PropelJS

Interact with your Propel database, in JavaScript. PropelJS generates a JavaScript library from your Propel schema.

PropelJS is a behavior plugin for the Propel PHP ORM. You must be using Propel in order to use this package.

Example

Write the following JavaScript:

var db = bookstore.propelJS({baseAddress:'/api/'});

// Retrieve a book and log its title.
db.books(2).get().then(
    function(book) {
        console.log(book.getTitle());
    }

// Create an author and a book they've written
db.authors()
    .setFirstName('John')
    .setLastName('Steinbeck Jr.')
    .save()
    .then(
        function(author) {
            db.books()
                .setTitle('Grapes of Wrath II')
                .setAuthorId(author.getId())
                .save();
        }
    );

// Remove a book from the database.
db.books(5).delete();

Given the following schema:

<database name="bookstore" defaultIdMethod="native">

  <table name="author" phpName="Author">
    <column name="id" type="integer" required="true" primaryKey="true" autoIncrement="true"/>
    <column name="first_name" type="varchar" size="128" required="true"/>
    <column name="last_name" type="varchar" size="128" required="true"/>
  </table>

  <table name="book" phpName="Book">
    <column name="id" type="integer" required="true" primaryKey="true" autoIncrement="true"/>
    <column name="title" type="varchar" size="255" required="true" />

    <column name="author_id" type="integer" required="true"/>
    <foreign-key foreignTable="author">
      <reference local="author_id" foreign="id"/>
    </foreign-key>
  </table>

  <behavior name="propel_js" />

</database>

PropelJS creates the JavaScript library automatically every time you run propel model:build.

How it Works

PropelJS is a Propel database behavior. Each time you run propel model:build, it will generate a JavaScript library and an API handler class.

In your backend, you create an API endpoint which invokes the ::handle method of the API handler class. In your frontend, you initialize a database connection to that endpoint. Then, all of your commands like db.authors(3).get(); are routed through the API handler and Propel's database connection.

Brief Setup Guide

The following steps assume you're using Composer and the LAMP stack. If you're not using Composer, then you can adapt these instructions to your own deployment environment.

1. Install PropelJS: Add "athens/propel-js": "1.*" to your Composer dependencies and run composer update.

2. Propel Schema: Add the <behavior name="propel_js" /> between your <database></database> tags. PropelJS is a database behavior, so it should not be placed inside <table></table> tags.

3. Build Your Models: Run propel model:build. This creates a generated-api/API.php file and a generated-js/your-db-name.js file.

4. Add API.php to Autoload: Add "generated-api/" to your composer.json autoloading, alongside "generated-classes/".

5. Create an API Endpoint: You now need to create a web-accessible directory to serve as your API endpoint. For example, the api/ directory could be your API endpoint using the following api/index.php sample:

   require_once "/path/to/your/autoload.php";
   
   use \YourPropelProjectNamespace\API;
   
   echo API::handle();
   

6. Request Routing: All requests to your API (eg: api/authors/2) need to be routed to api/index.php by your webserver. Depending on your server configuration, the following api/.htaccess might work:

   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /absolute/path/to/api/index.php [L]
   

7. Include the JavaScript: You can either copy your your-db-name.js into a web accessible directory or you can configure your server to make the generated-js/ directory web accessible. In either case, you'll need to include your-db-name.js and jQuery in your page headers:

   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.4.min.js"></script>
   <script src="/bookstore.js"></script>
   

8. Configure the Connection: Now you have to tell your JavaScript library where to find your API endpoint by configuring a database connection. For example:

   var db = bookstore.propelJS({baseAddress:'/api/'});
   

   You can read about more configuration options.

That's it! The db variable is now your handle for communicating with the database. See JavaScript Library Syntax for more information on how to use your auto generated library.

Detailed Example

This example demonstrates the basic steps that you'll need to complete to use PropelJS. We'll use the LAMP stack plus Composer for dependency management.

The specific details of this example may or may not work on your server, depending on its configuration. And I've chosen some details that favor easy security over easy deployment; adapt this example to your own practices.

