Object wrappers and forms - oop

Question

I am developing an ecommerce platform and came across a difficulty. Basically, I have in my scenario a Product, Option and OptionValue. A product might have multiple options which might have multiple values. The problem is how to store it in a way that is easy to create and edit.
The problem is I've a direct reference to the OptionValue, which is mutable. I need to keep immutable information about the Option and OptionValue (for example, if a order was made and the color was green, even if this option is changed to lime green, the order must keep showing as green). In that case, I need to save some properties of Option (the option name - "Colors" for example) and of each OptionValue (the value of each option - "red" for example). The way I thought, it would require a structure very similar to the existing structure: a new class ItemOption referencing Option and a ItemOptionValue referencing OptionValue.
So, this was my attempt:
To create a form to display my options I have:
class OptionSelectorType extends AbstractType {
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
foreach ($options['product']->getOptions() as $option) {
$builder->add($option->getId(), 'choice', array('choice_list' => new ObjectChoiceList($option->getValues());));
}
}
}
I'm using a DataTransformer to convert a collection of OptionValue in a collection of OrderItemOption:
class OrderItemOptionToOptionValueTransformer implements DataTransformerInterface
{
public function transform($lineOptions)
{
if(!$lineOptions) {
return array();
}
$values = array();
foreach($lineOptions as $lineOption) {
$lineOption->getOption()->getId();
$values[$id] = array();
foreach($lineOption->getValues() as $lineOptionValue) {
$values[$id][] = $lineOptionValue->getOptionValue();
}
}
return $values;
}
public function reverseTransform($values)
{
$collection = new ArrayCollection();
foreach($values as $optionId => $optionValues) {
if(!$optionValues) {
continue;
}
$lineOption = new OrderItemOption();
$optionValues = is_array($optionValues) ? $optionValues : array($optionValues);
foreach($optionValues as $optionValue) {
$lineOptionValue = new OrderItemOptionValue();
$lineOptionValue->setOptionValue($optionValue);
$lineOption->addValue($lineOptionValue);
}
$lineOption->setOption($optionValue->getOption());
$collection->add($lineOption);
}
return $collection;
}
}
Finally, my OrderItemType form:
class OrderItemType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$builder->add(
$builder->create('options', 'option_selector', array('options' => $options['options']))
->addModelTransformer(new OrderItemOptionToOptionValueTransformer())
);
}
}
It works but doesn't seem to me a good approach, once the OptionValue will be always recreated, never updated.
How would you do it?

Answer 1

I will keep it simple. You can stick with your structure but instead of transforming things on the fly, keep them at the same state.
What do I mean?
Whenever an Option is created, create the corresponding ItemOption. The same goes with the OptionValue and ItemOptionValue. The relation between the two is a one-to-one connection, whereas the Option and OptionValue don't know the connected ItemOption and ItemOptionValue.
Now if a change occurs to the OptionValue, you can query for the connected ItemOptionValue and change the things you need to change (depends on internal structure).
How to store the connection?
Use whatever persistence method you already use. For the case of a database, store the connection in one table like this:
CREATE TABLE item_option_to_option (
optionID INT(10) NOT NULL,
itemOptionID INT(10) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE KEY (optionID, itemOptionID)
);
If possible I would use Foreign Keys to link the both columns to the corresponding columns in the tables item_option and option. It works the same with OptionValue and ItemOptionValue.
How to handle the change?
Whenever the controller for the OptionValue change is called, simply update the Item* models as well.
If an Option or OptionValue is deleted, it is up to you, if you delete the ItemOption or ItemOptionValue as well.