VMOSS Calendar Example

Problem Statement
Add a new menu named Calendar to the VMOSS menu that when selected brings up page containing a simple appointment form that includes two fields, appointment name and date. When submitted the appointment is added to an appointment table in the database and the returned page displays an updated list of appointments in a table format.

Design. We will create a new entity in VMOSS for the calendar. The calendar entity will implemented by extending the model, view, and controller superclasses.

1. Modify Access Controller
In PhpMyAdmin, make database changes so that the access controller recognizes the new page. INSERT INTO vm_access_request (request_id, act, vm_action, description) VALUES (101, 'calendar', 'display_appointments', 'Display Calendar - Show Appointments');

INSERT INTO vm_access_request_role (fk_access_request, fk_role) VALUES (101, 0), (101, 1), (101, 2), (101, 3), (101, 4);

2. Create vm_appointment Table
In PhpMyAdmin, create a table on the VMOSS database to store all appointments: CREATE TABLE vm_appointment ( id    INTEGER(11) AUTO_INCREMENT,  name  VARCHAR(255),  date  DATE,  PRIMARY KEY(id) );

3. Modify DAO for DB Access
Create a function in the DAO (Data Access Object) to retrieve all appointments called getAppointments, and return an array of arrays. Each array in this list would have entries from id, name, and date. function getAppointments { $result = $this->execute("SELECT id, name, date FROM vm_appointment"); $appointments = array; while(!$result->EOF) { $appointments[] = $result->fields; $result->moveNext; }   return $appointments; } Create another function in the DAO to add an appointment called addAppointment($name, $date). function addAppointment($name, $date) { $this->execute("INSERT INTO vm_appointment (name, date) VALUES ('$name', '$date')"); }

4. Create Appointment Template
In Eclipse, create a template file called 'display_appointments.tpl' in a new calendar directory in the templates directory. This template can expect to get a array of appointment information to display. It should also output the form to add a new appointment. In order to use one page for both input and outpu, we use a hidden form element add_appointment and value 'Y'.

&lt;h2&gt;Appointments&lt;/h2&gt;

{php} shn_form_fopen('calendar&amp;vm_action=display_appointments'); shn_form_fsopen('Add Appointment'); shn_form_hidden(array('add_appointment' => 'Y')); shn_form_text('Name', 'name'); shn_form_date('Date', 'date'); shn_form_fsclose; shn_form_submit("Submit"); shn_form_fclose; {/php}

5. Create a CalendarView Subclass
Create a CalendarView class that extends the main View class. This class contains a single function called displayAppointments($appointments), which would expect an array of arrays that is returned from the DAO::getAppointments function. This function should assign the result to the templating engine and display the template. Put this class definition in a file called 'CalendarView.php' under the 'view' directory. class CalendarView extends View { function displayAppointments($appointments) { $this->engine->assign('appointments', $appointments); $this->engine->display('calendar/display_appointments.tpl'); } }

6. Create Calendar Controller
Create a CalendarController class that extends CalendarView and implements the Controller interface. Put this class definition in a file called 'CalendarController.php' under the 'controller' directory. class CalendarController extends CalendarView implements Controller { function controlHandler($getvars) { global $dao, $global;
 * It needs one function called controlHandler($getvars). Within this function, we can switch($getvars['vm_action']) and add a case for 'display_appointments'. For the code, if $getvars['add_appointment'] == 'Y' then we process the addition of an appointment by passing the name and date to the DAO::addAppointment function. No matter what, we call displayAppointments($dao->getAppointments) (which is legal since the controller is a subclass of the view) to show all appointments.

//first authorize the user $ac = new AccessController($getvars); if(!$ac->isAuthorized) return;

switch($getvars['vm_action']) { case 'display_appointments': if($getvars['add_appointment'] == 'Y') { echo 'hello'; $dao->addAppointment($getvars['name'], $getvars['date']); }				$this->displayAppointments($dao->getAppointments); break; }	} }

7. Modify main.inc
Modify shn_vm_default in main.inc to dispatch control to the CalendarController if a match for $getvars['act'] == 'project' is not found. else if ($_GET['act'] =='calendar'){ $controller =new CalendarController; $controller->controlHandler($_REQUEST);' } else...

In main.inc add the include statements for the classes we added. require_once('view/CalendarView.php'); require_once('controller/CalendarController.php');

8. Modify menu.inc
Finally, in the menu.inc file, in the shn_vm_mainmenu function, add the following line to display the menu item for the appointment form (add before the menu is closed;):

$ac->addMenuItem('Calendar', $ac->buildURLParams('calendar', 'display_appointments'));

To simplify the procedure somewhat, this example avoids creating a calendar model class.