fORMColumn

The fORMColumn class is an ORM plugin to provide miscellaneous additional functionality to individual columns.

Email Columns

The static method configureEmailColumn() sets a column to be validated as an email address. The first parameter is the $class the column is located in and the second parameter is the $column. As with most active record plugins, this method should normally be called from the configure() method.

class User extends fActiveRecord
{
    protected function configure()
    {
        fORMColumn::configureEmailColumn($this, 'email');
    }
}

Link Columns

Columns can be configured as a link column by passing the $class and $column to the static method fORMColumn::configureLinkColumn(). When the record is validated, the link will be checked to make sure it contains a valid domain name, however http:// is not required. When calling the prepare method for the column, it will ensure that the link begings with http:// for output into a HTML <a> tag.

class NewsArticle extends fActiveRecord
{
    protected function configure()
    {
        fORMColumn::configureLinkColumn($this, 'link');
    }
}

$news_article = new NewsArticle();
$news_article->setLink('www.example.com');

echo $news_article->getLink();
echo $news_article->prepareLink();

The above PHP would output the following:

www.example.com
http://www.example.com

Number Columns

While fActiveRecord automatically handles both integer and floating point numbers, sometimes it is necessary to have a columns value be represented as an fNumber object. The static method configureNumberColumn() ensures that values loaded out of the database are automatically converted to an fNumber object. The first parameter is the $class and the second parameter is the $column.

class Product extends fActiveRecord
{
    protected function configure()
    {
        fORMColumn::configureNumberColumn($this, 'weight');
    }
}

Random Columns

In some situations a random string is useful for providing security when resetting passwords, validating email accounts or establishing access authentication. The static method configureRandomColumn() will cause a column to be set to a random string when the record is first saved and will allow generating a new random string at any time by calling generateColumnName().

configureRandomColumn() accepts four parameters, the $class to be configured, the $column, the $type of random string (see fCryptography::randomString() for options) and the $length of the string.

class User extends fActiveRecord
{
    protected function configure()
    {
        fORMColumn::configureRandomColumn($this, 'access_code', 'alphanumeric', 16);
    }
}

// Create a new user and get their access code
$user = new User();
$user->store();
$access_code = $user->getAccessCode();

// Generate a new random string for the access code
$user->generateAccessCode();
$access_code = $user->getAccessCode();