Scaffolding
===========

Create, read, update and delete (CRUD) are the four basic operations of data objects in an application. Because the task of implementing the CRUD operations is so common when developing Web applications, Yii provides some code generation tools under the name of *Gii* that can automate this process (also known as *scaffolding*) for us.

> Note: Gii has been available since version 1.1.2. Before that, you would have to use the [yiic shell tool](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/quickstart.first-app-yiic) to achieve the same task.

In the following, we will describe how to use this tool to implement CRUD operations for posts and comments in our blog application.

Installing Gii
--------------

We first need to install Gii. Open the file `/wwwroot/blog/protected/config/main.php` and add the following code:

~~~
[php]
return array(
	......
	'import'=>array(
		'application.models.*',
		'application.components.*',
	),

	'modules'=>array(
		'gii'=>array(
			'class'=>'system.gii.GiiModule',
			'password'=>'pick up a password here',
		),
	),
);
~~~

The above code installs the a module named `gii`, which enables us to access the Gii module by visiting the following URL in browser:

~~~
http://www.example.com/blog/index.php?r=gii
~~~

We will be prompted to enter a password. Enter the password that we set in `/wwwroot/blog/protected/config/main.php` previously, and we should see a page listing all available code generation tools.

> Note: The above code should be removed when running on the production machine. Code generation tools should only be used on development machines.


Creating Models
---------------

We first need to create a [model](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/basics.model) class for each of our database tables. The model classes will allow us to access the database in an intuitive object-oriented fashion, as we will see later in this tutorial.

Click on the `Model Generator` link to start using the model generation tool.

On the `Model Generator` page, enter `tbl_user` (the user table name) in the `Table Name` field, `tbl_` in the `Table Prefix` field and then press the `Preview` button. A preview table will show up. We can click on the link in the table to preview the code to be generated. If everything is ok, we can press the `Generate` button to generate the code and save it into a file.

> Info: Because the code generator needs to save the generated code into files, it is required that the Web process have the permission to create and modify the corresponding files. For simplicity, we may give the Web process the write permission to the whole `/wwwroot/blog` directory. Note that this is only needed on development machines when using `Gii`.

Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the database tables, including  `tbl_post`, `tbl_comment`, `tbl_tag` and `tbl_lookup`.

> Tip: We can also enter an asterisk character `*` in the `Table Name` field. This will generate a model class for *every* database table in a single shot.

At this stage, we will have the following newly created files:

 * `models/User.php` contains the `User` class that extends from [CActiveRecord] and can be used to access the `tbl_user` database table;
 * `models/Post.php` contains the `Post` class that extends from [CActiveRecord] and can be used to access the `tbl_post` database table;
 * `models/Tag.php` contains the `Tag` class that extends from [CActiveRecord] and can be used to access the `tbl_tag` database table;
 * `models/Comment.php` contains the `Comment` class that extends from [CActiveRecord] and can be used to access the `tbl_comment` database table;
 * `models/Lookup.php` contains the `Lookup` class that extends from [CActiveRecord] and can be used to access the `tbl_lookup` database table.


Implementing CRUD Operations
----------------------------

After the model classes are created, we can use the `Crud Generator` to generate the code implementing the CRUD operations for these models. We will do this for the `Post` and `Comment` models.

On the `Crud Generator` page, enter `Post` (the name of the post model class we just created) in the `Model Class` field, and then press the `Preview` button. We will see a lot more files will be generated. Press the `Generate` button to generate them.

Repeat the same procedure for the `Comment` model.

Let's take a look at the files generated by the CRUD generator. All the files are generated under `/wwwroot/blog/protected`. For convenience, we group them into [controller](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/basics.controller) files and [view](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/basics.view) files:

 - controller files:
	 * `controllers/PostController.php` contains the `PostController` class which is the controller in charge of all CRUD operations about posts;
	 * `controllers/CommentController.php` contains the `CommentController` class which is the controller in charge of all CRUD operations about comments;

 - view files:
	 * `views/post/create.php` is the view file that shows an HTML form to create a new post;
	 * `views/post/update.php` is the view file that shows an HTML form to update an existing post;
	 * `views/post/view.php` is the view file that displays the detailed information of a post;
	 * `views/post/index.php` is the view file that displays a list of posts;
	 * `views/post/admin.php` is the view file that displays posts in a table with administrative commands.
	 * `views/post/_form.php` is the partial view file embedded in `views/post/create.php` and `views/post/update.php`. It displays the HTML form for collecting post information.
	 * `views/post/_view.php` is the partial view file used by `views/post/index.php`. It displays the brief view of a single post.
	 * `views/post/_search.php` is the partial view file used by `views/post/admin.php`. It displays a search form.
	 * a similar set of view files are also generated for comment.


Testing
-------

We can test the features implemented by the code we just generated by accessing the following URLs:

~~~
http://www.example.com/blog/index.php?r=post
http://www.example.com/blog/index.php?r=comment
~~~

Notice that the post and comment features implemented by the generated code are completely independent of each other. Also, when creating a new post or comment, we are required to enter information, such as `author_id` and `create_time`, which in real application should be set by the program. Don't worry. We will fix these problems in the next milestones. For now, we should be fairly satisfied as this prototype already contains most features that we need to implement for the blog application.


In order to understand better how the above files are used, we show in the following the workflow that occurs in the blog application when displaying a list of posts:

 0. The user requests the URL `http://www.example.com/blog/index.php?r=post`;
 1. The [entry script](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/basics.entry) is executed by the Web server which creates and initializes an [application](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/basics.application) instance to handle the request;
 2. The application creates an instance of `PostController` and executes it;
 3. The `PostController` instance executes the `index` action by calling its `actionIndex()` method. Note that `index` is the default action if the user does not specify an action to execute in the URL;
 4. The `actionIndex()` method queries database to bring back the list of recent posts;
 5. The `actionIndex()` method renders the `index` view with the post data.


<div class="revision">$Id$</div>