Celeroo Frame - The Simple GuestBook MVC Example

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The Simple GuestBook MVC Example

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The Simple GuestBook MVC Example

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Do you have 15 minutes? That will be enough to write a simple guestbook with Celeroo Frame. So, assuming you have installed Celeroo Frame, here are the next steps.

Let's create the database structure. We will need just one table. For this example we have used the standard celeroo-frame_table prefix, but you can use any:

CREATE TABLE `celerooframe_guestbooks` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
`date` date NOT NULL default '0000-00-00',
`ip` varchar(14) NOT NULL default '',
`message` text NOT NULL,
`url` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
);

We'll store the poster name, their IP (just in case), the message posted and url of their website if entered.

Now, let's create the variable in defines.inc.php so you don't have to use the table names directly in the code:

//names of the tables
$T_SETTINGS=$prefix.'settings';
$T_MESSAGES=$prefix.'guestbooks';

Now, let's create the model guestbook.php, which will handle all the database operations:

class Guestbook extends Basic
{
//
}

For this simple guestbook you don't need to do anything in the class. Note that we have named it with the same name as the database table name, but in singular and starting with a capital letter. This will ensure that the model will work with the right DB table.

That's everything you'll need in the model. You see the Celeroo Frame database object is automatically fetching arrays or single variables where you need them.

Now, it's time to create the controllers. You can go with just one controller, but to keep the things cleaner and simpler, we'll use two. The first will be loaded by default, therefore called main.php:

<?php
// default controller - list guestbook entries
$guestbook=new Guestbook();

list($messages,$count)=$guestbook->find();

$view="views/main.html";
?>

All we need to do here is to create an instance of the Guesbook model and get the messages for the current along with the total number.

What happened? We used the built-in method find() of the Basic model which is inherited in our Message model. The find() method allows you to retrieve a single record by ID or other field, or retrieve all records from the table if you don't pass an ID parameter.
The second parameter of the find() method is the $options array which lets you define things like ordering, pagination and offset. We didn't pass this array, because the default behavior of the method is to return paginated results and the count of all results. That's why we used list () to retrieve both values. In case you need a single record or need no pagination, the find() method will not select the $count and will return only the results of the query.

Then at the end of the controller we define the view. There is hard rule for the name of the view, but it's always a good idea to use the same or similar to the controller name.

Now, let's allow the users post messages with the controller post.php:

<?php
// post new guestbook entry

$guestbook=new Guestbook();

if(!empty($_POST["ok"]))
{
         $_POST[ip]=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
         $_POST[date]=date('Y-m-d');
         $guestbook->add($_POST);
         alert("Your message is posted!");
         jsredirect(SITE_URL);
}
else
{
         $view="views/post.html";
}
?>

This controller is pretty straightforward. In the view we will have a field called "ok" whose value will come when the form is submitted. Then we'll insert the post in the database, alert the user that it's done and do a javascript redirect to guestbook list page. Note that we didn't define the add() method in our model, because it is inherited by the Basic object. Before the form is submitted, the controller just displays the view.

You may notice there is no cleanup on the user's input. This is because defines.inc.php already takes care for dangerous input like <script> tags. If you with, you can strip all HTML tags, but in the example we'll let the users enter them.

Now, here are the view main.html:

<div style="margin:100px;">
<h1>My Guestbook</h1>

<p align="center">
<a href="<?=SITE_URL?>post/">Leave Your Message</a></p>

<?php if(!sizeof($messages)): ?>
<p align="center">There are no messages yet. You can be the first!</p>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php foreach($messages as $cnt=>$message):
         if($cnt%2==0) $bgcolor='#eeeeee';
         else $bgcolor='#ffffff';
?>
         <div style="background:<?=$bgcolor?>;padding:10px;border:1pt solid #aaaaaa; margin:5px;">
         At <?=dateformat($message[date])?>
         <?php if(!empty($message["url"])):?>
         <a href="<?=$message[url]?>" target=_blank><?=$message[name]?></a>
         <?php else: echo "<strong>$message[name]</strong>";
         endif; ?>
         says:<br /><br />
         <?=nl2br($message[message])?>
         </div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

<?php
echo nav_pages_se_friendly(SITE_URL."main",$count,$offset,10);
?>

</div>

There are few things to note here:

1. The alternative PHP Syntax is used for cleaner code. You are free to use the standard PHP syntax if you wish. We don't use any template language because there is no real benefit of that.

2. nav_pages() passes URL along with the controller action, although even going to index.php will work. But nav pages does not prepend "?" to the URL, so you need to give some arguments yourself.

Here is the view post.html:

Here you can see how the jsvalidate function is doing basic form validation ensuring the required fields are not empty.
Another thing to notice is that the form field names match exactly the fields of the database. This is not required in the current example. However, after we finish this one, we'll rewrite the guestbook in a simple manner using the same views. Then this will be important. Just read below.

So, that's all you need for a guestbook application if you follow the MVC concepts. But the guestbooks are such simple things, can't we do the things even quicker?

Even Quicker Guestbook Example

Fortunately Celeroo Frame does not require you to use models if you don't want. You can handle the simple operations in the controller and with the functions in the DB helper to finish the task in 10 minutes. So if you want to delete those models now, go ahead. Here is how your controllers will look in this case:

main.php

<?php
// default controller - list guestbook
$q="SELECT * FROM $T_MESSAGES ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT $offset,10";
$messages=$DB->aq($q);

$q="SELECT COUNT(id) FROM $T_MESSAGES";
$count=$DB->oq($q);

$view="views/main.html";
?>

Pretty short, isn't it? Note that here we have used the variables for the table names, because they are automatically available in the controller. For anyone who doesn't like globals, well, there are always constants.

The second controller is also short and a bit more interesting:
post.php

<?php
// post new guestbook entry
if(!empty($_POST["ok"]))
{
         $_POST["date"]=date("Y-m-d");
         dumpto_table($T_MESSAGES,$_POST);
         alert("Your message is posted!");
         jsredirect(SITE_URL);
}
else
{
         $view="views/post.html";
}
?>

Here we have used dumpto_table to avoid writing a database query. Because the web form fields match the database field names, using the function is possible. See how we have explicitly put the current date into $_POST so it gets entered in the DB too.

So if we exclude the views, how much actual PHP code have we written?
For the MVC example it took us 55 short lines of PHP code.
The example without model was even less - 16 lines PHP. This is how quick and light the applications written with Celeroo Frame are.

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