Creating a record archive - Revision history

bahtiar: /* Node */

2008-04-15T10:15:34Z

Node

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:15, 15 April 2008
Line 251:		Line 251:
	{		{
	// We are looking at the archive. Display a link to view active records.		// We are looking at the archive. Display a link to view active records.
	return href("~~dispatch.php~~?view=active", "View active records");		return href("?view=active", "View active records");
	}		}
	else		else
	{		{
	// We are looking at active records. Display a link to view the archive.		// We are looking at active records. Display a link to view the archive.
	return href("~~dispatch.php~~?view=archive", "View the archive");		return href("?view=archive", "View the archive");
	}		}
	}		}

bahtiar: /* Adding links that change the view */

2008-04-15T10:15:00Z

Adding links that change the view

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:15, 15 April 2008
Line 144:		Line 144:
	{		{
	// We are looking at the archive. Display a link to view active records.		// We are looking at the archive. Display a link to view active records.
	return href("~~dispatch.php~~?view=active", "View active records");		return href("?view=active", "View active records");
	}		}
	else		else
	{		{
	// We are looking at active records. Display a link to view the archive.		// We are looking at active records. Display a link to view the archive.
	return href("~~dispatch.php~~?view=archive", "View the archive");		return href("?view=archive", "View the archive");
	}		}
	}		}
	</syntaxhighlight>		</syntaxhighlight>

	Note how we ~~only use dispatch.php in the url, and~~ only pass our view ~~variable~~. the href() method will take care of the rest.		Note how we only pass our view variables. the href() method will take care of the rest.

	When you now use the application, you'll see that you can actively switch between active and archive view, and you can archive records. There is one annoying bug though. If you are looking at the archive and edit a record, you'll come back into active view when you return from the edit screen.		When you now use the application, you'll see that you can actively switch between active and archive view, and you can archive records. There is one annoying bug though. If you are looking at the archive and edit a record, you'll come back into active view when you return from the edit screen.

bahtiar at 14:53, 14 January 2007

2007-01-14T14:53:25Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:53, 14 January 2007
Line 9:		Line 9:
	Let's start by defining a table to store the news articles. We'll keep it really basic for the sake of this howto. Basically, our news item only has a title and some text.		Let's start by defining a table to store the news articles. We'll keep it really basic for the sake of this howto. Basically, our news item only has a title and some text.

			<sql>
	CREATE TABLE article		CREATE TABLE article
	(		(
Line 16:		Line 17:
	PRIMARY KEY (id)		PRIMARY KEY (id)
	);		);
			</sql>

	In a normal situation I would use an [[atkMetaNode]] to make an ATK application around this, but the examples will be clearer if we use a regular atkNode. Here is a simple node that works with our article table:		In a normal situation I would use an [[atkMetaNode]] to make an ATK application around this, but the examples will be clearer if we use a regular atkNode. Here is a simple node that works with our article table:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	useattrib("atktextattribute");		useattrib("atktextattribute");

Line 34:		Line 37:
	}		}
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

	I won't explain how to place this in a menu and so on, the atkdemo and basis application demonstrate this. If you are reading this howto because you want to archive records, you already know how the basics work.		I won't explain how to place this in a menu and so on, the atkdemo and basis application demonstrate this. If you are reading this howto because you want to archive records, you already know how the basics work.
Line 45:		Line 49:
	We want to archive based on a date, and based on a status field, so let's add both fields to the database:		We want to archive based on a date, and based on a status field, so let's add both fields to the database:

			<sql>
	ALTER TABLE article ADD		ALTER TABLE article ADD
	(		(
Line 50:		Line 55:
	enddate DATE		enddate DATE
	);		);
			</sql>

	And in our node:		And in our node:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	useattrib("atkboolattribute");		useattrib("atkboolattribute");
	useattrib("atkdateattribute");		useattrib("atkdateattribute");
Line 60:		Line 67:
	$this->add(new atkBoolAttribute("visible", AF_HIDE_LIST));		$this->add(new atkBoolAttribute("visible", AF_HIDE_LIST));
	$this->add(new atkDateAttribute("enddate"));		$this->add(new atkDateAttribute("enddate"));
			</syntaxhighlight>

