sfPropel15TaggableBehaviorPlugin

A behavior and a widget for symfony 1.x and propel 1.6

How to install

• add this plugin as a git submodule in your project. From your project root:

  git submodule add git://github.com/matteosister/sfPropel15TaggableBehaviorPlugin.git plugins/sfPropel15TaggableBehaviorPlugin

• enable the plugin in your ProjectConfiguration class

config/ProjectConfiguration.class.php

<?php

require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/../lib/vendor/symfony/autoload/sfCoreAutoload.class.php';
sfCoreAutoload::register();

class ProjectConfiguration extends sfProjectConfiguration
{
  public function setup()
  {
    // ...
    $this->enablePlugins('sfPropel15TaggableBehaviorPlugin');
    // ...
  }
}

• add the taggable behavior to a class in your schema file

config/schema.xml

<table name="article">
    <behavior name="taggable" />
    <column name="id" type="integer" primaryKey="true" autoIncrement="true"/>
    <column name="title" type="varchar" size="255" />
    <!-- ... -->
</table>

• rebuild your model

php symfony propel:build-all

• publish assets

php symfony plugin:publish-assets

Classes And Tables generated

The behavior creates a taggable_tag table that is populated with tags Then it creates a %table%_tagging table for every object in your model with the taggable behavior. This middle table is marked as isCrossRef, with two foreign keys, one on the object and one on the tag table. This integrates the tagging mechanism completely inside propel

How to use

Some examples:

<?php
$article = new Article();


// there are two ways to add tags. The propel way:
$tag = new Tag();
$tag->setName('propel');
$article->addTag($tag);
$article->save();

// or the addTags method, that directly accept strings, array or csv
$article->addTags('symfony'); // a string with no comma is a single tag
$article->addTags('linux, ubuntu'); // a string with comma is multiple tag
$article->addTags('symfony'); // if the object is already tagged nothing happens
$article->addTags(array('linus', 'torvalds')); // list of tags as an array


// remove tags
$article->removeTags('symfony');
$article->removeTags('linux, ubuntu');
$article->removeTags(array('linus', 'torvalds'));

// retrieve tags
$article->getTags() // PropelCollection of Tag object


// Query object
$articles = ArticleQuery::create()->filterByTagName('propel')->find();

// you could also use the propel generated method. filterByTagName is just a shortcut of
$articles = ArticleQuery::create()->useArticleTaggingQuery()->useTagQuery()->filterByName('propel')->endUse()->endUse();

// if you have a tag object (for example in a list of article tagged with...) propel has already done the dirty job
$tag = TagQuery::create()->findOneByName('symfony');
$articles = ArticleQuery::create()->filterByTag($tag)->find();

Tag widget!

This plugin creates a tagging table with crossref attribute, that has one fk on the object table and one on the tag table. When this "many-to-many" relations occur, Propel admin generator comes out of the box with a nice multiple select to tag your objects. But if you want something more interactive there is a nice jquery powered widget.

• Enable the sfTagHub module in your settings.yml file (for jquery requests):

app/backend/config/settings.yml

all:
  .settings:
  # ...
  enabled_modules:        [..., sfTagHub]

- Create a tag field with sfWidgetFormInputTags widget in your form class, and don't forget the validator both of them accept the taggable object as a parameter

lib/form/ArticleForm.class.php

class ArticleForm extends BaseArticleForm
{
  public function configure()
  {
      // this is mandatory. Or the default multiple select widget will override the tags widget
      unset($this['article_tagging_list']); // change "article" with your propel table name.
      // ....
      $this->setWidget('tags', new sfWidgetFormInputTags(array('taggable' => $this->getObject())));
      $this->setValidator('tags', new sfValidatorTags(array('taggable' => $this->getObject())));
  }
}

• clear your cache

php symfony cc

Now your form has a widget with jquery autocomplete that read from the tag table. And a list of tags associated with a delete button and a nice fadeout effect. The tags are saved server side (when you hit "save" on your form). The tag deletion are made via ajax and the sfTagHub module. No "save" needed.

TODO

• check compatibility with propel 1.5.x, I'm testing this on propel 1.6.0 and symfony 1.4.8.
• check the autogeneration of removeXXX() by propel in many-to-many relations