In one of my CRUDs show page, I have a simple button
<td> {!! link_to_route('', 'Generate PDF', array($project->id), array('class' => 'btn btn-info')) !!}</td>
Ignore the link to route for now, that will probably change. Anyway, when they click the button, I want to take the information from that CRUD and generate a PDF from it.
So I am going to be using TCPDF. Initially, I want to create a base class and set out some standards for the PDF. To do this, I will extend TCPDF
abstract class Document extends \TCPDF
So when I create this class, where should it be placed within my Laravel structure? Should it be in the HTTP folder, Providers etc. Where do generic classes like this generally get placed?
Secondly, how far do I need to go for this button? By this I mean I will probably have to create a route for it, and then have something implement the Document class. Is there a need for a Model?
So far, a lot of what I have done has been very CRUD based, so its all in the MVC structure. But for a simple button which generates a PDF, I was just wondering what the best practice was.
What I usually do for code like this is create a directory like app/Libraries. Then I place my class inside that directory with a namespace of App\Libraries.
To use the library, reference it like this: $lib = new \App\Libraries\MyClass();
Related
I am using EditorTemplates to style all my input fields. Works like a charm, however now I want two themes of EditorTemplates, one for normal forms, and then one for my wizard forms.
I am already using an overloaded Html.BeginWizardForm() around those Html.EditorFor - but how do I make the MVC logic react on being inside Html.BeginWizardForm() ?
EditorTemplates are designed to be somewhat global. You can override them, though, just like any other view, because they are just views. For example, assuming you have something like Views\Shared\EditorTemplates\String.cshtml, you can then create a another view at Views\Foo\EditorTemplates\String.cshtml, and for any action called from FooController, the latter editor template will be used instead of the one from Shared. You might be able to make this work in your scenario if the wizard form is used in a specific controller or area context.
Short of that, though, there's no way to have this occur automatically. Some manual options still exist, though.
You can decorate the properties of the view model used within the context of the wizard with UIHint attributes. For example, assuming the same shared editor template above, you could do something like:
[UIHint("WizardString")]
public string Foo { get; set; }
That would cause it to look for Views\Shared\EditorTemplates\WizardString.cshtml instead.
You can pass the editor template to use in the call to EditorFor:
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Foo, "WizardString")
All that said, the biggest problem here is that you seem to be violating a pretty core principal of good web design. HTML is about structure, not presentation. CSS is for presentation. As a result, if you want something to look different in a certain context, the correct approach is to apply different CSS. If things are designed well, your HTML shouldn't really have to change.
It seems is as stated by Chris Pratt not possible to have multiple EditorTemplates.
I however found a workaround by extending the MvcForm and created a WizardForm which adds a value to the ViewContext (in my case "wizardContext" => true) and on disposing setting wizardContext => false.
This allows me in the EditorTemplates to add a check for if I am inside or outside the wizardContext, which will propagate through the nested EditorFor, and in this way allow me to have different themes, without having to be specific in EditorFor.
I am currently working on integrating HTML cuts into Magento's template, however, I am just a little stumped on the structure of Magento itself. I want to list all of the categories inside a custom template in the 'navigation/left'.phtml file. The following accepted answer Magento: Display sub-category list seems to do what I need to do, however,I don't feel comfortable in calling a model inside of a view files as in MVC, which the accepted answer has done.
Is there a better way of putting this in another section of Magento, or perhaps a custom block which extends the Block_Catalog_Product_List class would be a better way of retrieving the categories?
Thanks
The simplest way to do it is to create a module with a helper inside it, that returns the data you need. Then in the template file call this:
$data = Mage::helper('myhelper')->getCategoryList();
//do your magic with $data
There is no point in overriding blocks unless there is no other solution.
I am trying to inject content into the comment_template() similiar to how you can with comment_form().
For example:
<?php
$args = array("comment_notes_before" => myrp_api_ratings_form_table(null, true));
comment_form($args);
?>
This will make it so what is returned from the myrp_api_ratings_form_table function will appear before the comment form instead of after the submit button.