This example will use the following project structure:

├── composer.json
├── propel.inc
├── schema.xml
├── generated-classes/
├── generated-migrations/
├── generated-sql/
├── vendor/
└── webroot/
    ├── about.php
    └── index.php

The webroot/ directory will serve as the root of our web domain, with index.php and about.php addressed as http://example.net/index.php and http://example.net/about.php.

Step 1: Installation

This library is published on Packagist. To install using Composer, add the "athens/propel-js": "1.*" line to your "require" section:

{
    "require": {
        ...
        "athens/propel-js": "1.*",
        ...
    }
}

Step 2: Propel Schema

PropelJS is a database-level behavior for Propel. To use it, you must insert <behavior name="propel_js" /> into your database schema. For example:

<database name="bookstore" defaultIdMethod="native">

  <table name="author" phpName="Author">
    <column name="id" type="integer" required="true" primaryKey="true" autoIncrement="true"/>
    <column name="first_name" type="varchar" size="128" required="true"/>
    <column name="last_name" type="varchar" size="128" required="true"/>
  </table>

  <table name="book" phpName="Book">
    <column name="id" type="integer" required="true" primaryKey="true" autoIncrement="true"/>
    <column name="title" type="varchar" size="255" required="true" />

    <column name="author_id" type="integer" required="true"/>
    <foreign-key foreignTable="author">
      <reference local="author_id" foreign="id"/>
    </foreign-key>
  </table>

  <behavior name="propel_js" />

</database>

Take note that <behavior name="propel_js" /> should be placed inside your <database></database> tags, but not inside your <table></table> tags.

Step 3: Rebuild Your Models

Perform a propel model:build as usual.

You should now have a generated-api/ directory and a generated-js/ directory living alongside your usual generated-classes/ directory.

├── composer.json
├── propel.inc
├── schema.xml
├── generated-api/        <- New
│   └── API.php          <- New
├── generated-classes/
├── generated-js/         <- New
│   └── bookstore.js     <- New
├── generated-migrations/
├── generated-sql/
├── vendor/
└── webroot/
    ├── about.php
    └── index.php

Step 4: Add API.php to Autoload

If you're using Composer or any other autoloading scheme, then you need to add the API class inside API.php to that autoloader. For Composer, add the generated-api/ directory to the autoload section of your composer.json. For example:

...
"autoload": {
        "classmap": [
            "generated-classes/",
            "generated-api/",
        ]
    }
...

Step 5: Create an API Endpoint

Create an api directory and an index.php to serve API requests.

├── composer.json
├── propel.inc
├── schema.xml
├── generated-api/
│   └── API.php
├── generated-classes/
├── generated-js/
│   └── bookstore.js
├── generated-migrations/
├── generated-sql/
├── vendor/
└── webroot/
    ├── api/             <- This directory
    │   ├── .htaccess   <- This file
    │   └── index.php   <- And this file
    ├── about.php
    └── index.php

<?php
/** api/index.php */

require_once dirname(__FILE__) ."/../vendor/autoload.php";

/**
 * The 'Bookstore' namespace comes from our database schema definition.
 * Your project will probably have a different namespace.
 */
echo \Bookstore\API::handle();

For your own project, the namespace for API won't be Bookstore. Change Bookstore to the namespace of your Propel files. If in doubt, check the namespace declaration in generated-api/API.php.

The .htaccess file is explained in the next step.

Step 6: Request Routing

In order to serve API requests such as GET /api/authors/2, we have to tell Apache to direct any requests within the 'api/' directory to the 'api/index.php' file.

If you're using an Apache web server, then this can be accomplished with a .htaccess file. The following api\.htaccess example is likely to work on your server:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# You may need to change '/api/index.php' to the actual absolute address of your API index.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /api/index.php [L]

However this may not work on your particular server: your server might not have mod-rewrite, or your Apache config might not allow you to use it on your site.

Consult your local .htaccess guru if you need help.

Step 7: Include the JavaScript

In order for our web pages to include the bookstore.js, it has to be accessible to the web. There are two ways to accomplish this:

1. Configure your server/project so that the generated-js/ directory is accessible to the web.
2. Copy the bookstore.js file into a web-accessible directory.

