How to easily duplicate Active Record rows

Archives Yii 1.0.x Discussions
1

Hi guys,

What is the easiest way to duplicate an AR instance? Cloning it with PHP, removing the PK ID and calling save()? Could that perhaps become an AR method?

Cheers

Cass

2

Are you trying to insert new records? If so, you just need to set isNewRecord to true each time after you save a record.

1 Like
3

Hi Qiang,

No, I am trying to duplicate a record, changing the PK ID.

I created a duplicate() method to AR. How do I send it for your analysis?

Cheers

Cass

4

Could you paste it here?

5

There you go:

/**


 * Duplicates the current record.


 * A copy of the record is inserted as another row after its PK having been reset


 * Unique fields need to be informed as parameters in order to append some


 * text to them thus avoiding the constraint.


 *


 * Example:


 *


 *  Create an action in your controller as follows:


 *


 *	public function actionDuplicate()


 *	{


 *


 *	   $property=Property::model()->findByPk($_GET["id"]);


 *


 *     $property->duplicate(array("title"));


 *


 *	   $this->redirect(array('admin'));


 * 	 }


 *


 * @param array of field names to append text to


 * @return boolean whether the duplication succeeds


 * @author Cass Surek <cass@surek.co.uk>


 */


public function duplicate($modifiable=null)


{





	// Making sure our PK is null before inserting it


	$table=$this->getMetaData()->tableSchema;


	$primaryKey=$table->primaryKey;


	$this->$primaryKey = "";





	// We might need to change some fields contents to avoid UNIQUE constraints


	// A few md5() chars should do the trick


	foreach($modifiable as $field){


		$this->$field = $this->$field . " " . substr(md5(time()),0,4);


	}





	// Insert requires it to be flagged as new record


	$this->isNewRecord = true;





	// And finally inserting it


	return $this->insert();





}
6

Thanks for the code. I think this functionality is perhaps too specialized and is not suitable to put in CActiveRecord. You can also easily achieve the similar functionality using PHP's clone operator.

7

Hi, I disagree, but respect your opinion.

Thanks

Cass

8

even if this thread is very old it appears at googling for this subject first…

my solution for this problem was:

(basically without looking at the relations)




public function copy()

{

        Yii::log('Start copy'.$this->id, 'info', 'copy'.__CLASS__);

        $new = new MyClass();

        $data = $this->attributes;

        $data['create_time'] = time();

        $data['update_time'] = time();

        unset($data['id']); //unset id since we want to insert

        $new->setAttributes($data, false);

        $new->insert();

        if (!$new->id)

        {

            Yii::log('Couldn\'t copy', 'info', 'copy'.__CLASS__);

            return null;

        }

        return $new;

}

when copying has_many relations the copy function must be parametrized by the $new->id for example

copying belongs_to is simple just


$newBelong = $this->myBelong->copy();

if ($newBelong !== null)

    $new->myBelongId = $newBelong->id;

so i think it is possible to write generic code for that…

9

Hi, i’ve done it like below in my project:

In my controller




$anotherModel=AnotherModel::model()->find('id=:ID',array(':ID'=>$id));

$model->attributes=$anotherModel->attributes;

$model->save();

It works for me. Duplicate only 1 row exactly.

Or You can duplicate from any table to any table as you wish on your current controller.

You can also modify attributes value before inserting it.