051 Dynamic Router Implementation Explained

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Amigo edited this page Jul 19, 2019 · 25 revisions

DYNAMIC ROUTER IMPLEMENTATION EXPLAINED

New Implementation - Help For Router Complexity

I would like to demonstrate to you the new implementation which isn't such a major thing but something we've done to try and help along some of the router complexity. When you build a component and you have a front end 00:00:17 for your component, and you've got Site Views. Your Site Views usually are getting it's data from a Dynamic Gets which you link up to the Site View. This Dynamic Gets returns a result set and it is from this result set that we should get information by which we combined with the view name, build what is called a 00:00:46 search engine friendly URL.

Search Engine URL Is Done With Router - JCB Builds Router

Your search engine friendly URL is done with the router. JCB also builds the router and it sort of guesses what should be these values. Let me compile a component and show you what it guessed, and then see how we would need to change it. The component that we're working with is Sermon Distributor. I'm going to compile it, and install it to this website. 00:01:16 The router doesn't really work. I'm not going to demonstrate the actual front-end.

Code - 'com_sermondistributor' - router.php

I'm just going to show you the code. When you look at the website you've got your root directory 'Joomla mount', 'admin' and then 'components'. In here we've got and there's a file called 'router.php'.

parse - switch(segments[ ]) - First Value

I'm going to open router.php. You'll see there's a function called 'build', a class method as well as a function called 'parse'. In this function called parse, there is a 'switch' which makes decisions based on the 'segment's' first value. 00:02:08 Usually that would be the view name in this first value. It determines which view are we looking at, is it preacher? and so we are going through the list. By default without us making any changes, JCB builds that for us, 00:02:31 all of it.

preachers - Getting All Items From Database With No Input From URL

If we look at preachers, which is a listview. Let's open the model, preacher.php. Here is preachers, we can scroll down and we'll see that in its 00:02:51 query, it has getItems and here it got a getListQuery. It is getting all the items from Database with no input from the URL whatsoever. It doesn't do any of that and then it just gives back. It does not need a URL value. 00:03:18 So that means it most probably will only set this value. All of this(see video) will really be redundant, it won't be used, because it's a listview, there isn't an alias. We not looking at an individual item so there isn't an id, we could remove this here(see video), this code 00:03:44 it's not doing anything. It is not going to slow your site down that dramatically, it's hardly noticeable. It is default being generated.

Where as if we look at this for example, preachers is the listview, but then there is a view called preacher, we see it here. It is saying that 00:04:09 it needs to get the id from the sermon table. Which is an error. If I open the preacher, and I look at the getlistQuery, then I see that in the getListQuery, it is getting an id from the URL. It is asking that it should be = to preacher. 00:04:34 It is the main table, the sermondistributor table, but it's not looking for the sermon id, it is looking for the preacher value in the sermon table. That's why JCB be fell back onto the table name. Yet it should go to the preacher table and see whether 00:04:59 that preacher value is = to this id. It is making an error. You wrote the code or you set up the get so you should understand the logic of what you see in the code. If you do not, then this is a feature with JCB has, which you possibly won't be able to make use of. Like we've said many times JCB is for those who know PHP, and can write their own components.

getVar Class - See What It Is Going To Do - How It Is Getting The Values

I know that this is an error because we want to get the value, the id of the preacher is the one we need to check. It is doing it wrong, this value here should be preacher not sermon. You can look at the getVar class here at the bottom. Here you can see what it's going to do, and how it's going to get the values. 00:05:56 You can also use the getVar class for your own purposes. At this point we see at least one of the router case within the parse method. In the case loop there's at least one router area that needs to be changed. I know by having looked at this before, that there is more than one, it's also categories. 00:06:25 This one should also change(see video), it should be set true because this is a category look up.

Another Change To Be Made - Series

Now the other place also need to change is 'series'. 'sermon' should also be 'series' 00:06:43 So this is where the guessing which JCB does dynamically did not match the complexity of our Dynamic Gets. I'm sure that as time goes on we might improve it's guessing. We might get better ways of guessing correctly and within the dynamics of the Dynamic Gets, be able to build this case more effectively. Since we have not done that yet, 00:07:17 the quickest way for us to resolve this and which most probably be the most dynamic option, is adding a way that you can replace the snippet of code, targeting the specific view. You will never need to really know what is the view when you do this because they are placeholders. You need only to remember where you add your Dynamic Get.

