Embedded (Nested) Models Extension for Yii 2

This extension provides support for embedded (nested) models usage in Yii2. In particular it allows working with sub-documents in MongoDB and ElasticSearch.

For license information check the LICENSE-file.

Installation

The preferred way to install this extension is through composer.

Either run

php composer.phar require --prefer-dist yii2tech/embedded

or add

"yii2tech/embedded": "*"

to the require section of your composer.json.

Usage

This extension grants the ability to work with complex model attributes, represented as arrays, as nested models, represented as objects. To use this feature the target class should implement [[\yii2tech\embedded\ContainerInterface]] interface. This can be easily achieved using [[\yii2tech\embedded\ContainerTrait]].

For each embedded entity a mapping declaration should be provided. In order to do so you need to declare method, which name is prefixed with 'embedded', which should return the [[Mapping]] instance. You may use [[hasEmbedded()]] and [[hasEmbeddedList()]] for this.

Per each of source field or property a new virtual property will declared, which name will be composed by removing 'embedded' prefix from the declaration method name.

Note: watch for the naming collisions: if you have a source property named 'profile' the mapping declaration for it should have different name, like 'profileModel'.

Example:

use yii\base\Model;
use yii2tech\embedded\ContainerInterface;
use yii2tech\embedded\ContainerTrait;

class User extends Model implements ContainerInterface
{
    use ContainerTrait;

    public $profileData = [];
    public $commentsData = [];

    public function embedProfile()
    {
        return $this->mapEmbedded('profileData', Profile::className());
    }

    public function embedComments()
    {
        return $this->mapEmbeddedList('commentsData', Comment::className());
    }
}

$user = new User();
$user->profile->firstName = 'John';
$user->profile->lastName = 'Doe';

$comment = new Comment();
$user->comments[] = $comment;

Each embedded mapping may have additional options specified. Please refer to [[\yii2tech\embedded\Mapping]] for more details.

Validating embedded models

Each embedded model should declare its own validation rules and, in general, should be validated separately. However, you may simplify complex model validation using [[\yii2tech\embedded\Validator]]. For example:

class User extends Model implements ContainerInterface
{
    use ContainerTrait;

    public $contactData;

    public function embedContact()
    {
        return $this->mapEmbedded('contactData', Contact::className());
    }

    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            ['contact', 'yii2tech\embedded\Validator'],
        ]
    }
}

class Contact extends Model
{
    public $email;

    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            ['email', 'required'],
            ['email', 'email'],
        ]
    }
}

$user = new User();
if ($user->populate(Yii::$app->request->post()) && $user->contact->populate(Yii::$app->request->post())) {
    if ($user->validate()) { // automatically validates 'contact' as well
        // ...
    }
}