, but I’d like to minimize the amount of customization for this example.)

    CREATE TABLE "users" (
    "id" integer primary key autoincrement,
    "username" varchar(255) not null,
    "password" varchar(255) not null
);


CREATE TABLE "contacts" (
    "id" integer primary key autoincrement,
    "user_id" integer not null,
    "email" varchar(255) not null,
    "phone" varchar(255) null,
    "fax" varchar(255) null
);


CREATE TABLE "addresses" (
    "id" integer primary key autoincrement,
    "address_type_id" integer not null default 1,
    "user_id" integer not null,
    "address1" varchar(255) not null,
    "address2" varchar(255) null,
    "city" varchar(255) not null,
    "state" varchar(255) null,
    "zip" varchar(255) not null,
    "country" varchar(255) not null
);


CREATE TABLE "address_types" (
    "id" integer primary key autoincrement,
    "type" varchar(255) not null
);


-- Data for users table --
INSERT INTO "users" 
    VALUES (1, 'testuser1', 'test123');
INSERT INTO "users" 
    VALUES (2, 'testuser2', 'test234');


-- Data for contacts table --
INSERT INTO "contacts" 
    VALUES (1, 1, 'test1@example.com', '1-800-555-1234', '1-800-555-1230');
INSERT INTO "contacts" 
    VALUES (2, 2, 'test2@example.com', '1-800-555-2234', '1-800-555-2230');


-- Data for addresses table --
INSERT INTO "addresses"
    VALUES (1, 1, 1, '1 Test Home', '', 'Testtown', 'ZF', '1234', 'PHP');
INSERT INTO "addresses"
    VALUES (2, 1, 2, '2 Test Home', '', 'Testtown', 'ZF', '1234', 'PHP');
INSERT INTO "addresses"
    VALUES (3, 2, 2, 'Test Corp, LTD', '4 Test Ave', 'Testtown', 'ZF', '1234', 'PHP');


-- Data for address_types table --
INSERT INTO "address_types"
    VALUES (1, 'Home address');
INSERT INTO "address_types"
    VALUES (2, 'Billing address');

  3. Make sure the SQLite database is accessible to the web server.

    $ chmod 777 sqlite/example.sq3

  4. Make a vendor space for the controllers, models, suppory libraries, etc. For this example the vendor will be named Example.

    $ ./script/solar make-vendor Example

  5. Edit the system configuration in config.php. Change the front-controller class prefixes and model catalog class prefixes, and tell the SQLite adapter which file name to use.

    // front controller
$config['Solar_Controller_Front'] = array(
    'classes' = array('Example_App'),
    // ... the rest of the front-controller array ...
);


// model catalog
$config['Solar_Sql_Model_Catalog']['classes'] = 'Example_Model';


// add sqlite config
$config['Solar_Sql_Adapter_Sqlite'] = array(
    'name' => "$system/sqlite/example.sq3",
);

  6. Make the model classes. Note that this avoids a ton of effort that Zend Framework requires: Michelangelo had to hand-create table, model, and mapper classes for each of the following single-line commands.

    $ ./script/solar make-model Example_Model_Users
$ ./script/solar make-model Example_Model_Contacts
$ ./script/solar make-model Example_Model_Addresses
$ ./script/solar make-model Example_Model_AddressTypes

  7. Edit the model classes to express what the related models are:

    /** source/example/Example/Model/Users.php */
protected function _setup()
{
    // chain to parent
    parent::_setup();


    // relateds
    $this->_hasOne('contact');
    $this->_hasMany('addresses');
}


/** source/example/Example/Model/Contacts.php */
protected function _setup()
{
    // chain to parent
    parent::_setup();


    // relateds
    $this->_belongsTo('user');
}


/** source/example/Example/Model/AddressTypes.php */
protected function _setup()
{
    // chain to parent
    parent::_setup();


    // relateds
    $this->_hasMany('addresses');
}


/** source/example/Example/Model/Addresses.php */
protected function _setup()
{
    // chain to parent
    parent::_setup();


    // relateds
    $this->_belongsTo('address_type');
    $this->_belongsTo('user');
}

  8. Make a skeleton app (i.e., a controller with its associated actions and views):

    $ ./script/solar make-app Example_App_Accounts

  9. Edit the controller action to fetch user account data: 

    /** source/example/Example/App/Accounts.php */
public $list;
public function actionIndex()
{
    // get a model catalog
    $model = Solar_Registry::get('model_catalog');


    // populate $this->list with all users.
    // eager-fetch the contact record and addresses collection.
    $this->list = $model->users->fetchAll(array(
        'eager' => array(
            'contact',
            'addresses',
        ),
    ));
}

  10. Edit the view for the index action. This could be a view and a partial, but let’s keep it straightforward for now.

    /** source/example/Example/App/Accounts/View/index.php */
<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Username</th>
        <th>E-Mail</th>
        <th>Phone</th>
        <th>Fax</th>
        <th># addresses</th>
    </tr>


    <?php foreach ($this->list as $user): ?>


    <tr>
        <td><?php echo $this->escape($user->username); ?></td>
        <td><?php echo $this->escape($user->contact->email); ?></td>
        <td><?php echo $this->escape($user->contact->phone); ?></td>
        <td><?php echo $this->escape($user->contact->fax); ?></td>
        <td><?php echo count($user->addresses); ?></td>
    </tr>


    <?php endforeach; ?>


</table>

You’re done. Browse to http://localhost/index.php/accounts/index to see the results of your handiwork.

Total elapsed time from when I read Michelangelo’s article to come up with the Solar conversion and write this article: under two hours.

Solar makes model creation and interaction very easy and very powerful. Maybe your next project should use Solar instead of Zend Framework?

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