CodeIgniter My Model

This model extension provides easy database access function for your models. It contains CRUD methods as well as before/after callbacks.

Installation

Place MY_Model.php into the application/core folder (or use spark). Make sure your models extend MY_Model and you are ready to go!

Usage

Create a new model class with an appropriate name, that extends MY_Model. You are advised to fill in the following attributes:

class Book_model extends MY_Model {

    protected $table = "books";
    protected $primary_key = "id";
    protected $fields = array("id", "author", "title", "published", "created_at");

}

• $table: the name of the database table, if not set it will try to guess the table from the model's name: Book_model -> books
• $primary_key: the name of the primary key of your database, set to 'id' by default
• $fields: you table's fields, if not set 1 extra query will be performed to get these automatically. These are used to filter arrays before inserting and updating

Methods

• get($id): get the record matching this id (or other primary key)
• get($key, $value): get the record matching these where parameters
• get_all(): get all records
• get_many($key, $value): get the records matching these where parameters
• count_all_results($key, $value): count all records matching these where parameters
• insert($data): insert a new record
• update($id, $data): update a record matching this id (or other primary key)
• delete($id): delete the record matching this id (or other primary key)
• dropdown($key, $value): creates a dropdown-friendly array based on the key/value
• skip_validation(TRUE): skip validation

Some active record methods are also available, these can be used without the database table parameter:

• count_all(): count all records
• list_fields(): returns an array containing all database table fields

All other active records are also available, these are immediately passed to the database class. This allows you to use chaining:

$books = $this->book_model->order_by("author", "desc")->limit(50, 0)->get_many();

Callbacks

Callbacks are functions that are activated on specific occasions that allows you to hook custom logic into the CRUD process. This is a list of the available callback points:

• $before_create
• $after_create
• $before_update
• $after_update
• $before_get
• $after_get
• $before_delete
• $after_delete

Example usage, add a timestamp whenever a book is created:

class Book_model extends MY_Model {
    public $before_create = array('timestamps');

    function timestamps($book) {
        $book['created_at'] = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        return $book;
    }
}

Validation

This models provides a wrapper for CodeIgniter's form validation, it will check all declared rules before inserting or updating. To add rules, add them to the $this->validate array, like this:

$this->validate[] = array(
                         'field'   => 'username',
                         'label'   => 'Username',
                         'rules'   => 'required'
                      );

You can find more information about these rules here: http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html

You can bypass the validation by calling skip_validation() before an insert or update.

Contributors

This model is based on Jamie Rumbelow's base model: https://github.com/jamierumbelow/codeigniter-base-model