metas

Metas-Behavior

Warning: This behavior is still in development and not stable!

The Metas-Behavior can be used to add custom meta-data to your entities without creating an extra column. This can be useful when you build things that are extendable (like plugins).

Loading

You can load the behavior by the follwing code:

  public function initialize(array $config) {
      // code
      $this->addBehavior('Utils.Metas');
  }

Registering the Getters and Setters

We made it as easy as possible for you to add meta-fields. Wouldn't it be great if you could treath your meta-fields just like the default fields of your table? To do that you have to add getters and setters in your Entity.

    protected function _getCustomfield() {
        $model = TableRegistry::get('Bookmarks');
        return $model->registerGetter($this, 'customfield');
    }
  
    protected function _setCustomfield($value) {
        $model = TableRegistry::get('Bookmarks');
        $this->metas = $model->registerSetter($this, 'customfield', $value);
    }

Now you are able to get and set your customfield.

Some examples:

    // getting the customfield
    echo $entity->customfield;
    
    // form-field for the meta-field
    echo $this->Form->input('customfield');
    
    // setting the customfield
    $entity->customfield = "My Value";

Tips and Tricks

For Api

If you use metafields for api's, you see the getters didn't work. This is because it works like Virtual Fields.

By adding the fiels to the $_virtual-array they will be loaded with your entity:

  protected $_virtual = ['customfield'];

You can also add virtual fields at runtime:

  $entity->virtualProperties(['customfield']);

Traits

If you're building a plugin and want to let the user decide to use meta-keys for his entity you can use traits.

Example:

  // Customfield/Model/Entity/CustomfieldTrait.php
  
  namespace Customfield\Model\Entity;
  
  trait CustomfieldTrait {
  
    protected function _getCustomfield() {
        $model = TableRegistry::get('Bookmarks');
        return $model->registerGetter($this, 'customfield');
    }
  
    protected function _setCustomfield($value) {
        $model = TableRegistry::get('Bookmarks');
        $this->metas = $model->registerSetter($this, 'customfield', $value);
    }
  
  }

Now we've created the trait, we are able to use the trait.

  namespace App\Model\Entity;
  
  use Cake\ORM\Entity;
  use Customfield\Model\Entity\CustomfieldTrait;
  
  class Article extends Entity
  {
      use CustomfieldTrait;
  }