	Now, if we would not use the AF_HIDE_LIST but AF_SEARCHABLE instead, we would already have a very basic archiving feature. We can edit the record and set visible to true and false, and in the recordlist, we can search on either value. But by default it would still display all fields, so we want a more visual distinction between the archive and the active records.		Now, if we would not use the AF_HIDE_LIST but AF_SEARCHABLE instead, we would already have a very basic archiving feature. We can edit the record and set visible to true and false, and in the recordlist, we can search on either value. But by default it would still display all fields, so we want a more visual distinction between the archive and the active records.
Line 68:		Line 75:
	Let's start by making sure that our regular admin page contains only active records from now on. Since we are modifying the admin screen, we override the admin action, by adding this method to the node:		Let's start by making sure that our regular admin page contains only active records from now on. Since we are modifying the admin screen, we override the admin action, by adding this method to the node:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	function action_admin(&$handler)		function action_admin(&$handler)
	{		{
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	return $handler->action_admin();		return $handler->action_admin();
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

	What this basically does is tell ATK to put a filter on all records before displaying the admin page. We call the original admin handler because other than the filter, for now we don't want to change anything.		What this basically does is tell ATK to put a filter on all records before displaying the admin page. We call the original admin handler because other than the filter, for now we don't want to change anything.
Line 87:		Line 96:
	We could do this by passing a parameter to our admin screen, which we use to determine which records to show. For example, we could access it with ?view=archive or with ?view=active. Let's add a small utility method to our node that retrieves this variable from the url:		We could do this by passing a parameter to our admin screen, which we use to determine which records to show. For example, we could access it with ?view=archive or with ?view=active. Let's add a small utility method to our node that retrieves this variable from the url:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	function getView()		function getView()
	{		{
Line 95:		Line 105:
	return "active";		return "active";
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

	This method returns "archive" if someone passes ?view=archive in the url, and "active" in all other cases. This makes sure that if we pass nothing at all (the default), we will only show active records.		This method returns "archive" if someone passes ?view=archive in the url, and "active" in all other cases. This makes sure that if we pass nothing at all (the default), we will only show active records.
Line 102:		Line 113:
	Now we need to modify our action_admin method so it takes this view into account:		Now we need to modify our action_admin method so it takes this view into account:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	function action_admin(&$handler)		function action_admin(&$handler)
	{		{
Line 114:		Line 126:
	return $handler->action_admin();		return $handler->action_admin();
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

	When either visible = 0, or the article has expired, it is listed in the archive.		When either visible = 0, or the article has expired, it is listed in the archive.
Line 125:		Line 138:
	To put a link below the recordlist, we can implement an adminFooter method:		To put a link below the recordlist, we can implement an adminFooter method:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	function adminFooter()		function adminFooter()
	{		{
Line 138:		Line 152:
	}		}
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

	Note how we only use dispatch.php in the url, and only pass our view variable. the href() method will take care of the rest.		Note how we only use dispatch.php in the url, and only pass our view variable. the href() method will take care of the rest.
Line 160:		Line 175:
	The code to accomplish this is easy. We accessed the value of 'view' through the getView() method we created. We only need to rewrite that method slightly, into:		The code to accomplish this is easy. We accessed the value of 'view' through the getView() method we created. We only need to rewrite that method slightly, into:

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	function getView()		function getView()
	{		{
Line 170:		Line 186:
	return "active";		return "active";
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

	This change makes the getView method return "archive" if either ?view=archive was passed in the url, or if the page has		This change makes the getView method return "archive" if either ?view=archive was passed in the url, or if the page has
Line 183:		Line 199:
	== SQL ==		== SQL ==

			<sql>
	CREATE TABLE article		CREATE TABLE article
	(		(
Line 192:		Line 209:
	PRIMARY KEY (id)		PRIMARY KEY (id)
	);		);
			</sql>

	== Node ==		== Node ==

			<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
	useattrib("atktextattribute");		useattrib("atktextattribute");
	useattrib("atkboolattribute");		useattrib("atkboolattribute");
Line 252:		Line 271:
	}		}
	}		}
			</syntaxhighlight>

Jeroenvs: Changed setFilter to addFilter

2006-10-24T08:19:40Z

Changed setFilter to addFilter

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:19, 24 October 2006
Line 3:		Line 3:
	= Intro =		= Intro =

	When you have a lot of records in a table, you will sometimes want to split the records into active records and archived records, so older records aren't in the way of your day to day work. For example, if you have projects, you may want to move completed projects to an archive. Since 'news' is an ideal example for this howto, we'll create a small application to manage newsitems. (for the impatient, the complete code for this howto is listed at the end.)		When you have a lot of records in a table, you will sometimes want to split the records into active records and archived records, so older records aren't in the way of your day to day work. For example, if you have projects, you may want to move completed projects to an archive. Since 'news' is an ideal example for this howto, we'll create a small application to manage newsitems (for the impatient, the complete code for this howto is listed at the end.)

