Models

Model Classes

You should create a model class for each entity in your application. For example, if you are building an application that requires users, you should create a User class. Your model classes should extend the base Model class:

class User extends Model {
}

Paris takes care of creating instances of your model classes, and populating them with data from the database. You can then add behaviour to this class in the form of public methods which implement your application logic. This combination of data and behaviour is the essence of the Active Record pattern.

Database Tables

Your User class should have a corresponding user table in your database to store its data.

By default, Paris assumes your class names are in CapWords style, and your table names are in lowercase_with_underscores style. It will convert between the two automatically. For example, if your class is called CarTyre, Paris will look for a table named car_tyre.

If you are using namespaces then they will be converted to a table name in a similar way. For example \Models\CarTyre would be converted to models_car_tyre. Note here that backslashes are replaced with underscores in addition to the CapWords replacement discussed in the previous paragraph.

To override this default behaviour, add a public static property to your class called $_table:

class User extends Model {
    public static $_table = 'my_user_table';
}

Auto Prefixing

To save having type out model class name prefixes whenever code utilises Model::for_table() it is possible to specify a prefix that will be prepended onto the class name.

See the Configuration documentation for more details.

ID Column

Paris requires that your database tables have a unique primary key column. By default, Paris will use a column called id. To override this default behaviour, add a public static property to your class called $_id_column:

class User extends Model {
    public static $_id_column = 'my_id_column';
}

Note - Paris has its own default ID column name mechanism, and does not respect column names specified in Idiorm’s configuration.

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