F0F NNRelation

FOF NNRelation add support to many-to-many relations into FOF (Framework on Framework). In truth it's for FOF! It consist in a set of one F0FTableBehavior, one F0FModelBehavior and one F0FFormField. Add all these magic classes to get ready to use multiple relations (with pivot tables) in your F0F projects, with ease!

Requirements

1. Joomla 3.x (it should works also with 2.5.x)
2. FOF 2.3.x or greater (download Framework on Framework

Preparation

1. Install lib_f0f-nnrelation-1.0.0.tgz library extension
2. Create a dispatcher.php file for your FOF component
3. Override the method onBeforeDispatch
4. Before calling parent::onBeforeDispatch include f0f-nnrelation in this way:

class FoobarDispatcher extends F0FDispatcher
{
  public function onBeforeDispatch()
  {
    // Add multiple to multiple relations support
    jimport('f0f-nnrelation.fields.nnrelation');
    jimport('f0f-nnrelation.fields.header.nnrelation');
    jimport('f0f-nnrelation.models.nnrelation');
    jimport('f0f-nnrelation.tables.nnrelation');
    
    return parent::onBeforeDispatch();
  }
}

Usage

Table Behavior

In your form.form.xml files you can use a new type of field called nnrelation.

<field name="players"
       type="nnrelation"
       multiple="true"
       label="COM_FOOBAR_FIELD_PLAYERS_LABEL"
       tooltip="COM_FOOBAR_FIELD_PLAYERS_DESCRIPTION"/>

The name attribute must be the same of the name of the multiple relation you declared in the fof.xml file. In the exemple above, the multiple relation I want to manage is declared in this way:

<table name="team">
  <relation name="players"
            type="multiple"
            pivotTable="#__foobar_players_teams"/>
  <behaviors>nnrelation</behaviors>
</table>

As you see, you must enable the specific FOF behavior for the table in which you want to use the multiple relation. In this example, the multiple relation will be automagically managed for all team items that want to trace their players. If you want to do viceversa, you have to declare the contrary teams relation for the player table, and enabling the behavior there. The names respects the standard FOF singular/plural conventions.

Model Behavior

In the front-end of your component you want to retrieve your multiple relations with ease. For this purpose you can enable the nnrelation behavior for a view, and if here there is a multiple relation declared, all related items will be automagically retrieved.

<view name="teams">
  <config>
    <option name="behaviors">nnrelation</option>
  </config>
</view>

Now in your list views, the $this->items data object will contains a property named as the relation. Instead, you will have $this->item in a item view.

stdClass Object
(
  [title] => Foobar Team
  [players] => stdClass Object
    (
      [0] => Array
        (
          [title] => John
          [...] => ...
        )
      [2] => ...
    )
)

Form Field

In your form.default.xml files you can use a new type of field called nnrelation.

<field name="players"
       type="nnrelation"
       empty_replacement="COM_FOOBAR_NO_PLAYERS_LABEL"
       url="index.php?option=com_foobar&amp;view=player&amp;id=[ITEM:FOOBAR_PLAYER_ID]"
       show_link="true"/>

Also in this case, the name of the field should reflect the name of the multiple relation declared in fof.xml. The other attribures are inherited from the list form type (see FOF documentation). The placeholder [ITEM:FOOBAR_PLAYER_ID] is the name of the key value for your referred table, in the pivot table.

Form Header

Coming Soon...