users want to see some reports from stored data in the db
for example:
all sales in a time interval (user submits a just a time interval),
all the sales in the selected city in a time interval (same with above but this time extra city select dropdown),
top selling 20 shops (another report , no form submission and different db tables involved ),
etc
My problem is
how can i accomplish these task without writing a separate model, controller and view for each report
or
each report has a method in a single controller and model and two views (one for form submission 1 for results).
i must tell my background is procedural programming and i am confused. everything seems like writing basic "switch case" in a really complicated way.
thank you.
This depends on how you structure your db. Although having lots of models might seem like overkill I would suggest that if you approach it in the right way you will find it makes your life easier. For example you could have a model that deals with sales. Within that model there could be a function to retrieve all sales by date or time. This function could have an optional parameter to allow you to filter by city. You might then have another function in the same model to retrieve the top 20.
From the controller you would have one function. This would be one big if statement based on whether or not the user had submitted the form. If not then display the form view (it is best to have separate views for specific things or at least fragments of views). If data has been submitted then simply test the data to find out which report is required, query the relevant method in your model and send the results to another results view.
This way, one controller, one model, 2 views ( or more if you're using a template kind of thing).
I deliberately haven't written the code for you, but I hope this points you in the right direction. Please comment if ive misunderstood the question or you need clarification.
Related
I'm creating a web app for my client as a part of my schools final project.
It's a web app where users fill forms (surveys) and after forms are submitted,
values are saved in the database.
There are three types of users: admins, moderators and viewers. Admin's can see the
overview of filled forms, moderators will fill these forms and they also can make edits
to them and get the overview of the forms they've filled. We haven't discussed about the rights of viewers
at this point.
I'm using CodeIgniter as a framework of my project since it comes pretty handy when it comes to database
manipulation and forms. What would be the best way to implement this kind of situation? There are apprx.
4-5 forms (surveys) each moderator will fill. After they've filled them, they only can make edits to that particular form.
So one user can fill each form only once.
I've designed that each of the forms needs one table. So if there is a form (survey) about IT equipment, I will create
a table for IT equipment. User's id number will be saved in to the last column in the table, usually called "user_ID" where I can
make queries based on users and check if user is already filled the particular form.
What about controllers and models? I've thought I could only make one model for inserting and editing the form.
However, is it pretty much the only way to create a controller or method foreach form since there are different types
of form fields to validate based on the form user is actually filling. I've already created a controller for inserting and updating
the IT equipment form and both of these methods are pretty big when it comes to the amount of code, over 200 lines per method.
So that would be a total amount of 2000 lines of code just for inserting and editing all the forms.
What'd you do and how you'd implement this if dealing with similiar kind of project?
Thanks in advance for all the ideas and point of views!
You should take a look into this:
http://cibonfire.com/
It's a really good addon for codeigniter, that allows you to data oriented development.
If making things work is only requirement, we can put all controlling login and DB handling logic even in the views & it will work. However this is not a right approach for reusable design.
Before I ask my real design question, below is my current understanding about separation of responsibilities in terms of model.
All Database related code, even db related logic, should go in models.
For a table, say 'my_tab', propel generate 4 classes, out of which only 2 classes 'MyTab.php' and 'MyTabPeer.php' should be edited.
MyTabPeer.php must only have data fetching.
Any logic, if required to fetch data, should go in 'MyTab.php'
This is simple and I hope it is correct, if not, please correct me.
Now, I have a special condition. I've 4 tables, say a, b, c, d. For that, propel generated 8 editable classes (excluding base*.php)
A.php APeer.php B.php BPeer.php
C.php CPeer.php D.php DPeer.php
One page of my application, shows Mailbox (say). Mailbox is not a table in database but it gets its data from complex join query between above 4 tables along with lot of calculation/conditions.
I generated that query, fetch data from it and displayed it. Mailbox is running as expected. However I did it in my controller (action class), which I know is not a right place for that.
My question is, where should I put that code? Possible options:
Controller, I think, is not a right place for DB logic/fetch.
I've 8 model classed however data do not belong to any one of them but as combination of them all.
A separate helper/lib, but I know I'll never reuse that code as its unique page of the site.
Anywhere else?
Please suggest if I'm wrong but I guess I should put it in models as it is fetching data. Since A is primary table, I probably should put code in A.php and APeer.php. If that is correct place, next question is, What should go in A.php & what should go in APeer.php? I've following operations to do:
Some logic to decide what columns, should I select.
As like mailbox, I can show received/sent message. Controller will tell what to show but there are some db logic to set conditions.
Then really fetch data from complex Join query.
Returned data will have all rows but I might need to merge few rows conditionally.
As per my understanding, Point 3 should go in APeer.php and rest in A.php. Is my understanding correct?
You should create separate model class i.e. Mailbox.
Method of this model should do the complex select and return data to your action in controller. This solution will not break MVC approach.
