too long

Question

is there a better way to work with ZF useing the mappers, real life objects and table_objects.

This is how I do it with Zend Framework:

class User_DbTable extends Zend_DB_Table_Abstract{
      protected $_name = "user"; // name of the table
}

the user class -> user object:

class User{
  protected $_id;
  protected $_name;
  protected $_addresses; //list of OBJs

  public function set_name($_name){
    $this->_name = $_name;
  }
  public function get_name(){
    return $this->_name;
  }
  public function set_adresses($_addresses){
    $this->_addresses = $_addresses;
  }
// and so on....
}

the mapper:

class UserMapper{
   protected $userTBL;

   public function __construct(){
     $this->userTBL = new User_DbTable();
   }
   public function __fatchAll(){
     $select = $this->userTBL->select();
     foreach($this->userTBL->fetchAll($select) as $row){
       $user = new User(); // model
       $user->set_name($row->name);
       // gat all the addreses of this user with eg. AddressMapper()
       $user->set_addresses($addresses); // array of object of address just like User
       $users[] = $user;
     }
     return $users;
   }
}

usage in controller: list action:

$userMP = new UserMapper();
$this->view->users = $userMP->__fatchAll();

or add/save action:

$newUser = new User();
$newUser->set_name('somename');
$userMP = new UserMapper();
$userMP->save($newUser);

Answer 1

ZF lets you extend the Zend_Db_Table_Row class, and tell your Zend_Db_Table class to always use it. This way, you can access all of the Zend_Db_Table_Row features, while adding your own logic on top.

You can do that like this

class User_DbTable extends Zend_DB_Table_Abstract{
      protected $_name = "user"; // name of the table
      protected $_rowClass = "User"; // The name of your Zend_Db_Table_Row class
}

class User extends Zend_Db_Table_Row {

  public function set_name($_name){
    $this->name = $_name;
  }
  public function get_name(){
    return $this->name;
  }
  public function set_adresses($_addresses){
    $this->addresses = $_addresses;
  }
// and so on....
}

You can see more on Zend_Db_Table_Row here