[Solar-talk] extending app classes

[Antti Holvikari]

On 7/11/06, Antti Holvikari <anttih at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jeff!
>
> Maybe I can try to help on this one, if you will.
>
> On 7/10/06, Jeff Surgeson <solar at 3hex.com> wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > Up until now all my solar based apps where extended from Solar_App, had a
> > single data model that it called on and preformed basic list/edit/add/delete
> > actions, nothing fancy.
> >
> > However I am trying to create a Vendor_App_Class that as before extends from
> > Solar_App but I am able to extend, I think I need to give an example to
> > explain.
> >
> > If for instance if I have Vendor_App_Product app with associated data model
> > which is a class that describes a product (obvious) and in true OOP style I
> > would like to extend it so I can describe differant products types,
> > CdProduct, BookProduct, DvdProduct as apposed to creating a new app class
> > with data model for each differant product.
> >
> > Is this possible in a Solar_App enviroment? if so what is the best way to go
> > about it and how would I design a Solar data model to represent this?
>
> It certainly is possible. This is how I would do it: Create a base
> class Jeff_App_Product, and in it define protected properties
> $_product and $_product_type. And also define function _preRun() which
> has something like this:
>
> $this->_product = Solar::factory('Jeff_Model_Product', array('type' =>
> $this->_product_type));
>
> Then create Jeff_App_Product_Dvd, *_Cd etc. classes. In them override
> the $_product_type like this (for Jeff_App_Product_Cd):
>
> protected $_product_type = 'cd';
>
> Ofcourse you need your model to accept a config key 'type' for this to work.
>
> After this you'll have your product model in all of your controllers
> configured for certain product types. Finally, set 'classes' config
> key for the front controller like so: array('Jeff_App_Product').
> You'll have uris like this: www.example.com/cd */dvd.

Forgot to say that you need to extend that Jeff_App_Product class in
those controllers. In Jeff_App_Product you may define whatever actions
using $this->_product instance inside of them.


-- 
Antti Holvikari <http://antti.dotgeek.org/blog>
Zend Certified Engineer (ZCE)