blainesch/li3_fake_model

Lithium PHP alternative (fast) model implementation

Lithium Fake Model

For those times when you don't want a real one, _(*1)

, _(*2)

This library is for the PHP Lithium Web Framework and provides an alternative to its built-in data models., _(*3)

It doesn't do much, but that's kinda the point. Here's a comparison:, _(*4)

[1] Sort of. We wrap the native LI3 data source in our own to avoid the Document/DocumentSet madness., _(*5)

[2] I've only tested with MongoDB, but Fake Models could be adjusted to work with a SQL data source if someone wants to make the effort., _(*6)

Then why would I use this?

You probably shouldn't. I mean, Fake Models do basically nothing! No one in their right mind would make the switch., _(*7)

OK, to be honest, Lithium Models are bloated and they're slow. They store lots of redundant data, and all the filterable methods (I suspect) contribute to their slowness., _(*8)

Here are some benchmarks..., _(*9)

Each test was with 100 iterations (divide each by 100 to get true timing)., _(*10)

Relationships

Lithium models support relationships at the data source layer, which works fine for relational databases, but not for MongoDB., _(*11)

Fake models support relationships at the model level and efficiently eager-loads related records by issuing extra queries. Here's how you use it:, _(*12)

1. Define your model relationships., _(*13)

class Posts extends Model {

  public $hasMany = array(
    'Comments' => array(
      'to'        => 'Comments',  // The model
      'key'       => array('_id' => 'comment_id'), // or, you can use an array of foreign keys, e.g. array('comment_ids' => '_id')
      'fieldName' => 'comments',  // The key it's on
      // `order`, `limit`, `conditions` can also be used
    ),
  );

}

2. Query your model and tell it which relationships to fetch., _(*14)

$posts = Posts::all(array(
  'with' => array('Comments')
));

The above query will:, _(*15)

1. query and fetch all the posts
2. issue a second query to get all the comments
3. connect the child comments onto the appropriate parent posts

Relationships can also provide deep query logic:, _(*16)

$posts = Posts::all(array(
  'with' => array(
    'comments' => array(
      'order' => array('date' => 'asc'),
      'limit' => 10,
      'conditions' => array(
        'flagged' => false,
      ),
    ),
));

Relationships can also be nested further, e.g.:, _(*17)

$posts = Posts::all(array(
  'with' => array(
    'Comments' => array('Author')
  )
));

This method call still only issues 3 total queries to the Mongo database, yipee!, _(*18)

Copyright and License

Fake model is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details, _(*19)