Subclass Behavior
About Me
I'm currently working as a Software Engineer in a Web development company and I've started using CakePHP during my first month at job. I enjoyed using the framework primarily due to the RAD methods that it offers and also because of its flexibility. I've developed some Cake scripts including a component for validating uploaded files with virus-checking capabilities for one of our projects. After a few months of being a newbie baker, I've decided to give something back to the community by posting some of my discoveries and crafts and continuing to develop helpful scripts for the CakePHP framework.
BACKGROUND
The object-oriented programming paradigm provides the ability for new classes to inherit properties from another class. This concept became necessary for me since we had to design a database with different types of users. For example, a User which is a Buyer, or a User which is a Seller. Wait a minute: "is a"? For those developers familiar with database models, there is a relationship between tables known as the "ISA relationship" wherein a class can have specialization classes or, in OO terms, subclasses.
The original purpose of the Subclass Behavior is to provide a way for other models to inherit the associations present in another model. Let's say, a User hasOne Profile and hasMany Testimonials, then a Buyer actsAs a Subclass of User, then Buyer now also hasOne Profile and hasMany Testimonials. Sweet. =D
Oh well, to cut the long story short, here are the codes and some examples:
The SubclassBehavior class
Model Class:
<?php
/**
* The SubclassBehavior allows a model to act as a subclass of another model and
* allows the implementation of 'ISA' relationships in Entity-Relationship database models.
* Parameters are passed to this behavior class to define the parent model of the subclass
* This class was based on and inspired by Matthew Harris's ExtendableBehavior class
* which can be found at http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/extendablebehavior
*
* @author Eldon Bite <eldonbite@gmail.com>
* @license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php The MIT License
*/
class SubclassBehavior extends ModelBehavior {
/**
* The parent model being extended by the current model
*
* @var Object
*/
var $parentClass;
/**
* The name of the type column, default 'type'
*
* @var string
*/
var $typeField;
/**
* Alias for the subclass/type model
*
* @var string
*/
var $typeAlias;
/**
* Set up the behavior.
* Finds parent model and determines type field settings.
*/
function setup(&$model, $config = array()) {
$this->settings = am(array('typeField' => 'type', 'typeAlias' => $model->alias), $config);
$this->parentClass = $this->__getparentClass($this->settings['parentClass']);
$this->typeField = $this->settings['typeField'];
$this->typeAlias = $this->settings['typeAlias'];
// Bind model associations on the fly
foreach ($model->__associations as $assoc) {
foreach ($this->parentClass->$assoc as $key => $value) {
$model->bindModel(array($assoc => array($key)));
}
}
}
/**
* Filter query conditions with the correct `type' field condition.
*/
function beforeFind(&$model, $queryData)
{
if (array_key_exists($this->typeField, $model->_schema) && $model->alias != $this->parentClass->alias) {
if (!isset($queryData['conditions'])) {
$queryData['conditions'] = array();
}
if (is_string($queryData['conditions'])) {
if (strlen(trim($queryData['conditions']))) {
$queryData['conditions'] = "({$queryData['conditions']}) AND ";
}
$queryData['conditions'] .= $model->alias.'.'.$this->typeField.' = '.$this->typeAlias;
}
elseif (is_array($queryData['conditions'])) {
if (!isset($queryData['conditions'][$model->alias.'.'.$this->typeField])) {
$queryData['conditions'][$model->alias.'.'.$this->typeField] = array();
}
$queryData['conditions'][$model->alias.'.'.$this->typeField] = $this->typeAlias;
}
}
return $queryData;
}
/**
* Set the `type' field before saving the record.
*/
function beforeSave(&$model)
{
if (array_key_exists($this->typeField, $model->_schema) && $model->alias != $this->parentClass) {
if (!isset($model->data[$model->alias])) {
$model->data[$model->alias] = array();
}
$model->data[$model->alias][$this->typeField] = $model->alias;
}
return true;
}
/**
* Get the parent model of the subclass.
*
* @param string Parent model name
* @return object Parent model
*/
function __getparentClass($parentClass)
{
App::import('model', $parentClass);
return new $parentClass;
}
}
?>
Example parent model
Model Class:
<?php
class User extends AppModel {
var $name = 'User';
var $hasOne = 'Profile';
var $hasMany = array(
'Friend',
'Testimonial'
);
var $hasAndBelongsToMany = 'Category';
}
?>
Example model which uses the Subclass Behavior
Model Class:
<?php
class Jerk extends AppModel {
var $name = 'Jerk';
var $useTable = 'users';
var $hasMany = 'Girlfriend';
var $actsAs = array(
'Subclass' => array(
'parentClass' => 'User',
'typeAlias' => '1',
)
);
}
?>
CONFIGURATION
We still need to set the subclassing model's $useTable property to be the same as the one being used by its parent. The Subclass behavior accepts the following parameters:
- parentClass : the name of the model being subclassed
- typeField : the name of the type column; default 'type' (just like in ExtendableBehavior)
- typeAlias : an alias for the value stored in the database as the model's type (defaults to the model's alias)
LIMITATIONS
As of now, the model implementing the Subclass behavior cannot inherit user-defined functions from its parent model. Also, the subclass cannot inherit custom configurations from the associations in its parent (i.e. foreignKey is different from the default). I'll try adding them soon, or if anyone else does, feel free to do so. =)
FUTURE UPDATES
While progressing through our company's project, I realized something that I would like to add to this behavior class. I'd want to be able to assign a model as a subclass of another without regards to its subclass type. For example, a User has 2 types: a Buyer and a Seller. A User, whether it is a Buyer or a Seller, hasMany Messages and can receive messages from a Sender (also a model), which is also basically a User. Thus, the table `messages` has a column named `sender_id` to identify which User sent the message, whether he is a Buyer or a Seller. Quite difficult to explain but I think you get what I mean, LOL. Anyway, I'll try implementing it later. ;p
HAPPY BAKING! ;-)
What you have implemented so far is pretty much doing model inheritance in cakephp. Its funny after seeing your post i get excited and implemented InheritableBehaivor based on your work. which handles both Single-table inheritance and class-table inheritance. and remove some of the redundant code you have doing association loading..
Here is the code
https://trac.cakephp.org/attachment/ticket/1365/inheritable_behavior.zip?format=raw
Here is a related ticket
https://trac.cakephp.org/ticket/1365#comment:6
my bakery post is still pending for approval
class Seller extends User {
var $name = 'Seller';
}
?>[/model]
Should do the job.
I don't know why but I get errors like Fatal error: Class 'User' not found... whenever I attempt to extend a model from another through its model name like this:
Model Class:
<?php
class Seller extends User {
var $name = 'Seller';
}
?>
This is what actually prompted me to develop this Behavior class. Any suggestions please? They're more than welcome. =)