Understanding Virtual Attributes and get/set methods

Comparing #3 with #4

Revision #4 was created by Maurizio Domba Cerin Maurizio Domba Cerin on Mar 31, 2011, 7:17:01 AM.

spaces adjustment

Content

[...]
Yii treats functions beginning with "get" as special, so let's make one to provide the full name in a single step:

```php
class Person extends CActiveRecord {

 
 public function getFullName()
{
return $this->firstname . " " . $this->lastname;
[...]
```php
// in a view somewhere

 
  echo $form->dropDownList($model, 'personid',    CHtml::listData( Person::model()->findAll(), 'id', 'fullname' )   );
```
Now, the dropdown will show full user names in the dropdown, which makes for a better user experience. Attempting to provide a dropdown including firstname + lastname without a model helper function like this is more work and less useful.

**EXTRA BONUS** - In the future, if you add a MiddleName to the Person database table, you only have to modify the `getFullname()` method in order to automatically update all the views that use `$model->fullname`.
[...]