	= Getting started =		= Getting started =
Line 70:		Line 70:
	function action_admin(&$handler)		function action_admin(&$handler)
	{		{
	$this->~~setFilter~~("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");		$this->addFilter("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");

	return $handler->action_admin();		return $handler->action_admin();
Line 106:		Line 106:
	if ($this->getView()=="archive")		if ($this->getView()=="archive")
	{		{
	$this->~~setFilter~~("(visible=0 OR enddate<NOW())");		$this->addFilter("(visible=0 OR enddate<NOW())");
	}		}
	else		else
	{		{
	$this->~~setFilter~~("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");		$this->addFilter("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");
	}		}
	return $handler->action_admin();		return $handler->action_admin();
Line 218:		Line 218:
	if ($this->getView()=="archive")		if ($this->getView()=="archive")
	{		{
	$this->~~setFilter~~("(visible=0 OR enddate<NOW())");		$this->addFilter("(visible=0 OR enddate<NOW())");
	}		}
	else		else
	{		{
	$this->~~setFilter~~("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");		$this->addFilter("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");
	}		}
	return $handler->action_admin();		return $handler->action_admin();

bahtiar at 08:58, 24 June 2006

2006-06-24T08:58:17Z

New page

{{howto|Advanced|[[Ivo Jansch]] <ivo@achievo.org>}}

= Intro =

When you have a lot of records in a table, you will sometimes want to split the records into active records and archived records, so older records aren't in the way of your day to day work. For example, if you have projects, you may want to move completed projects to an archive. Since 'news' is an ideal example for this howto, we'll create a small application to manage newsitems. (for the impatient, the complete code for this howto is listed at the end.)

= Getting started =

Let's start by defining a table to store the news articles. We'll keep it really basic for the sake of this howto. Basically, our news item only has a title and some text.

CREATE TABLE article
(
id INT(10) NOT NULL,
title VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
content TEXT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

In a normal situation I would use an [[atkMetaNode]] to make an ATK application around this, but the examples will be clearer if we use a regular atkNode. Here is a simple node that works with our article table:

useattrib("atktextattribute");

class article extends atkNode
{
function article()
{
$this->atkNode("article");

$this->add(new atkAttribute("id", AF_AUTOKEY));
$this->add(new atkAttribute("title", AF_OBLIGATORY|AF_SEARCHABLE));
$this->add(new atkTextAttribute("content", AF_OBLIGATORY|AF_HIDE_LIST));

$this->setTable("article");
}
}

I won't explain how to place this in a menu and so on, the atkdemo and basis application demonstrate this. If you are reading this howto because you want to archive records, you already know how the basics work.

= Making records archivable =

Depending on the application, archiving can work in several ways. The most common ones are archival by a date field (put a record in the archive automatically when a certain date has been reached), and manual archival by setting some field to a certain value (archived=1, display=0, etc.).

I'll cover both in this howto. Our news items will be archived if a date has been reached, or when a display field has been set to '0'. If you only need one of these methods, you'll find it easy to strip out the other from the examples.

We want to archive based on a date, and based on a status field, so let's add both fields to the database:

ALTER TABLE article ADD
(
visible INT(1),
enddate DATE
);

And in our node:

useattrib("atkboolattribute");
useattrib("atkdateattribute");

...

$this->add(new atkBoolAttribute("visible", AF_HIDE_LIST));
$this->add(new atkDateAttribute("enddate"));

Now, if we would not use the AF_HIDE_LIST but AF_SEARCHABLE instead, we would already have a very basic archiving feature. We can edit the record and set visible to true and false, and in the recordlist, we can search on either value. But by default it would still display all fields, so we want a more visual distinction between the archive and the active records.

= Hiding archived records =

Let's start by making sure that our regular admin page contains only active records from now on. Since we are modifying the admin screen, we override the admin action, by adding this method to the node:

function action_admin(&$handler)
{
$this->setFilter("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");

return $handler->action_admin();
}

What this basically does is tell ATK to put a filter on all records before displaying the admin page. We call the original admin handler because other than the filter, for now we don't want to change anything.

If you now browse your application, and put some records in archived mode, you will notice that only not-archived records are displayed.

= Accessing the archive =

== Creating an archive view ==

To access archived records, we basically want the same admin screen, but this time for archived records only.

We could do this by passing a parameter to our admin screen, which we use to determine which records to show. For example, we could access it with ?view=archive or with ?view=active. Let's add a small utility method to our node that retrieves this variable from the url:

function getView()
{
if (isset($_GET["view"]) && $_GET["view"] == "archive")
{
return "archive";
}
return "active";
}

This method returns "archive" if someone passes ?view=archive in the url, and "active" in all other cases. This makes sure that if we pass nothing at all (the default), we will only show active records.

