Base Model

The Base Model provides simple functions to interface with the database. To provide this functionality it depends on other components and libraries that are either the part of the core, or installed along with the component or its subcomponent.

Using the Base Model

To use the Base Model, write your Model class and extend it from \SlaxWeb\Database\BaseModel:

<?php
namespace App\Model;

class MyModel extends \SlaxWeb\Database\BaseModel
{
}

The Base Model requires the following objects at construction time in that order:

The Database Library is available as a service under the name databaseLibrary.service in the Application object, to obtain other objects, please refer to their own documentations.

Using the loader

To make loading of models as simple as possible, a model loader is provided with the database component. The loader is available as a service, and can be obtained with the name loadDBModel.service. The loader service is called as a function as it requires the name of the model as input:

<?php
// ... Route definition:
$application["loadDBModel.service"]("MyModel");

The loader will obtain all required dependencies and automatically inject them into the model supplied as the first argument in the loader call as presented above.

Customizing the __constructor is therefore not recommended, if you require any custom initialisation, then you can implement an init method in your model. Any further parameters you supply while calling the loader, will be injected into the init method call.

Setting the table name

A model should access only a single table in the database, and thus it should be written for only that table. You can set the table name which the model accesses with the $table class property.

If the autoTable configuration option is set to true in the database.php configuration file, then the Base Model will set the table name automatically by removing the namespace from the full class name, and using only the class name as the name of the table.

If the pluralizeTableName configuration option is set to true, then the class name will be pluralized.

Furthermore if the tableNameStyle configuration option is set to the correct value, the pluralized class name will be converted to that style. For more information please refer to the Table Name Style documentation.

Accessing the Database

The Base Model provides the Query builder methods to simplify query generation and execution, and to access the database this way. The Query Builder provides the create, update, delete, and select methods to create and execute queries, as well as methods to build simple or complicated where statements, join with other models, and much more. For more detail please refer to the Query builder documentation.

Executing queries

The Base Model also provides a way to access the database more directly, through the Database Library directly, and without the Query Builder. The Database Library is available in the Base Models $db protected property. For more detail on executing queries with the database component, refer to the Executing Queries documentation.

Callback hooks

The Base Model executes a number of callbacks through the Hooks system. Before a Base Model method is executed a so called before hook is executed, and after the method has finished executing an so called after hook is executed. By the default the Hook name is constructed of the word model, the base class name of the model, the type of callback, before or after, and the models method. Example:

<?php
namespace App\Model

class MyModel extends \SlaxWeb\Database\BaseModel
{
}

When calling the select method on the above model, the following hooks would be executed:

  • model.mymodel.before.select - Before the method is executed
  • model.mymodel.after.select - After the method finished execution

Note

The callbacks are executed only on the following functions: __construct (named init), create, select, update, and delete. Other methods like where etc. do not execute callbacks.

Custom model name

The second part of the full hook name is populated by the models base name, but it can be overridden. To replace the model name with a custom value, it needs to be set in the $hookName protected property of the model. Example:

<?php
namespace App\Model

class MyModel extends \SlaxWeb\Database\BaseModel
{
    protected $hookName = "overridenHook";
}

When calling the select method on the above model, the following hooks would be executed:

  • model.overridenHook.before.select - Before the method is executed
  • model.overridenHook.after.select - After the method finished execution