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How to set default values in custom block?

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Hi all,

I've created my first custom block from scratch and everything seems to be working fine, except that I can't get the block to use defaults that I've specified in its db.xml file. For example, when adding the block, I would like certain checkboxes in the block options to be checked by default, a field called "username" to be filled in as "johndoe", etc.

Here is a sample of what the fields in my db.xml look like:

<field name="username" type="C" size="20">
  <default value="johndoe" />
</field>
<field name="showEmail" type="L">
  <unsigned />
  <default value="1" />
</field>


I checked the block's table structure in phpMyAdmin and the defaults I specified are showing up there, but I can't figure out how to get the block to reference them. This is an example of my form_setup_html.php (which I'm including in the add.php and edit.php files):

<?php echo $form->label('username', 'Enter A Username'); ?>
<?php echo $form->text('username', $username, array('style' => 'width: 180px'));?>
<input id="showEmail" name="showEmail" class="ccm-input-checkbox" type="checkbox" value="1"<?php  echo ($showEmail?" checked=\"checked\"":"")?>>
         <?php echo $form->label('showEmail', 'Email'); ?>


Can anyone suggest how I can get these inputs to use the defaults I've specified in db.xml?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
jordanlev replied on at Permalink Reply
jordanlev
Unfortunately the ActiveRecord implementation in C5 is not as fully baked as some of the frameworks, so it doesn't read default values from the database schema.

However, it's pretty easy to do this (just requires some non-DRY logic duplication). Add this to your block's controller:

function add() {
    $this->set('username', 'johndode');
    $this->set('showEmail', '1');
}


HTH!

-Jordan
puppyguitar replied on at Permalink Reply
Thanks, Jordan! That worked fine. I was hoping to avoid hard-coding these values into the controller, but no big deal. At least it works!
jordanlev replied on at Permalink Reply
jordanlev
I hear ya. I was wondering if it's possible to retrieve the default values from the database via ADODB, but couldn't find anything (I posted a message to their forum -- if I get a response I'll post back here). If it turns out that it's possible to programmatically get the default values, then it shouldn't be too hard to write some generic code that auto-fills those for you.

This might be overkill, though -- the nice thing about building everything as blocks is you rarely wind up with a huge codebase (thus making minor duplications like this not as big of a deal).
jordanlev replied on at Permalink Best Answer Reply
jordanlev
Okay, I figured this out (such a weird coincidence that I'm working on this stuff today anyway for another project):

function add() {
   $table = new BlockRecord($this->btTable);
   $tableInfo = $table->TableInfo();
   $fieldInfo = $tableInfo->flds;
   foreach ($fieldInfo as $name => $field) {
      if ($field->has_default) {
         $this->set($name, $field->default_value);
      }
   }
}


Note that this isn't perfect for all situations. For example, MySQL doesn't allow you to set default values on TEXT fields. Also, if you want use php code for default values (like in one of my addons, I default an email address to the current user's address pulled from their profile), you obviously can't set that in the database either.

This could easily be put into a library so it can be called in one line. Maybe even extending the BlockController (although I don't have time to test out all the options of how to integrate this into C5 right now).

-Jordan
puppyguitar replied on at Permalink Reply
Awesome! I tried out your code and it works perfectly, at least for most situations. As you mentioned, I have to set my block's TEXT field manually, but that's still a big improvement.

Thanks again for your help.
mkly replied on at Permalink Reply
mkly
Thanks... I've been trying to figure out why the default values were not showing up for the last hour. heh. It would be awesome if the db.xml documentation listed the fact that default does not apply. Anyhow, thanks again.