Models

• Introduction
• Register a Model
  • Add Eloquent ORM support
• Basic usage

Introduction

Themosis framework comes with a basic system of models and if you're using the full stack of the Themosis framework, you can extend your model class to use the popular Laravel Eloquent ORM.

A model will store the methods/functions that manipulate your data. You can perform actions to read, update and delete data from your WordPress database, using both WordPress core functions and/or Illuminate/Database API.

The Query Builder and Eloquent ORM API from the Illuminate/database package are only available if you're using the full stack Themosis framework. Meaning that your project is based on the themosis/themosis package and not a classic WordPress installation with the framework loaded.

Register a Model

In order to create a model, simply create a new PHP class inside the resources/models directory of your theme or custom plugin. By default, model classes are loaded using the PSR-4 standard. Models from the theme use the Theme\Models namespace.

Check the plugin guide for custom plugin namespace.

Here is an example of a simple model class:

<?php

namespace Theme\Models;

class Post
{
    /**
     * Return a list of all published posts.
     * (not recommended)
     * 
     * @return array
     */
    public function all()
    {
        $query = new WP_Query([
            'post_type' => 'post',
            'posts_per_page' => -1,
            'post_status' => 'publish'
        ]);

        return $query->get_posts();
    }
}

If you want to change your theme models namespace, use the loading.config.php file stored inside the resources/config directory of your themosis-theme:

<?php

return [

    /*
    * Edit this file in order to configure your theme's
    * classes autoloading. Classes are loaded using PSR-4.
    *
    * The key is the namespace and key's value contains one or more paths to your classes.
    */
    'Theme\\Controllers\\' => themosis_path('theme.resources').'controllers',
    'Theme\\Models\\' => themosis_path('theme.resources').'models',
    'Theme\\Providers\\' => themosis_path('theme.resources').'providers'

];

The function themosis_path('theme.resources') returns the theme resources folder path. More information about the themosis_path function in the Helpers guide.

Add Eloquent ORM support

Developers familiar with the Illuminate/database package can set their models to extend the Eloquent ORM. Here is an example of a model class extending the above simple post model:

<?php

namespace Theme\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Post extends Model
{
    /**
     * The post model class fetch its records
     * from the "wp_posts" table.
     * The DB prefix is already defined for you.
     */
    protected $table = 'posts';

    /**
     * Eloquent needs to know which column in
     * the wp_posts table is the primary key.
     */
    protected $primaryKey = 'ID';

    /**
     * WordPress do not have "created_at" and "updated_at"
     * columns. Or define class const CREATED_AT and UPDATED_AT
     */
    public $timestamps = false;
}

You can also define custom timestamps columns using the const CREATED_AT and UPDATED_AT and specify the post_date and post_modified columns in place of not handling timestamps at all.

For more information about Eloquent ORM configuration, please read the Laravel documentation.

Basic usage

In order to use your model, simply create a new instance. Using the above example code, we can retrieve all the posts for our view like so:

// Using the simple model representation.
// Route callback can auto instantiate classes as well.
Route::get('home', function (Post $model) {
    return view('pages.home', [
        'posts' => $model->all()
    ]);
});

In the previous example, it returns an array of WP_Post objects. Now you can use the same approach with our model that extends the Eloquent ORM like so:

Route::get('home', function (Post $model) {
    return view('pages.all', [
        'posts' => $model->all() // Now the all() method is coming from the Eloquent base model
    ]);
});

Store your model classes in the resources/models directory of your theme or custom plugin.

Next

Read the views guide