Positionable Plugin for CakePHP

Version 2.0

The positionable plugin allows you to make positionable elements against a model.

Usage

We have match and rest in a competition and we want to order both on them against a the competition.

To do that had the behavior to both Match and Rest models :

class Match extends AppModel {
	public $actsAs = array(
		'MockPositionable' => array(
			'foreignKey' => 'competition_id',
			'model' => 'Competition'
		)
	);
}

class Rest extends AppModel {
	public $actsAs = array(
		'MockPositionable' => array(
			'foreignKey' => 'competition_id',
			'model' => 'Competition'
		)
	);
}

Now if we add two matches and next one rest in the same competition, the matches will have position 1 and 2 and the rest will have the position 3. If we move up the rest, the second match will automatically have position 3.

We want to display elements of a competition in order, we just have to do that :

$myCompetitionId = 'my-competition';
$matches = $this->Match->find('all', array(
	'conditions' => array('Match.competition_id' => myCompetitionId)
);
$rests = $this->Rest->find('all', array(
	'conditions' => array('Rest.competition_id' => myCompetitionId)
);
$competitionElements = array_merge($matches, $rests);
$sortedCompetitionElements = $this->Match->sortByPosition($competitionElements);

To position a competition in absolute way (without foreign model) you have to do:

class Competition extends AppModel {
	public $actsAs = array(
		'MockPositionable' => array(
			'foreignKey' => 'positionable_foreign_key', //An attribute that will have a single value
			'model' => 'CompetitionItself' //A not used alias
		)
	);

	public function beforeValidate($options = array()) {
		$this->data[$this->alias]['positionable_foreign_key'] = 'unique-value';
		return parent::beforeValidate($options);
	}
}

Model Requirement

For using this behavior a model MUST have a 'position' field and the settings defined foreign key field.

Behavior Methods

move($elementId, $newPosition): move an element to a new position, updating the positions of all others element positionable again the same model when needed.

sortByPosition($elements): order all $elements by the position without distinction of model

Requirement

PHP version: PHP 5.2+
CakePHP version: 2.x Stable

License