During the previous section, two small issues bothered us for the monkey's listing:

We know that the list appears when requesting the following URL:

http://my.app/monkey

You have probably noticed that in this URL we indicated a controller, but no action. It is important to know that, by default and without any routing configuration involved, this URL is equivalent to http://my.app/monkey/index

So, in fact, we are calling the index action of the monkey controller. If we open the generated controller at APPPATH/classes/controller/monkey.php, we will read the following:

<?php
class Controller_Monkey extends Controller_Template{
    //...
}

First, you can notice that Controller_Monkey extends Controller_Template instead of Controller, as we saw before in Controller_Welcome. Controller_Template is an extension of Controller that adds template support. The idea is that most of the time your web pages will have the same layout: the headers, footers, and menus generally stay the same, regardless of the web pages you are in. Templates allow you to achieve this by limiting the code duplication.

By default, Controller_Template is associated with the APPPATH/views/template.php template that was generated by oil. If you open this file, you will see that it generates the HTML code around the page content. You will also probably notice that it prints the $title and $content variables. We will find out how to set their values by exploring the index action. If you go back to the Monkey controller, the action_index method should contain the following:

public function action_index()
{
    $data['monkeys'] = Model_Monkey::find_all();
    $this->template->title = "Monkeys";
    $this->template->content = View::forge('monkey/index', $data);
}

The first line stores all the monkeys' instances into the $data['monkeys'] variable. In a general manner, MODEL::find_all() returns all a model's instances, but it is definitely not the only method that retrieve instances. These methods will be discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 2, Building a To-do List Application.

The second and third lines set the $title and $content variables displayed in the template file. If you change the second line by $this->template->title = "My monkeys"; and then refresh the web page, you will see that its title has changed accordingly.

The third line sets the $content variable to a view instance that, from what we have observed in the previous sections, executes the view file located at APPPATH/views/monkey/index.php with the $monkey variable set to all monkeys' instances. Let's open this view file. You should see the following:

<h2>Listing Monkeys</h2>
<br>
<?php if ($monkeys): ?>
<table class="table table-striped">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Still here</th>
      <th>Height</th>
      <th>Description</th>
    
  <th></th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
<?php foreach ($monkeys as $item): ?>    <tr>

      <td><?php echo $item->name; ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $item->still_here; ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $item->height; ?></td>
      <td><?php echo $item->description; ?></td>
      <td>
        <?php /* Action buttons */ ?>

      </td>
    </tr>
<?php endforeach; ?>  </tbody>
</table>

<?php else: ?>
<p>No Monkeys.</p>

<?php endif; ?><p>
  <?php /* Add new Monkey button */ ?>

</p>

We have found where the table is displayed, so it is time to make our changes.

First, remove the Description column by removing the following:

<th>Description</th>

and

<td><?php echo $item->description; ?></td>

Then, let's refine how the Still here attribute is displayed by replacing the following:

<td><?php echo $item->still_here; ?></td>

by

<td><?php echo $item->still_here ? 'Yes' : 'No'; ?></td>

The Still here column should now display Yes and No instead of 1 and 0, respectively.

On the list, when clicking on an item's View link, a detailed view of the monkey appears. We would like to change two details here:

First, if you are on a detailed view page, you can notice that the URL is similar to http://my.app/monkey/view/1

This means we are calling the view action of the monkey controller with the first and only parameter set to 1. The view action is quite similar to the index action, as you can see in the following snippet:

public function action_view($id = null)
{
    is_null($id) and Response::redirect('monkey');

    $data['monkey'] = Model_Monkey::find_by_pk($id);

    $this->template->title = "Monkey";
    $this->template->content = View::forge('monkey/view', $data);
}

The first line simply checks if the parameter of the action (associated to the $id variable) is actually set, and otherwise redirects the user (using the Response::redirect method) to the listing page.

The second line stores the monkey with ID $id into the $data['monkey'] variable. The find_by_pk (pk for primary key) method of a model finds one of its instances by its primary key. As we explained earlier, models' methods will be discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 2, Building a To-do List Application.

The third and fourth lines, as in the previous section, set the template variables. The template content is set to the view located at APPPATH/views/monkey/view.php.

<h2>Viewing #<?php echo $monkey->id; ?></h2>

<p>
  <strong>Name:</strong>
  <?php echo $monkey->name; ?></p>
<p>
  <strong>Still here:</strong>
  <?php echo $monkey->still_here; ?></p>
<p>
  <strong>Height:</strong>
  <?php echo $monkey->height; ?></p>
<p>
  <strong>Description:</strong>
  <?php echo $monkey->description; ?></p>

<?php /* Edit button */ ?> |
<?php /* Back button */ ?>

It is time to do some changes.

Replace:

<?php echo $monkey->still_here; ?>

By:

<?php echo $monkey->still_here ? 'Yes' : 'No'; ?>

And replace:

<?php echo $monkey->description; ?>

By:

<div><?php echo nl2br($monkey->description); ?></div>

One of the issues we pointed out previously, is that the description field is required, though we want to be able to enter an empty value.

