Models in Zend Framework

Question

I am new to zend framework. I have created "models" folder in application directory. Inside models folder I created a class Application_Models_Albums which extends Zend_Db_Table_Abstract.

Now when I use the following code in IndexController. I get error:

$albums = new Application_Models_Albums();
$this->view->albums = $albums->fetchAll();     

Error: Fatal error: Class 'Application_Models_Albums' not found in H:\Documents\IIS Server Root\localhost\learning\zf1\application\controllers\IndexController.php on line 13

Please help. How can I load models in zend framework?

Answer 1

You need to name your model Albums. and save in models/albums.php

The auto-loader will figure out where to load it from by the name. so even though the model is named albums, you call it by new Application_Models_Albums()

The autoloader find it in application/models/albums.php

similarly the Zend_Db_Table_Abstract class is located in Zend/Db/Table/Abstract.php

edit

IF you cant get the autoloader to work, you can do it the quick and easy way by just adding models/ to your include path. I've done this before and it works fine.

Something like set_include_path(get_include_path().PATH_SEPERATOR."models/") in your index.php

Answer 2

Your model class name should be Application_Model_Albums - with Model in singular.
See http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.loader.autoloader-resource.html for more info on Zend Autoloader.

Answer 3

you need to require your model class-

require_once 'PathToModel\Application_Models_Albums.php';

some people create autoloader classes to deal with this, YMMV

Answer 4

It sounds like your Bootstrap or application.ini needs to specify the namespace as 'Application_'.

In Bootstrap.php:

protected function _initAutoloader()
{
    $autoloader = new Zend_Application_Module_Autoloader(array(
        'basePath' => APPLICATION_PATH,
        'namespace' => 'Kwis_',
    ));
    return $autoloader;
}

Alernatively, in configs/application.ini:

appnamespace = "Application_"

Answer 5

You could also extend Zend_Controller_Action and add a method like this:

protected $_tables = array();

protected function _getTable($table)
{
    if (false === array_key_exists($table, $this->_tables)) {
        require_once(APPLICATION_PATH.'/modules/'.$this->_request->getModuleName().'/models/'.$table.'.php');
        $this->_tables[$table] = new $table();
    }
    return $this->_tables[$table];
}