findBy() method should returns a new model if fails

Yii 1.1 General Discussion
1

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Hello

I’ve got a problem with implementing my idea into Yii application.

The idea is:

When I do a find


$shelf = Shelf::model()->with(array('books' => array('condition' => 'price=1')))->findByAttributes(array(

    'active' => '3',  

    'room' => $room

));

and there is an item which matches given parameters => it returns (of course) that item (model),

BUT when there isn’t such one => it should creates a new instance of model Shelf, fills it with some data (i.e. ‘active’ = 0 and so on…) and returns it!

I was planning to do it by afterFind method, but it seems that this method isn’t being called when a find ends with fail (null)

Of course I can do it roughly by:


if(!$shelf)

{

	$shelf=new Shelf();

	$shelf->active = 0;

	$shelf->books = Book:model()->findAllByAttributes(...);

	if(!count($shelf->books))

	{

		$shelf->books = array();

		$shelf->books[0] = Book();

		$shelf->books[0]->name = 'Example';

	}	

}

but it isn’t a nice solution…[/font]

Thanks so much for your help!

2

Why not just create a static method returning a new model with all filled data you need?




class Shelf extends CActiveRecord

{

    // ...


    public static function createNewShelf()

    {

        $shelf = new Shelf;

        // your code there...

        return $shelf;

    }







$shelf = Shelf::model()->with(array('books' => array('condition' => 'price=1')))->findByAttributes(array(

    'active' => '3',  

    'room' => $room

));

if ($shelf === null)

    $shelf = Shelf::createNewShelf();

But if you want all find methods to return you a new model, then take a look at the populateRecord() method. You can override it as follows:




public function populateRecord($attributes,$callAfterFind=true)

{

    $model = parent::populateRecord($attributes,$callAfterFind);

    if ($model === null)

    {

        $model = new Shelf;

        // your code there...

    }

    return $model

}
3

Thanks for your help, but it seems that populateRecord method is being called also only when findBy method returns with success.

I’ve added


    public function populateRecord($attributes,$callAfterFind=true)

    {

        $model = parent::populateRecord($attributes,$callAfterFind);

        if ($model === null)

        {

            die();

        }

        return $model;

    }

and it doesn’t die and findBy method returns no results (null).

4

And yes - I need it to be done with all calls of findBy method. And it’s a bit more complex, so I don’t want to use your first solution

I need to implement this functionality to at least two models, so for example:

when Shelf::findBy method returns null the script should do:


$shelf = new Shelf();

$shelf->books = Book::model()->findBy(...);

and Book:findBy may return null as well, so then it should do:


$book = new Book();

return $book

and this returned $book should be a value of $shelf->books

The idea of use populateRecord will be brilliant, if it is being called even when findBy returns fail, but it isn’t

However, thanks for your ideas.

5

Looks like populateRecord() isn’t called if with() is used, what’s a surprise for me :)

But you can still override 2 or 3 find methods you need.