Let me go and illustrate this within the JCB interface. All I wanted to show you here is that we are targeting with this new dynamic implementation, 00:07:53 this little snippet, this little area(see video). We are not replacing the whole method, because it is standard, there's not much to do in improving that, and if we do, it will be improving it for everyone. The build function is really working well. I haven't seen any issues with that. At the end of the day it seems like only the parse method needed a bit of an improvement.

Changes In The Interface

??? Let's go back to the interface and let me show you 00:08:22 where we can make the changes to have the category render correctly. As well as the preacher and the series. Basically make the changes so that sermon will say series, and this one will say true, 00:08:48 and this one preacher would also say preacher. That's basically all we need to do and then this router will work without any errors. Ok So here in the interface you have site views Now the site views the ones who wanna make changes to his this preacher The series and the category now I'm gonna show this to you little bit 00:09:15 Long winded but Bear with me It's just make sure everybody is on the same page If you open preacher You would see that it has a dynamic Get called Sermons preacher ID and it say get list query Ok so This is the one We want to change 00:09:35 The get the dynamic get As well as speaking about serieses The same is true of that We have this List query get series ID Sermons that we also want to change And so we not changing it in the view The idea was That if we change it in the dynamic get it automatically 00:09:57 Right to correct code to whatever view you add it because we've added some custom Scripting Sorry placeholders within the script So let's take the first one is this sermon Where is it Sermon series So in custom script we scroll down to the bottom there is now a new Tab here option here Add PHP Parse method in router little bit of explanation there 00:10:29 click yes And it will Dynamically load What is what I can consider the most basic implementation of that little snippet So you see it looks very familiar it's got his place holders And it has a specific It has a specific S View placeholder That's because we're dealing with the site View And it has to have this s in it To replace it with the site view name 00:10:55 So wherever this is gonna be used this this Dynamic get This Would be replaced with that specific site view's value Ok that's just to give you a heads up About the place holder and that's what makes it dynamic So that you can use it in any site view and it will automatically write this Because really the the display of the page is actually based on the database request Which is built in the URL by the name of the view As well as the ID of the element And if there are multiple variables being passed 00:11:32 To the URL You can obviously update that and Replace multiple values So Here we want to within this one Did the default option here will actually resolve our issue because Remember these two values were not the same JCB's Dynamic build actually changed this value to Sermon instead of 00:11:57 Leaving it The same And there is a very good reason For that Usually this would be the correct response but in this case because of complexity I'm not gonna explain It isn't the correct response and so you want these two values to be the same And it is basically the site view's name So we could just save it close this The next one we wanna do is this sermon preacher And it was also 00:12:25 Having the same issue basically So we We gonna do the the same kind of Just add the the custom Option To ensure that these two values remain the same And then the last but not least was this category It is also behaving Incorrectly And really it's only because it 00:12:47 Didn't detect That this is actually category And that is primarily because it is using the Sermon table To to start instead In the Sermon table We have a joint here too category If you can see there And so it does load the category and 00:13:12 the tweak You see that we are actually using This ID And this is a category ID So it should actually go look for the category And build the parse method based on the category And so here We also gonna Just Add 00:13:33 A true To this getVar Which tells the getVar method that this is actually a category This this name In effect is actually gonna be ignored Because it's gonna not be looking for this tables value is gonna go to the category table And look for the value there Ok so this will resolve this this issue We can save and close this one 00:13:59 So now we have Done some customisation to our router Just by adding those Values to the dynamic get If we compile our components now It will automatically fall back Unto those Values Just install again 00:14:21 And now let's go look at the code So we see here That it did exactly what he wanted it added preacher preacher there And this is now Categories is true And We see the series is series And so now at least we know that this actual The router will behave correctly This is the first step of our improvement to the router 00:14:49 It seems to me that we already have a very workable Situation and this is really gonna make it too much better There was also the idea of adding some custom scripting into the built Method And we will look at that And I invite You and anyone else too To get involved On this on GitHub just if you know how to improve his even more Then please 00:15:16 I get in contact with me and let's let's work together This is so what we've done so far But like an all iterative developing concepts Will continue improving this To the point where it really serves as well And holds up with changes also happening in Joomla itself Ok well thanks for watching