Why to use Yii migrations instead of plain SQL files?

If you have never been using Yii 1.x database migrations before, you may be sceptic (as I was before starting to using them), if they’re so good? And whether it is worth to waste time on dumping database scheme or rewriting .sql files into Yii migrations.

This document outlines most important pros of using Yii migration system.

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Logic used for layouts in Yii 1.x

Layouts in Yii 1.x may be a little bit mistery to someone, who never worked with some layout framework.

This article tries to explain basics to such people.

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An introduction to database migrations in Yii

If you’re new to Yii migrations, these sources might be a help for you:

1. General information: Database Migration topic in The Definitive Guide to Yii.

2. How to create initial migration basing on current database state, explains this Stack Overflow question and GitHub Gist (with InitialDbMigrationCommand class’ code) to support it.

To use migrations, you have to properly configure console version of your Yii application. Details follows.

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non-YiiBooster fields with YiiBooster prepends

I don’t like the idea of rewriting my entire application’s view to use new Bootstrap 3, so my Yii apps remain on Bootstrap 2, served by YiiBooster extension. The biggest problem, I find in it is that its controls have prepends somehow “built-in”.

Both field and its prepend is rendered with one line of code. So, when you want to replace any YiiBooster’s control with for example own widget / library, you always remove one line, but looses both field and prepend.

I found ugly and nasty workaround for this.

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Capture double click on Yii’s CGridView row

I was using a simple Javascript code (attached to CGridView.selectionChanged property) to capture click on any grid view’s row and redirect user to row-specific URL. I wanted to change it to double click only.

CGridView exposes selectionChanged even only, no click or dblclick, so that was a quite nice challenge. It seems that the only way is to capture this event yourself.

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Delete model with relations

To delete in Yii a model with some relations we usually have at least three options.

Depending on many factors (RDBMS type, table type, situation, context etc.) most of them have advantages and disadvantages. Good developer already knows these options, so intention of this post is not to discuss them, but to show you an interesting, new (at least for me) fourth approach to solve this problem, that I found recently.

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urlReferrer and opening new browser tab

To open particular URL in a new tab, you have at least two possibilities:

• click a link with middle button (usually under mouse wheel) or
• open a blank tab and copy-paste URL to URL bar.

There is slight difference it this (at least in Chrome) when it comes to urlReferrer in Yii:

• in first case browser sets referrer correctly (i.e. Yii::app()->request->uUrlReferrer contains a valid URL),
• in second approach URL referrer IS NOT set (i.e. Yii::app()->request->urlReferrer is an empty string).

The second situation is obvious. Opening a new tab means that browser does not have a history for it and thus it is unable to set urlReferrer correctly. However, it is better to keep this information in mind. If you rely on this information, you may get yourself (or your code) into a problem.

CGridView: the summaryText maddnes!

I’m finishing entry phase of my first big project (first big project, where I’m key project manager and lead developer, to be precise). Right now I’m after four days of sleeping for 5 hours and coding for remaining 19 hours each day. My brain simply bowls. In this specific situation, I’ve crafted a helper method, which makes mad-laughing or mad-screaming, each time I see it.

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Introduction to Yii message logging mechanism

I needed a brief memo-like article, gathering most important information about Yii logging system. Here it is.

Message logging mechanism in Yii 1.x is available out of the box, but needs proper configuration to become enabled in your application. For details, read appropriate article in Yii 1.x guide.

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Sortable CGridView column with links

If you use CLinkColumn to render links in any column then you loose an ability to sort entire CGridView by that link-containing column.

To work-around this problem render link in your cells using your own function and do not use CLinkColumn.

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Logging user to LDAP directory under Yii

On certain systems and LDAP configurations you are required to use two-step login approach. It goes like this:

1. Bind anonymously, by specifying only $bind = @ldap_bind($connection);.
2. ldap_search for a given username. Search will return you a valid user’s DN (or NULL, if user does not exist).
3. Using returned LDAP call another ldap_bind, this time attempting to actually login user.

Thus, in this approach you are not constructing your own DN, but relying on returned one instead.

Model saving vs. model validation when uploading files

Newbies to Yii and ActiveRecord design pattern, are often confused, what is difference between $model->save() and $model->validate(). though difference should be obvious, there are many code examples in the forum and Yii wiki, that proves, that many people still doesn’t understand it. Especially, when it comes to performing additional operations around saving model, like file upload.

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CGridView and CDetailView column or attribute value by expression

CDetailView does not use “deferred” evaluation like CGridView does on rendering rows. CDetailView gives you direct access to your model, while CGridView only to a per-row prepared data. So, to render CGridView‘s column or CDetailView‘s attribute row, you must use slightly different approaches. Here is how.

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Grouping controllers without using modules

Basic Yii application’s route consists of controller and action. Sometimes you have to add an extra separation layer, to group controllers and actions belonging to separate groups. Not everyone know, that you don’t have to use modules for this purpose. Controllers subdirectory can also be a considerable option. For me, this was a nifty discovery, so I decided to write this down as a personal memo.

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