Yii form and model for key-value table - yii

Question

I have a table which has only two column key-value. I want to create a form which allow user insert 3 pair of key-value settings.
Do I need pass 3 different models to the view? Or is there any possible way to do this?

Answer 1

Check out this link:
http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/form.table
This is considered best form in Yii for updating for creating multiple models.
In essence, for creation you can create a for loop generate as many inputs a you wish to have visible, and in your controller loop over the inputs to create new models.
View File:
for ( $settings as $i=>$setting ) //Settings would be an array of Models (new or otherwise)
{
echo CHtml::activeLabelEx($setting, "[$i]key");
echo CHtml::activeLabelEx($setting, "[$i]key");
echo CHtml::error($setting, "[$i]key");
echo CHtml::activeTextField($setting, "[$i]value");
echo CHtml::activeTextField($setting, "[$i]value");
echo CHtml::error($setting, "[$i]value");
}
Controller actionCreate:
$settings = array(new Setting, new Setting, new Setting);
if ( isset( $_POST['Settings'] ) )
foreach ( $settings as $i=>$setting )
if ( isset( $_POST['Setttings'][$i] ) )
{
$setting->attributes = $_POST['Settings'][$i];
$setting->save();
}
//Render View
To update existing models you can use the same method but instead of creating new models you can load models based on the keys in the $_POST['Settings'] array.
To answer your question about passing 3 models to the view, it can be done without passing them, but to validate data and have the correct error messages sent to the view you should pass the three models placed in the array to the view in the array.
Note: The example above should work as is, but does not provide any verification that the models are valid or that they saved correctly

Answer 2

I'm going to give you a heads up and let you know you could potentially make your life very complicated with this.
I'm currently using an EAV patterned table similar to this key-value and here's a list of things you may find difficult or impossible:
use CDbCriteria mergeWith() to filter related elements on "value"s in the event of a search() (or other)
Filtering CGridView or CListView
If this is just very straight forward key-value with no related entity aspect ( which I'm guessing it is since it looks like settings) then one way of doing it would be:
create a normal "Setting" CActiveRecord for your settings table (you will use this to save entries to your settings table)
create a Form model by extending CFormModel and use this as the $model in your form.
Add a save() method to your Form model that would individually insert key-value pairs using the "Setting" model. Preferably using a transaction incase a key-value pair doesn't pass Settings->validate() (if applicable)
optionally you may want to override the Form model's getAttributes() to return db data in the event of a user wanting to edit an entry.
I hope that was clear enough.
Let me give you some basic code setup. Please note that I have not tested this. It should give you a rough idea though.:
Setting Model:
class Setting extends CActiveRecord
{
public function tableName()
{
return 'settings';
}
}
SettingsForm Model:
class SettingsForm extends CFormModel
{
/**
* Load attributes from DB
*/
public function loadAttributes()
{
$settings = Setting::model()->findAll();
$this->setAttributes(CHtml::listData($settings,'key','value'));
}
/*
* Save to database
*/
public function save()
{
foreach($this->attributes as $key => $value)
{
$setting = Setting::model()->find(array('condition'=>'key = :key',
'params'=>array(':key'=>$key)));
if($setting==null)
{
$setting = new Setting;
$setting->key = $key;
}
$setting->value = $value;
if(!$setting->save(false))
return false;
}
return true;
}
}
Controller:
public function actionSettingsForm()
{
$model = new Setting;
$model->loadAttributes();
if(isset($_POST['SettingsForm']))
{
$model->attributes = $_POST['SettingsForm'];
if($model->validate() && $model->save())
{
//success code here, with redirect etc..
}
}
$this->render('form',array('model'=>$model));
}
form view :
$form=$this->beginWidget('CActiveForm', array(
'id'=>'SettingsForm'));
//all your form element here + submit
//(you could loop on model attributes but lets set it up static for now)
//ex:
echo $form->textField($model,'fieldName'); //fieldName = db key
$this->endWidget($form);
If you want further clarification on a point (code etc.) let me know.
PS: for posterity, if other people are wondering about this and EAV they can check the EAV behavior extention or choose a more appropriate DB system such as MongoDb (there are a few extentions out there) or HyperDex