Objects

Objects are one of the three available (allowed) entities types. Their data are stored in two (2) tables: entities and objects. Let's see some examples:

• A blog post is treated as an object.
• An uploaded image can be stored as an object.
• Menus items are stored as objects... etc.

I let you think of other objects, I just gave you examples :)

Table Structure

As you can see on the image above, the table contains only three columns:

• guid: Which holds objects IDs, used as a foreign key to get the rest from entities table.
• name: Holds objects names.
• description (optional): Holds objects descriptions if you want to.
• content (optional): Holds objects content (post content, image details ...).

Creating Objects

The same way as creating users or groups, you can create objects by using the provided create method or its helper add_object. Example:

/*
 * To create an object, pass an array of object's details
 * to the "create" method. Anythin that can be found
 * on "entities" and "objects" table are inserted to
 * them. Any additional arguments will be treated as
 * metadata and will be inserted into the "metadata"
 * table once the object is created.
 */
$this->kbcore->objects->create($data);
// Or you can use the helper:
add_object($data);

Updating Objects

You can update a single, all or multiple objects depending on the method or function you use. Let me explain in example:

/*
 * To update a single obect by its ID, pass its known
 * ID as the first argument, then an array of whatever
 * you want to update as the second argument.
 */
$this->kbcore->objects->update($id, $data);
// Or use the helper:
update_object($id, $data);

/*
 * To update a single, all or multiple objects by
 * arbitrary WHERE clause, use the "update_by"
 * method or its helpers: "update_object_by" or
 * "update_objects".
 */
 $this->kbcore->objects->update_by(
	// The first argument is the WHERE clause.
	 array('name' => 'objectname'),
	 // The second is the array of what to update.
	 array('description' => 'New description.')
 );
 // Or use helpers:
 update_object_by(...);	// Same arguments.
 update_objects(...);	// Same arguments.

Deleting Objects

Part of objects data are stored in entities table which has soft_delete enabled. It means that they will not be deleted from database but only hidden from access. When building your application up, think of what should your featured do, delete or remove.

To delete objects, you have multiple choices:

// Delete a single object by its ID:
$this->kbcore->objects->delete($id);
delete_object($id);

// To delete a single, all or multiple objects:
$this->kbcore->objects->delete_by($field, $match);
delete_object_by($field, $match);
delete_objects($field, $match);

Deleting multiple objects accept various arguments combination. Below are some examples on how to do it:

// Delete multiple objects by IDs:
delete_objects('id', array(1, 12, 23));

// Delete by their IDs and subtypes:
delete_objects(array(
	'subtype' => 'objects_subtypes',
	'id'      => array(1, 12, 23, 34),
));

This is the hard delete part, may be you should consider what to do before using the following methods.

Objects can be completely removed from database, as well as all things related to them (metadata, variables ... etc). There are several methods and functions you may use, they are the same as the delete methods, simply remplace delete with remove.

// Remove by its ID.
$this->kbcore->objects->remove($id);
remove_object($id);

// Arbitrary WHERE clause.
$this->kbcore->objects->remove_by($field, $match);
remove_object_by($field, $match);
remove_objects($field, $match);

Retrieveing Objects

Retrieving objects is easy. It can be done using a object's ID for single object retrieving, or arbitrary WHERE clause for a single or multiple objects retrieving. Examples:

// Retrieve a single object by its ID.
$this->kbcore->objects->get($id);
get_object($id); // The helper.

// Retrieve a single object by arbitrary WHERE clause.
$this->kbcore->objects->get_by($field, $match);
get_object_by($field, $match); // The helper.

// To retrieve all or multiple objects by WHERE clause
$this->kbcore->objects->get_many($field, $match, $limit, $offset);
get_objects($field, $match, $limit, $offset);

// To retrieve all objects
$this->kbcore->objects->get_all($limit, $offset);
get_all_objects($limit, $offset);

Counting Objects

In order to count objects, you can use the count method or its helper count_objects. They both accept two arguments used to filter objects before returning the count.

$this->kbcore->objects->count($field, $match);
count_objects($field, $match);

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IMPORTANT

All methods and functions are to be used in controllers. In case you want to use them in libraries, make sure to never use helpers because they may trigger an undefined property: $kbcore error.