[FIXED] Yii: change active record field names

Issue

I'm new to Yii and I have a table 'Student' with fields like 'stdStudentId', 'stdName', etc. I'm making API, so this data should be returned in JSON. Now, because I want field names in JSON to just be like 'id', 'name', and I don't want all fields returned, i made a method in the model:

public function APIfindByPk($id){
$student = $this->findByPk($id);
return array(
'id'=>$student->stdStudentId, 
'name'=>$student->stdName, 
'school'=>$student->stdSchool
);
}

The problem is, stdSchool is a relation and in this situation, $student->stdSchool returns array with fields like schSchoolId, schName, etc. I don't want fields to be named like that in JSON, and also I don't want all the fields from School returned and I would like to add some fields of my own. Is there a way to do this in Yii, or I'll have to do it manually by writing methods like this?

Solution

I have been looking for the same thing. There is a great php lib named Fractal letting you achieve it: http://fractal.thephpleague.com/

To explain briefly the lib, for each of your models you create a Transformer that will be doing the mapping between your model attributes and the ones that need to be exposed using the api.

class BookTransformer extends Fractal\TransformerAbstract
{
    public function transform(Book $book)
    {
        return [
            'id' => (int) $book->id,
            'title' => $book->title,
            'year' => $book->yr,
        ];
    }
}

In the transformer you can also set the relation that this model have :

class BookTransformer extends TransformerAbstract
{
    /**
     * List of resources relations that can be used
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $availableEmbeds = [
        'author'
    ];

    /**
     * Turn this item object into a generic array
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function transform(Book $book)
    {
        return [
            'id'    => (int) $book->id,
            'title' => $book->title,
            'year'  => $book->yr,
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Here we are embeding the author of the book
     * using it's own transformer
     */
    public function embedAuthor(Book $book)
    {
        $author = $book->author;

        return $this->item($author, new AuthorTransformer);
    }
}

So at the end you will call

$fractal = new Fractal\Manager();
$resource = new Fractal\Resource\Collection($books, new BookTransformer);
$json = $fractal->createData($resource)->toJson();

It's not easy to describe all the potential of fractal in one answer but you really should give it a try. I'm using it along with Yii so if you have some question don't hesitate!

Answered By - darkheir