Zend framework -> database table field prefix like

Question

I'm dealing with database containing of many tables, with many field prefixes (two first letters of every table), so when I have users table I cannot use "name" property ($user->name) but I can use: $user->us_name.

I's there a way to simplify things and set automagic prefix for every field of a table ?

Answer 1

You'd have to extend Zend_Db_Table_Row to accomplish this. Fortunately, ZF includes a _transformColumn() method expressly for this purpose. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, set up your table class. This assumes your database has a table called "foo_mytable":

class MyTable extends Zend_Db_Table_Abstract {
    protected $_name = 'foo_mytable';
    protected $_rowClass = 'My_Db_Table_Row';
}

Next, create your custom Row class:

class My_Db_Table_Row extends Zend_Db_Table_Row {
    protected function _transformColumn($columnName) {
        $columnName = parent::_transformColumn($columnName);
        $prefix = 'us_';
        return $prefix . $columnName;
    }
}

Now, you can do something like this (for simplicity, this example ignores MVC design ideals):

$table = new MyTable();
$records = $table->fetchAll();
foreach ($records as $record) {
    echo $record->name;
}

Assuming your table has a column named "us_name", this should work. I tested it myself. Note that in your custom table row, you might want to grab the table prefix from a config file. If you've got it stored in your registry, you could replace $prefix = 'us_'; with $prefix = Zend_Registry::get('tablePrefix');.

Answer 2

I didn't know about _transformColumn(). I'm gonna hop on top of @curtisdf 's example.
I think you should override with this (not tested):

protected function _transformColumn($columnName)
{
    $tblName = $this->_table->info(Zend_Db_Table::NAME);
    $prefix  = substr($tblName, 0, 2);

    return $prefix . '_' . parent::_transformColumn($columnName);
}

Using this, you won't need to store prefixes/table-names, as they are retrieved dinamically.