For all of the same options that are available when configuring an extended
Zend_Db_Table_Abstract class, those options are also available
when describing a definition file. This definition file should be passed to the class at
instantiation time so that it can know the full definition of all tables
in said definition.
Below is a definition that will describe the table names and relationships between table objects. Note: if 'name' is left out of the definition, it will be taken as the key of the defined table (an example of this is in the 'genre' section in the example below.)
Example 336. Describing the Definition of a Database Data Model
<?php
$definition = new Zend_Db_Table_Definition(array(
'author' => array(
'name' => 'author',
'dependentTables' => array('book')
),
'book' => array(
'name' => 'book',
'referenceMap' => array(
'author' => array(
'columns' => 'author_id',
'refTableClass' => 'author',
'refColumns' => 'id'
)
)
),
'genre' => null,
'book_to_genre' => array(
'referenceMap' => array(
'book' => array(
'columns' => 'book_id',
'refTableClass' => 'book',
'refColumns' => 'id'
),
'genre' => array(
'columns' => 'genre_id',
'refTableClass' => 'genre',
'refColumns' => 'id'
)
)
)
));
As you can see, the same options you'd generally see inside of an
extended Zend_Db_Table_Abstract class are documented in this
array as well. When passed into Zend_Db_Table constructor, this
definition is persisted to any tables it will need
to create in order to return the proper rows.
Below is an example of the primary table instantiation as well as
the findDependentRowset() and
findManyToManyRowset() calls that will
correspond to the data model described above:
Example 337. Interacting with the described definition
<?php
$authorTable = new Zend_Db_Table('author', $definition);
$authors = $authorTable->fetchAll();
foreach ($authors as $author) {
echo $author->id
. ': '
. $author->first_name
. ' '
. $author->last_name
. PHP_EOL;
$books = $author->findDependentRowset('book');
foreach ($books as $book) {
echo ' Book: ' . $book->title . PHP_EOL;
$genreOutputArray = array();
$genres = $book->findManyToManyRowset('genre', 'book_to_genre');
foreach ($genres as $genreRow) {
$genreOutputArray[] = $genreRow->name;
}
echo ' Genre: ' . implode(', ', $genreOutputArray) . PHP_EOL;
}
}