Generic user data management class

[Mce]

A generic drop in class for use with any MySQL (and likely orther SQL DBs).
Any suggestions for improvement or something that seems missing?

BTW the // {{{ and // }}} are fold markers for vi.

class user{ // {{{
var $id_field;      // the field name you index users on
var $usr_ara;       // array of all the fields for a user
var $usertab;       // table name for your users
var $fldname_ara;   // contains a list of the fields in $usertab to seperate temp user params

function user($id,$usertab='user',$id_field='id',$link) {
  // Needs link resource identifier passed in as $link
  $this->usertab = $usertab;
  $this->fldname_ara = array();
  $this->id_field = $id_field;
  // Get list of fields in $usertab
  $query = "SHOW COLUMNS FROM $this->usertab";
  $result = mysql_query($query);
  while(list($fldname) = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
    $this->fldname_ara[$fldname] = $fldname;
  }
  return TRUE;
}

function loadUser($id_in,$link) {
  // Needs link resource identifier passed in as $link
  $query = "select * from $this->usertab where $this->id_field=$id_in";
  if(!$result = mysql_query($query,$link)) return FALSE;
  $this->usr_ara = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
  return TRUE;
}

function getUserField($fldname) {
  // returns requested field value
  return $this->usr_ara[$fldname];
}

function setUserField($fldname,$val,$tmpflg=FALSE) {
  // Sets value of a field in member $usr_ara
  // if $tmpflg is TRUE then it will allow you to add
  // temporary key=>value pairs to member $usr_ara
  if(!array_key_exists($fldname,$fldname_ara) && $tmpflg == FALSE) return FALSE;
  $this->usr_ara[$fldname] = $val;
  return TRUE;
}

function saveUser($id_in,$link,$now_ara='') {
  // Saves only fields listed in member $fldname_ara
  // Needs link resource identifier passed in as $link
  if($now_ara == '') $now_ara = array();
  $query = "update $this->usertab set ";
  $end_test = sizeof($fldname_ara);
  $cnt = 1;
  foreach($this->usr_ara as $k=>$v) {
    if(in_array($k,$this->fldname_ara)) {
      if($cnt < $end_test) $cma = ',';
      $val = mysql_escape_string($v);
      $query .= (array_key_exists($k,$now_ara)) ? $k.'=now()'.$cma : "$k='$v'".$cma;
      if($cnt = $end_test) break;
      $cnt++;
    }
  }
  $query .= " where $this->id_field=$id_in";
  if(!$result = mysql_query($query,$link)) return FALSE;
  return TRUE;
}

} // }}}

[frizzo]

in my classes i like to include methods to set the values from the form:

	function set_from_form(){
		GLOBAL $HTTP_POST_VARS;
		$this->set_name($HTTP_POST_VARS['cat_name']);
		$this->set_parent_id($HTTP_POST_VARS['cat_id']); 
		$this->set_is_default($HTTP_POST_VARS['is_default']);                              

	}

i set the ID manually. so the function works for updating and inserting.

and when i load something from the db, i use a set from row:

	function set_from_row($row){
		if(gettype($row) != "array"){
			return false;
		}
		if (count($row) == 0){
			return false;
		}
		foreach ($row as $key => $value) {
			switch($key){
				case 'id':
					$this->set_id($row[$key]); 
					break;
				case 'date_added':
					$this->set_date_added(stripslashes($row[$key])); 
					break;
				case 'year':
					$this->set_year(stripslashes($row[$key])); 
					break;
				case 'month':
					$this->set_month(stripslashes($row[$key])); 
					break;
				case 'day':
					$this->set_day(stripslashes($row[$key])); 
					break;
				case 'title':
					$this->set_title(stripslashes($row[$key])); 
					break;
				case 'overview':
					$this->set_overview(stripslashes($row[$key])); 
					break;
			}
		}
		return true;
	}

and a delete function...

	function delete(){
		if(!is_numeric($this->id)){
			return false;
		}
		$sql = "delete from res where id=" . $this->id;
		mysql_query($sql, $this->conn);
		return true;
	}

i also use individual get/set methods to make sure ints remain ints. just a suggestion 🙂

all my classes have this kind of basic structure... makes things easy for me, maybe will help you too

Frizzo

[planetsim]

You shouldnt be using global on $HTTP_POST_VARS maybe send it as an argument.

[frizzo]

whats wrong with setting it global within the scope of the function?

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by frizzo
whats wrong with setting it global within the scope of the function?

Because there's a variable in-scope that contains all that information already - $_POST[] - unless you're planning to cater for those who still haven't upgraded to PHP4.1.

I'm not personally keen on using thost variables in objects myself: it reduces flexibility for field validation (you want to validate your fields before you start doing anything with them).

But how's this for a controversial bit of class API:

function foo()
{
    if(!func_get_args())
        return $this->foo;
    return $this->foo = func_get_arg(0);
}

?

[Moonglobe]

very nice weed... i would actually use that, if it didnt go against my naming conventions :p

but i agree about $HTTP_POST_VARS, and also about not even usign $_POST inside the function unless said function contains (or calls) all required validation code.

[Mce]

Frizzo,

I often use PHP as a kind of super shell script as perl just chaps my rear...
So in my world a generic DB abstraction layer class would not be considering a form, neither should it , the form vars should really be validated, parsed and formatted before ever reaching a DB class. So I was not considering forms when writing that. That said I do use PHP mostly for web backends professionaly and can understand why that might seem like a good idea, but for what you are mentioning I would suggest maybe developing a form validation class that returns an array (that is essentially a copy of the $_POST array) after subjecting it's elements to various tests which one might define else where in a format which the class can use to validate by (i.e. list of element names with expected type of data to be passed to the constructor, or other method).

[frizzo]

Mce,

Sometimes I have a validate() function which i call before inserting or updating into db, and I usually do form validation with javascript to save time on the viewer's behalf.

weedpacket,

hum, thanks for the info on $_POST[]. I think I was using that but at some point, on some poject, it wasn't global - is that possible with an ini setting?

function foo() 
{ 
    if(!func_get_args()) 
        return $this->foo; 
    return $this->foo = func_get_arg(0); 
}

so you call it, and stick a value in the args, and if there's a value there then it sets $foo to that value and returns 1, and if you don't provide an arg, it just spits $foo at you?

interesting, so when would you use this, instead of get/set functions? just make a foo() for each class member? that could save some code...and the validation could be in there too...

frizzo

[Moonglobe]

actually, if there's an arg, it returns that arg; the expression ($foo = 3😉 is equal to (3), not (1) or (true).

[Weedpacket]

Yup; instead of echo $this->foo; you have echo $this->foo();, and instead of $this->foo = $bar; you have $this->foo($bar); The reason for returning $bar in the second case is of course because that's what the '=' operator it's replacing does as well - one can write $baz = $this->foo($bar); instead of $baz = $this->foo = $bar;.

Needless to say, $this->foo($bar) could do arbitrarily more than just assign $bar to $this->foo ... which is the whole point of accessor methods.

[Moonglobe]

then again you coud just use PHP5's overloading stuff to do the same thing, i.e storing everything in an array and catching any attempts to set a variable.

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by Moonglobe
then again you coud just use PHP5's overloading stuff to do the same thing, i.e storing everything in an array and catching any attempts to set a variable.

Ooh, yes - that's right! I haven't played around with those overloading features at all yet! Still transitioning from PHP4.