Automagically populate DB fields (like created, modified do)

Question

In CakePHP if you add created or modified fields to any DB table, then when data is saved or updated it inserts the DATETIME into the fields respectively.

I want to add to this.

I have a function in core.php (app/config/core.php) called isCheap() and can be called anywhere. This function returns either TRUE or FALSE.

I want to extend MODEL so that if any table has an is_cheap TINYINT(1) field it automatically get saved to the value of isCheap().

I looked at the file cake/libs/model/model.php and in the save() function there are many references to created, modified, updated. I am pretty sure this is where it does its magic but the function has a lot going on in it, and I am not sure how I could extend it to add my behavior?

Chuck Burgess · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-02 17:44:22Z

3

You shouldn't modify the core. Instead, just add a beforeSave callback to app_model.php in the application. All models inherit from this class.

It would look something like this:

function beforeSave() {
    if(isset($this->_schema['is_cheap'])) {
        // your update here
    }
    return true;
}

answered May 2, 2011 at 17:44

Chuck Burgess

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JD Isaacks · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-02 18:15:16Z

0

cdburgess's answer is what led me to my fix. For completness I want to add here exactly what I did.

I created the file /app/app_model.php with this as the contents:

class AppModel extends Model 
{
    function beforeSave()
    {
        if(isset($this->_schema['is_cheap'])) {
            $this->data[$this->alias]['is_cheap'] = isCheap() ? 1 : 0;
        }

        return true;
    }
}

I added the ? 1 : 0; becuase I am not sure if the TRUE/FALSE will automatically be converted to integers.

Works great, thanks cdburgess.

answered May 2, 2011 at 18:15

JD Isaacks

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1 Comment

Chuck Burgess Over a year ago

Glad to help. I am glad to see that it worked as you would expect too. ;)

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