kanshin / CakeEntity

CakePHP model extension. With this plugin, your data is no longer just an array of data, but the real object. Works with CakePHP 1.3

What is CakeEntity?

• find() now returns array of objects instead of array of arrays.
• Plugin for CakePHP
• 100% compatible with the standard Model.
• Open source. Available in GitHub. MIT Lisense.
• CakePHP 1.3, PHP 5.2 >

https://github.com/kanshin/CakeEntity

Installation

Clone in plugin directory with name entity:

git clone git://github.com/kanshin/CakeEntity.git plugins/entity

Or download an archive and extract in plugins/entity.

How to use

CakeEntity don't change anything with just the installation. You have to enables the functionality by indicating to use it. This is for compati- bility reason.

Use EntityModel as the super class of models where you want to activate.

App::import('Model', 'Entity.EntityModel');

class Post extends EntityModel {
    ...

Then in the options of the find, specify entity => true:

$entity = $this->Post->find('all', array(
    'conditions' => ...
    'order' => ...
    'entity' => true, 
));

Now the $result includes the array of objects (entities).

Entity class

Entity class is the default class used as the result of objects. If there is a class with the model's name + 'Entity', that class is uses instead. (i.e. For model "Post", the class "PostEntity" is used)

Array access for Entity object

Entity's property can be accessed using array syntax.

echo $post['title']; // == $post->title

Array access is vest suited with using with Smarty.

Hello, my name is {$post.author.name|h}.

Also array access introduces two important feature:

• access controll for security.
• cache for performance.

For more information

Introducing CakeEntity (PHP study in Tokyo 10/1/2011)