First, open your browser and request the following URL:

http://my.app/monkey

Click on the Add a new Monkey button, and you can see you are redirected to http://my.app/monkey/create

If you take a look at the page source, you will find that the form's action attribute is actually the same URL:

<form class="form-horizontal" action="http://my.app/monkey/create" accept-charset="utf-8" method="post">

It means that whether we are opening the monkey's creation form or submitting it, we will always call the create action of the monkey controller. We should then read how this action is implemented:

public function action_create()
{
    if (Input::method() == 'POST')
    {
        $val = Model_Monkey::validate('create');
        
        if ($val->run())
        {
            // Saves the model (out of this chapter scope)
        }
        else
        {
            Session::set_flash('error', $val->error());
        }
    }

    $this->template->title = "Monkeys";
    $this->template->content = View::forge('monkey/create');

}

As you can notice, the action is able to know whether or not it is accessed through a POST request by using Input::method(). You are recommended to take a look at the official documentation of the Input class at http://fuelphp.com/docs/classes/input.html (It can be accessed through the FuelPHP website by navigating to DOCS | TABLE OF CONTENTS | Core | Input)

Model_Monkey::validate('create') returns an object that seems to define whether or not the object can be saved (depending on what $val->run() returns). This is a method from the Monkey model, so we should look into it. Open APPPATH/classes/model/monkey.php:

<?php
class Model_Monkey extends Model_Crud
{
    protected static $_table_name = 'monkeys';
    
    public static function validate($factory)
    {
        $val = Validation::forge($factory);
        $val->add_field('name', 'Name', 'required|max_length[255]');
        $val->add_field('still_here', 'Still Here', 'required');
        $val->add_field('height', 'Height', 'required');
        $val->add_field('description', 'Description', 'required');

        return $val;
    }

}

The file contains the Model_Monkey class that extends Model_Crud and allows us to handle the monkey instances.

First, you can notice the $_table_name static attribute that defines the table name where the objects are saved (here, all our monkeys are saved into the monkeys table).

And then there is the validate static method we are looking for. It returns a Validation object, that in our case will check that:

For more detail about this class, you are recommended to read the official documentation at http://fuelphp.com/docs/classes/validation/validation.html (It can be accessed through the FuelPHP website by navigating to DOCS | TABLE OF CONTENTS | Core | Validation | Introduction)

In our case, simply comment or remove the following line:

$val->add_field('description', 'Description', 'required');

It is now easy to check if the height is a float. As we know that monkeys are generally not taller than 4 feet, we can even add a numerical constraint. In the validate method of Model_Monkey, replace the following line:

$val->add_field('height', 'Height', 'required');

by

$val->add_field(
    'height',
    'Height',
    'required|numeric_between[0,6]'
);

This change will be a bit more complex. First, still in the validate method of Model_Monkey, remove the following line as we won't need this validation:

$val->add_field('still_here', 'Still Here', 'required');

Now, if you go back to our create action in Controller_Monkey (located at APPPATH/classes/controller/monkey.php), you will see that the template content is set to the view located at APPPATH/views/monkey/create.php. If you look at the file content, it is pretty simple:

<h2>New Monkey</h2>
<br>

<?php echo render('monkey/_form'); ?>

<p><?php echo Html::anchor('monkey', 'Back'); ?></p>

For your information, the render method is an alias of View::render, and in this case equivalent to View::forge. This illustrates that it is possible to render views inside other views. It can be convenient to prevent code repetition; the view located at APPPATH/views/monkey/edit.php also renders the same view (monkey/_form), and this makes sense since the forms displayed are exactly the same, whether you create a new monkey or edit an existing one.

Since we want to edit the form to replace the still_here input by a checkbox, open the view located at APPPATH/views/monkey/_form.php and replace the following lines:

<?php 
echo Form::input(
    'still_here',
    Input::post(
        'still_here',
        isset($monkey) ? $monkey->still_here : ''
    ),
    array(
        'class' => 'col-md-4 form-control',
        'placeholder' => 'Still here'
    )
);
?>

By

<?php
echo Form::checkbox(
    'still_here',
    1,
    Input::post(
        'still_here',
        isset($monkey) ? $monkey->still_here : true
    )
);
?>

Finally, you are probably aware that the still_here POST attribute won't be defined if the checkbox is unchecked when submitting the form. Thus, we need to define a default value when retrieving the still_here POST attribute, not only in the create action but also in the edit action. In both the methods, replace the following:

Input::post('still_here')

by

Input::post('still_here', 0)

Last but not least, we don't want to display FuelPHP's welcome screen when requesting the root URL, but instead the monkeys' listing. For doing that we will have to change the routes' configuration file located at APPPATH/config/routes.php.

Replace:

'_root_'  => 'welcome/index',

By:

'_root_'  => 'monkey/index',

When requesting:

http://my.app/

You should now see your monkey listing.

Now that our project is working as intended, it might be a good idea to clean it: