SiteEditPage

This page contains the specifications for a generic edit page that provides database transactions for queries, and convenience methods for manipulating SwatDBDataObject objects.

Helper Methods

• abstract isNew()
  • used to tell whether to set the widget values on page load from an existing object
• getForms()
  • gets descendant SwatForm widgets from the UI

Init Phase

• init()
  • loads UI from XML
  • initializes the UI
• initInternal()
  • sets action of forms ($this->getForms()) action to $this->source.
  • called after UI is loaded from XML
  • called before $ui->init();

Process Phase

• process()
  • authenticates by calling authenticate()
  • adds the getInvalidMessage() to the message display if isValid() returns false
  • calls save() and then relocate()
• authenticate()
  • authenticates form ($form->isAuthenticated()
  • adds a message to the message display if not authenticated
• validate()
  • empty by default
  • allows adding messages to form widgets
• isValid()
  • default returns !form->hasMessage()
  • allows returning false to invalidate the form
• abstract save()
  • saves to db in SiteDBEditPage or to something else in subclasses.
  • in SiteDBEditPage, performs a database transaction around whole of saveData and rolls-back with a message on error
  • updates dataobject properties
  • optionally call convenience assignUiValueToObject()
  • sets a message about saving the item
  • saves the dataobject
• abstract saveData()
  • only In SiteDBEditPage, wrapped in transaction version of save()
  • updates dataobject properties
  • optionally call convenience assignUiValueToObject()
  • sets a message about saving the item
  • saves the dataobject
• abstract relocate()
  • has no default implementation
  • allows relocating after saving
• assignUiValuesToObject()
  • convenience method for working with data-objects
  • takes an array of widget names and maps the widget values to dataobject properties
  • automatically does date time-zone conversion based on the site default-time-zone
  • automatically sets internal properties for sub-dataobjects
  • custom widget values can be handled manually in the save()/saveData() methods

Build Phase

• build()
  • builds title
  • builds navbar
  • captures UI display for 'content'
• buildInternal()
  • attaches $this->app->messages to a the message display
  • allows subclasses to do additional building before content is captured
• buildTitle()
  • empty by default
  • allows setting frame titles, page titles, etc.
• abstract load()
  • like save()
  • 'loads' form UI values for the page
  • usually calls assignObjectValuesToUi()
• assignObjectValuesToUi()
  • like assignUiValuesToObject()
  • convenience method to set UI values
  • also converts dates to the application time zone

Finalize Phase

• finalize()
  • adds UI head entries to layout

Notes and Ideas

• there will be two pages, SiteEditPage and SiteDBEditPage. One works without a database (for saving to the session for example)
• pages support multiple forms. Only the submitted form is processed.
• AdminEdit supports generating/verifying shortnames, useful?