Plate PHP

Plate PHP eliminates the boiler plate code of database queries. Plate was inspired by Django Models/QuerySets and Backbone Models/Collections.

Let's get setup.

Open config.php and make sure $config["db"]["mysql"]["on"] is set to true. Then input your database connection information. For the time being make sure Redis is set to False since this is not supported in the current release.

$config = array();
$config["db"]["mysql"]["on"] = True;//if using mysql;
$config["db"]["redis"]["on"] = False;//if using redis;
	
if($config["db"]["mysql"] == True)
{
	$config["db"]["mysql"]["host"] = "YOUR DATABASE HOST ADDRESS";
	$config["db"]["mysql"]["user"] = "DB USER NAME";
	$config["db"]["mysql"]["pass"] = "DB PASSWORD";
	$config["db"]["mysql"]["name"] = "DATABASE NAME";
}
if($config["db"]["redis"] == True)
{
	$config["db"]["redis"]["host"] = "HOST ADDRESS";
	$config["db"]["redis"]["port"] = "PORT NUMBER";
		
}

Include plate.php in your code.
Include the static method Plate::Start() to initialize Plate PHP

Models

A Plate Models is the single source of your data. Every model should map to a single database table or document.

Model Methods:

fetch(), 2. save(), 3. delete(), 4. filter(), 5. update()

Defining your models

Let's create a model called ```Post```, which will represent a single blog post. In the model we'll define the data fields and database engine to use with this model, which in this case will be MySql. Note that the name of a model must match the name of your database table and that all specified data fields must match table fields in your database.

<?php
include('plate.php');
Plate::Start();

class Post extends PlateModel
{
	public function __construct()
	{
		/* Specify the data-fields this model will access. 
		These fields must match exactly to your database table fields */
		$data = array(
			'id',
			'title',
			'text',
			'user_name',
			'pub_date'
		);
		$meta = array(
			'dbType' => 'mysql' //set database engine to mysql
		);
		$this->setData($data);
		$this->setMetaData($meta);
	}

}

Fetch a Model: fetch()

Now that the Post model has been defined let's fetch a single Blog Post using the fetch() method.

	//Instantiate the blog post object
	$post = new Post();
	
	//Let's get a blog post with an id of 1 using the filter method
	$singlePost = $post -> filter("id=1");
	$singlePost = $singlePost -> fetch();
	
	//You can also Chain the methods
	$singlePost = $post -> filter("id=1") -> fetch();
	
	//Select a blog post by username
	$singlePost = $post -> filter("user_name = 'foo@example.com'") -> fetch();
	
	//Select a blog post by username and title
	$singlePost = $post -> filter("user_name = 'foo@example.com' && title = 'My First Blog Post'") -> fetch();

	// fetch() will return a single key with your model's data
	print_r($singlePost);
	Array
	(
		[id] 			=> 		1
		[text] 			=> 		This is my first blog post, welcome to my blog...
		[title] 		=> 		My First Blog Post
		[user_name]		=>		foo@example.com
		[pub_date]		=>		2013-08-10 13:00
	)

If you need to fetch multiple rows of data or if there is the possibility for multi-rows of data(ex. fetching blog posts published after July 1st could potentially return multiple posts) create a collection and fetch the collection. Collections are explained after the Model section.

Save a Model: save()

The save() method allows you to both insert new data and update existing data. A new insert is performed if the save model lacks an id. If an id exists Plate looks for a field to update. Let's take a look at a couple examples. First we'll create a new Blog Post and then we'll update the same Blog Post.

	$post = new Post();
	//create an array of the data we are going to insert
	$insertData = array(
		"text"		=>	"Thanks for reading. This is going to be my second blog post...",
		"title"		=>	"My Second Blog Post",
		"user_name"	=>	"foo@example.com",
		"pub_date"	=>	time()
	);
	//pass the data to the post object and save it
	$postId = $post -> setData($insertData) -> save();

	//How about we update this post's title
	//first set the data to be updated along with the post's id
	$updateData = array(
		"id"	  =>	$postId,
		"title"	  =>	"Updated Title Text"
	);
	//Set the new data, the field to be updated, the row to be updated and then save it
	$post->setData($updateData) -> update("title") -> filter("id = '$postId'") -> save();

Another example of an update using the save() method.

	//We'll update the text of the post with id = 5;
	$postId = 5;
	
	$post = new Post();
	$updateData = array(
		"id"	=>	$postId,
		"text"	=>	"I decided I didn't like this blog post so I'm updating it's content..."
	);
	//Set the data, the field to be updated, the row to be updated and then save it
	$post -> setData($updateData) -> update("text") -> filter("id = '$postId'") -> save();

Delete a Model: delete()

The delete() method allows you to delete a single model. In the following example we'll delete a blog post using the Post model.

	//Let's delete a post with an id of 3
	$postId = 3;
	
	$post = new Post();
	//Use the filter method to select Post 3 and then delete it
	$post -> filter("id = '$postId') -> delete();

Collections

A Plate collection is an ordered set of models.

Collection Methods

fetch(), 2. orderBy(), 3. filter()

You can perform a number of methods on a collection, but first you'll have to define your collections. Continuing with our Blog Post example from the models section above, we'll create a collection called PostCollection that houses the

Post model.

<?php
include('plate.php');
Plate::Start();

class PostCollection extends PlateCollection
{
	public function __construct()
	{
		//We need to specify this collection's model
		$this->setModel("Post");
	}

}

Fetch a Collection: fetch()

The fetch method when applied to a collection, will return a multi-dimensional array. Let's take a look at an example that fetches all blog posts published after July 1st, order in descending order by publication date.

	//instantiate the post collection
	$posts = PostCollection();
	//filter by publication date after July1st, order by publication date in descending order and then fetch
	$multiplePosts = $posts -> filter("pub_date >= '2013-07-01'") -> orderBy("-pub_date") -> fetch();

	// fetch() will return a multi-dimensional array of blog posts
	print_r($multiplePosts);
	Array
	(
		[0] => 	array
			(
				[text] 			=> 		This is my first blog post, welcome to my blog...
				[title] 		=> 		My First Blog Post
				[user_name]		=>		foo@example.com
				[pub_date]		=>		2013-07-10 13:00
			),
		[1] => 	array
			(
				[text] 			=> 		This is my second blog post, thanks for reading...
				[title] 		=> 		Second Blog Post
				[user_name]		=>		foo@example.com
				[pub_date]		=>		2013-07-25 10:00
			),
		[2] => 	array
			(
				[text] 			=> 		This is my third blog post...your still reading this...
				[title] 		=> 		Thrid Blog Post
				[user_name]		=>		foo@example.com
				[pub_date]		=>		2013-08-05 09:00
			)
		...
	)

Recommended Project File Structure

Project Directory
 |
 +-- collections
 |  |  
 |  +-- collectionFoo.php
 |  +-- ...
 |    
 +-- models
 |  |  
 |  +-- modelFoo.php
 |  +-- ...
 |    
 +-- PlatePhp
 |  
 |

What's Next on the RoadMap...

Add more useful utility type methods to collections similar to backbone collections [http://backbonejs.org/#Collection]
Add support for Redis to the database engine
Add support for MongoDB to the database engine

I'm looking for contributors to help expand the capabilities of Plate PHP. Feel free to fork it and send a pull. Any feedback and ideas are welcome!

If you decide to take a look under the hood and decide to contribute, the following file name conventions are used:

Naming Convetions:

Folders: camelCase
FileNames: CamelCase
Classes: CamelCase
Methods: camelCase
Properties: camelCase

jfmyers/PlatePHP