Object persistence

Getting objects to persist between page views is cumbersome since you have to input all elements as HTTP form types and read them on the next view. By using eZHTTPPersistence it's possible to fetch these data automatically. The class can also be used to split selected items from unselected ones.

Filling in data from forms

The HTML form

The HTML form is created by inputting the data elements as hidden inputs.

<form type="post">
<input type="hidden" name="MyData_title[]" value="title1" />
<input type="hidden" name="MyData_title[]" value="title2" />
<input type="hidden" name="MyData_title[]" value="title3" />
</form>

The definition

We then create a definition so that data is properly input. Fields define the mapping from attributes to member variables and keys contain an array of attributes which are defined as keys (keys are not overridden).

$my_def = array( "fields" => array( "id" => "ID",
                                    "title" => "Title" ),
                 "keys" => array( "id" ) );

The code

Finally we fetch the original objects from the DB and override the data with the form data

// Fetch the objects from the DB
$objects =&t; fetch_objects();
// Fetch the HTTP data with "MyData" as the base
eZHTTPPersitence::fetch( "MyData", $my_def, $objects, eZHTTPTool::instance(), true );

Splitting data

The HTML form

The HTML form consists of a number of checkboxes with a specific name.

<form type="post">
<input type="checkbox" name="MyData_id_checked[]" value="1" />
<input type="checkbox" name="MyData_id_checked[]" value="5" />
<input type="checkbox" name="MyData_id_checked[]" value="42" />
</form>

The code

In the code we fetch all the existing objects and split them into two arrays, the objects in the last array are then removed.

// Fetch the objects from the DB
$objects =&t; fetch_objects();
// Fetch the HTTP data with "MyData" as the base
eZHTTPPersitence::splitSelected( "MyData", $objects, eZHTTPTool::instance(), "id",
                                 $keep_objs, $remove_objs );
foreach( $remove_objs as $obj )
{
    $obj->remove();
}