I would normally choose (1) to ease deployment, but for demonstration purposes we'll demonstrate (2) by copying bookstore.js into the webroot/ directory:

├── composer.json
├── propel.inc
├── schema.xml
├── generated-api/
│   └── API.php
├── generated-classes/
├── generated-js/
│   └── bookstore.js
├── generated-migrations/
├── generated-sql/
├── vendor/
└── webroot/
    ├── api/
    │   ├── .htaccess
    │   └── index.php
    ├── bookstore.js      <- Paste bookstore.js here
    ├── about.php
    └── index.php

Now bookstore.js is addressable as http://example.net/bookstore.js, and you can include it in the head of your html files:

<head>
...
    <!-- PropelJS requires JQuery -->
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.4.min.js"></script>
    <script src="/bookstore.js"></script>
...
</head>

Step 8: Configure a Connection

Finally, we configure a PropelJS connection. This can go right below the <script src="/bookstore.js"></script> tag we created in Step 7:

<head>
...
    <!-- PropelJS requires JQuery -->
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.4.min.js"></script>
    <script src="/bookstore.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript">
        var db = bookstore.propelJS({baseAddress:'/api/'});
    </script>
...
</head>

That's it! Now you can create, retrieve, update, and delete authors and books as in the example above.

Connection Configuration

In the examples above, we use var db = bookstore.propelJS({baseAddress:'/api/'}); to create a database connection. The dictionary {baseAddress:'/api/'} represents the configuration options used to create the connection, but baseAddress is not the only available option.

The available options are:

Option	Required	Description	Default	Example
baseAddress	Yes	The absolute address of your base API endpoint directory	N/A	'/api/'
headers	No	Extra headers to include in each request.	{}	{'CSRF-Token' : 'c06pmdts636djbbe'}

The headers option would typically be used to send authentication headers for a CSRF or OAuth protected API. For example:

    var db = bookstore.propelJS(
        {
            baseAddress: '/api/',
            headers: {
                'CSRF-TOKEN': 'c06pmdts636djbbe'
            }
        }
    );

JavaScript Library Syntax

The PropelJS interface is built on method cascading and jQuery promises.

Creating and manipulating instances:

// Configure a connection to the database.
var db = bookstore.propelJS({baseAddress:'/api/'});

// Create a new author
var myAuthor = bookstore.authors();

// Set the author details:
myAuthor.setFirstName('Sam');
myAuthor.setLastName('Morgan');

// Create a new author and set details using method cascading:
var myAuthor2 = bookstore.authors()
    .setFirstName('Terri')
    .setLastName('Johns');

// Create a book:
var myBook = bookstore.books()
    .setTitle('Cold Winds');

Saving to the database:

myAuthor.save();

Each instance has a get, save, and delete method. These database I/O methods return jQuery promises for asynchronous response handling. For example:

// Save myAuthor2 to the database. When that is done, retrieve the author id
// returned by the database and assign it to the AuthorID of myBook. Then save
// myBook.

myAuthor2.save()
    .then(
        function(author) {
            myBook.setAuthorId(author.getId()).save();
        }
    );

Retrieving an instance from the database:

// Retrieve the author with id 4, then log their name
db.authors(4)
    .get()
    .then(
        function(author) {
            console.log(author.getFirstName());
        }
    );

Deleting an instance from the database:

db.authors(4)
    .delete()
    .then(
        function() {
            console.log("Deleted an author.")
        }
    );

You can retrieve multiple instances from the database by doing a GET without specifying an ID. Here, we search for all authors with the first name John. The resulting collection authors supports a jQuery style each:

db.authors()
    .setFirstName('John')
    .get()
    .then(
        function(authors) {
            authors.each(function(author) {
                console.log('Found author John ' + author.getLastName() + '.');
            });
        }
    );

Compatibility

• PHP 5.5, 5.6, 7.0
• Propel 2

Todo

See GitHub issue tracker.

Getting Involved

Feel free to open pull requests or issues. GitHub is the canonical location of this project.

Here's the general sequence of events for code contribution:

1. Open an issue in the issue tracker.
2. In any order: Submit a pull request with a failing test that demonstrates the issue/feature. Get acknowledgement/concurrence.
3. Revise your pull request to pass the test in (2). Include documentation, if appropriate.

PSR-2 compliance is enforced by CodeSniffer in Travis.