Model (abstract)

Overview:

Model is the base ORM class. It composes Persistence and Relation to provide active-record style behavior.

Use Model to represent persisted entities with active-record style querying, saving, and relation export.

Key behavior:

• Uses table and primary key from Persistence options.
• Supports exporting with relations without infinite recursion.

Public API:

• Model::where($where_sql = false, $params = [], $flush = false) returns instances matching criteria.
• Model::count($where_sql = false, $params = []) returns count.
• Model::all($page = 1, $limit = -1) returns all or a page.
• Model::create($data) creates and saves a new instance.
• Model::load($pk) loads a record by primary key (from Persistence).
• Model::save() persists the instance.
• Model::export($transformer = null, $disabled_relations = []) exports to array.
• Model::primaryKey() returns primary key value.
• Model::schema() returns schema descriptors for the model table.
• Model::fields() returns column names for the model table.
• Model::snapshotFields($models = []) returns deterministic model field snapshots.

Example:

class User extends Model { public $id, $name; }
$user = User::create(['name' => 'Ada']);

The Model class allow you to map database table to an object entity.

Create model

---

class User extends Model {
  // Define the target database table and primary key,
  // 'id' is the default.
  const _PRIMARY_KEY_ = "users.id"

  public $id,
         $email,
         $name;
}

Retrieve all records

---

$users = User::all();

The all method accept pagination arguments

// Return page 2 with limit 20
$users = User::all(2, 20);

Perform where clause

---

The where method specifies the WHERE fragment of a SQL query.

// Return all users with gmail's email
$users = User::where("email LIKE '%@gmail.com'");

Create new record

---

A new model can be created via the ModelName::create factory method.

$mario = User::create([
  "name"  => "Mario",
  "email" => "mario.rossi@gmail.com"
]);

The resulting object implements an ActiveRecord pattern for accessing/modifying the model properties.

$mario->name = "Mario De Mario";
$mario->save();