Is there any way to do something similiar but using the comment_template() function? I tried looking at the codex with no luck. Also, is there any good links to modifying the output of comment_template() any further?
Thank you
There is a lot of actions and filters that is available on the comment_template, you can use them to modify the template, or just build your own template. Here's a list of all the filters and actions available:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference#Comment.2C_Trackback.2C_and_Ping_Filters
EDIT:
This thou only changes the data of each comment. If you want to change the display, and structure of the real template, I guess you have to create your own template. But it's not as hard as it sounds, there is a great guide in the codex with some nice examples: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_list_comments
I currently have:
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.PurchasePrice)
I would like to split this into 2 separate fields separated by a decimal (for price input obviously). But if I do that using basic text boxes I will loose the ability to take advantage of ASP.NET's validation.
Is there a way to do this, in Razor or by using attributes, so that I am able to keep the JS and server-side validation against my Entity model?
I can easily do it somewhere else by creating my own functions within the viewmodel, but I'm new to MVC3 and not entirely sure if that would be the best route or there is a simpler method.
Edit:
This is kind of the direction I am thinking, I do not fully understand how this works.
I set 2 fields, 1 as ppDollar and 1 as ppCents. In the controller I have:
modelname.PurchasePrice = Request["ppDollar"] + Request["ppCent"];
But, I can look at that and tell that's not going to work. So, I guess the question really is how is user input validated against the entity model and how can I better take advantage of the built in functionality?
You can create custom editors for particular types that are rendered by EditorFor. You can find a lot of examples of how to do this online, most of them focusing on a custom DateTime editor but the same idea applies to any type. Just one example from a quick search:
http://buildstarted.com/2010/09/10/overriding-displayfor-and-editorfor-to-create-custom-outputs-for-mvc/
In short, the process is:
Create a partial view template, placed in the Views\Shared\EditorTemplates folder, with the same name as the type (e.g. Decimal.cshtml).
The view should use, as its model, the type you want to display: #inherits System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage<System.Decimal>
Make the view display whatever you want, using some field naming convention or whatever.
You can also pass HTML attributes via the appropriate EditorFor overload, referenced in your template through the ViewData.ModelMetadata.AdditionalValues property.
One thing to note: once you define an editor template it will be used for every call to EditorFor. You can scope them to a specific controller by moving the EditorTemplates folder into the appropriate view subfolder instead of the shared one.
I am writing a helper class to query my Zenfolio feed, return and display the images. Right now this code is split between a viewmodel and code in my controller. I want to pack it up into a helper class. Would all the code go into the helper or do i still split the code among different class with the helper only responible for generating the html? I have googled but not found an answer to my question.
Within the MVC pattern there is a clear separation between Model (data), View (html) and Controller (what gives the Model to the View).
To answer your question, No. Load your models in your Controller. Display them in your View. Html Helpers should only generate html for your view.
You may want to consider using a DisplayTemplate, which allows you use the same View template for every model of a particular type.
I wouldn't do any data access from the view. This sounds like a good use case for an action, and reusing code via the RenderAction method. You can mark the action as a child action using the [ChildActionOnly] attribute, which ensures it can't be invoked directly from the HTTP request, and return a PartialView result.
HTML helpers should really be used to generate HTML tags from data taken from the ViewData or Model (i.e. your view model in this case).
Data access in an HtmlHelper is only pain.
I've had the misfortune to inherit a project that had ad-hoc SQL placed into the HtmlHelpers by the 2nd developer on a project. The HtmlHelpers were beautifully written by the first developer, and the ad-hoc SQL pretty much nullified all of the time and effort put into having an service oriented architecture, having an ORM (the 2nd level cache became worthless), the unit of work pattern(transactions, worthless), and every aspect of design. Eventually, this 2nd developer had to make larger and larger HtmlHelpers so that different elements could share access to the data.
This was originally done for a display mode, and editing was accomplished through a pile of ugly custom javascript. All told, when the page rendered, it made 600 synchronous calls to the database.