I'm an old CFML developer, new to CF on Wheels and MVC programming in general. I'm picking it up pretty quickly, but one thing that isn't evident to me is how one can offer a form to optionally update multiple db table records (models). I'd specifically like to set up a tabbed form for User info and User Profile info, where the former is required and the latter is not. This data is stored in two different one-to-one tables. What's the setup I need in order to call two "new" or "edit" views, run 2 "create" or "update" procedures, affecting two different tables. Or am I thinking about this all wrong.
Update: Adding some more info on what I'm trying to do. To keep it simple, I'll stick to 2 tabs and 2 tables, though I'm really looking at at least 3 in this instance.
So I've got a Users table and a UserProfiles table, and I've got models named User.cfc and UserProfile.cfc that are related 1-to-1, with UserProfile dependent on User. Pretty standard stuff. For each I've got controllers: Users.cfc and UserProfiles.cfc, each of those containing actions. add, edit, create, update, doing the obvious stuff (add and edit display forms). I have partials that display the add/edit form fields for each, so that's already prepared. Now, I want to create what is effectively a single add/edit form that can update both tables at the same time. The tabs don't really matter; effectively it could all be on one page.
So conceptually I'm doing something like:
#startFormTag(action=???)#
#includePartial("form_user_add-edit")#
#includePartial("form_userprofile_add-edit")#
<button type="submit" class="btn">#operation#</button>
#endFormTag()#
Do I need to create a separate controller action that basically combines the create and update actions for two different controllers?
Thanks in advance from a pleased and eager CFWheels newbie...
Brian
If all of the data is related through hasMany or hasOne associations, I'd recommend looking at nested properties.
http://cfwheels.org/docs/1-1/chapter/nested-properties
If you're a newbie though, you may want to refrain from this until you've got something simpler worked out.
I guess you are talking about two models representing these two tables, possibly associated using hasOne. Models allow you to validate data, this makes controller much simpler. This way you could create two forms under two tabs, and keep record's primary key as hidden field. Controller could run the validation and re-display the forms (partials may help)... Hold on, I am just going through the reference.
I realize this answer is pretty generic, as well as your question. I suggest you to go ahead and try something, see how it works.
After that update your question with code samples and ask if you have some specific problems. For example, validation and displaying errors in CFWheels may be a bit tricky.
How should one structure validation, preparation and arrangement (etc) of data before dealing with the DB?
The data I expect to be passed might need to be validated (ex: category books actually exists) or contain conditional values (ex: sale price should only be set if ad = sale) or values that must be converted to ids (ex: category books must be converted to category_id 123).
I imagine that there are numerous ways to go about this like clumping everything together, grouping by field (do validation, prep etc together per field) or separating by action (validation, prep, etc) and field.
Are there any concepts when it comes to this topic just like the concept of MVC exists? Achieving flexibility, ease of maintenance or something like that?
Anything relating to common used components of model?
(I'm not sure if it helps but I'm currently using CodeIgniter / PHP)
In codeigniter, you can use the Form_Validation class with a callback method that you create. http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html#callbacks.
In your callback method you can check to see if things exist in database, etc.
I have having a little trouble wrapping my head around the design pattern for MVC when the data type of the model property is very different than what I wish to display in a form. I am unsure of where the logic should go.
Realizing that I am not really sure how to ask the question I think I will explain it as a concrete example.
I have a table of Invoices with a second table containing the InvoiceDetails. Each of the InvoiceDetail items has an owner who is responsible for approving the charge. A given invoice has one or more people that will eventually sign off on all the detail rows so the invoice can be approved. The website is being built to provide the approval functionality.
In the database I am storing the employee id of the person who approved the line item. This schema provides me a model with a String property for the Approved column.
However, on the website I wish to provide a CheckBox for the employee to click to indicate they approve the line item.
I guess my question is this -- how do I handle this? The Model being passed to the View has a String property but the form value being passed back to the Controller will be of the CheckBox type. I see two possible ways...
1) Create a new Model object to represent the form fields...say something like FormInvoiceDetails...and have the business logic query the database and then convert the results to the other type. Then after being submitted, the form values need to be converted back so the original Model objects can be updated.
2) Pass the original InvoiceDetails collection to the View and have code there create render the CheckBox based on the value of the String property. I am still not sure how to handle the submission since I still need to map back the form values to the underlying database object.
Maybe there is a third way if not one of these two approaches?
To make the situation a bit more complicated (or maybe it doesn't), I am rendering the form to allow for the editing of multiple rows (i.e. collection).
Thanks for any insight anybody can provide.
You need a ViewModel, like #Justn Niessner suggests.
Your controller loads the complete model from the database, copies just the fields it needs into a ViewModel, and then hands the ViewModel off to the view for rendering.
I'd use Automapper to do the conversion from Model to ViewModel. It automates all the tedious thingA.x = thingY.x; code.
Here is an additional blog post going over in detail the use of ViewModels in the Nerd Dinner sample.
I believe what you are looking for is the ViewModel.
In cases where you are using a ViewModel, you design the ViewModel to match the exact data you need to show on your page.
You then use your Controller to populate and map your data from your Model in to your ViewModel and back again.
The Nerd Dinner ASP.NET MVC Example has some very good examples of using ViewModels.