== Using the view to filter records ==

Now we need to modify our action_admin method so it takes this view into account:

function action_admin(&$handler)
{
if ($this->getView()=="archive")
{
$this->setFilter("(visible=0 OR enddate<NOW())");
}
else
{
$this->setFilter("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");
}
return $handler->action_admin();
}

When either visible = 0, or the article has expired, it is listed in the archive.

The above code effectively displays either active or archived records in the recordlist, based on which view is passed in the url.

= Adding links that change the view =

Since our users do not pass variables in the url directly, we have to give them some links in the screen to switch views. I personally think such links should be placed below the recordlist, so they are not intrusive but still easily accesible.

To put a link below the recordlist, we can implement an adminFooter method:

function adminFooter()
{
if ($this->getView()=="archive")
{
// We are looking at the archive. Display a link to view active records.
return href("dispatch.php?view=active", "View active records");
}
else
{
// We are looking at active records. Display a link to view the archive.
return href("dispatch.php?view=archive", "View the archive");
}
}

Note how we only use dispatch.php in the url, and only pass our view variable. the href() method will take care of the rest.

When you now use the application, you'll see that you can actively switch between active and archive view, and you can archive records. There is one annoying bug though. If you are looking at the archive and edit a record, you'll come back into active view when you return from the edit screen.

This is quite logical; we've made the switch based on a variable in the url, and the edit page, upon returning to the admin page, does not know how to pass this variable. ATK's session manager comes to the rescue.

= Using the atkSessionManager to remember our view =

We could add logic to the edit page that passes the ?view along. But that would be evil. We would have to modify every (custom) action that returns to the admin page. Luckily, we won't have to.

It's the admin page that should remember its state. It should remember whether it was in archive view or active view.

The key to enabling this is in the ?view= variable we introduced. ATK has a way of making a page remember this variable, even if the user leaves the page and returns. We call these variables a 'pagevar' in atk. Pagevars have 2 important features:

* When passed in the url, they are set to the value that is passed. In other words, ?view=archive in the url will set the pagevar "view" to "archive"
* When NOT passed in the url, it takes the last value it had from the session.

This means that we can make our ?view= variable behave in such a way that we can flip the view using the url like we did before, but if we don't pass ?view=, we'll take it from the session. In other words, if a user edits a record and returns, 'view' will automatically have the value it had before.

The code to accomplish this is easy. We accessed the value of 'view' through the getView() method we created. We only need to rewrite that method slightly, into:

function getView()
{
$sm = &atkGetSessionManager();

if ($sm->pageVar("view")=="archive")
{
return "archive";
}
return "active";
}

This change makes the getView method return "archive" if either ?view=archive was passed in the url, or if the page has
remembered that view was archive when it was last viewed. In other cases it just returns "active".

= Conclusion =

In this howto I have tried to demonstrate how using filters and the sessionmanager, you can switch between views. The complete code for this howto is listed below.

= Complete code =

== SQL ==

CREATE TABLE article
(
id INT(10) NOT NULL,
title VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
content TEXT NOT NULL,
visible INT(1),
enddate DATE,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

== Node ==

useattrib("atktextattribute");
useattrib("atkboolattribute");
useattrib("atkdateattribute");

class article extends atkNode
{
function article()
{
$this->atkNode("article");

$this->add(new atkAttribute("id", AF_AUTOKEY));
$this->add(new atkAttribute("title", AF_OBLIGATORY|AF_SEARCHABLE));
$this->add(new atkTextAttribute("content", AF_OBLIGATORY|AF_HIDE_LIST));
$this->add(new atkBoolAttribute("visible", AF_HIDE_LIST));
$this->add(new atkDateAttribute("enddate"));

$this->setTable("article");
}

function action_admin(&$handler)
{
if ($this->getView()=="archive")
{
$this->setFilter("(visible=0 OR enddate<NOW())");
}
else
{
$this->setFilter("(visible=1 AND enddate>=NOW())");
}
return $handler->action_admin();
}

function adminFooter()
{
if ($this->getView()=="archive")
{
// We are looking at the archive. Display a link to view active records.
return href("dispatch.php?view=active", "View active records");
}
else
{
// We are looking at active records. Display a link to view the archive.
return href("dispatch.php?view=archive", "View the archive");
}
}

function getView()
{
$sm = &atkGetSessionManager();

if ($sm->pageVar("view")=="archive")
{
return "archive";
}
return "active";
}
}