Monday, July 18, 2011

How to output related values in json

CJSON::encode() is nice for outputting arrays of models or a dataProvider, but it doesnt output relations.

here's how to do it. This function will output an array of models, with their related values (as deep as you wanna go), in JSON format. Instead of showing every attribute, you indicate the ones you want to output using $attributeNames. The key is the CHtml::value() function, that can output related values easily.
/**
   * takes an array of models and their attributes names and outputs them as json. works with relations unlike CJSON::encode()
   * @param $models array an array of models, consider using $dataProvider->getData() here
   * @param $attributeNames string a comma delimited list of attribute names to output, for relations use relationName.attributeName
      * @return void doesn't return anything, but changes content type to json and outputs json and exits
   */

  function json_encode_with_relations(array $models, $attributeNames) {
    $attributeNames = explode(',', $attributeNames);

    $rows = array(); //the rows to output
    foreach ($models as $model) {
      $row = array(); //you will be copying in model attribute values to this array 
      foreach ($attributeNames as $name) {
        $name = trim($name); //in case of spaces around commas
        $row[$name] = CHtml::value($model, $name); //this function walks the relations 
      }
      $rows[] = $row;
    }
    header('Content-type:application/json');
    echo CJSON::encode($rows);
    exit(); //or Yii::app()->end() if you want the log to show in debug mode
  }

//usage:

$myModels = $myDataProvider->getData(); //or you can use $model->findAll();

$modelAttributeNames = 'id, subject, body, someStatisticalRelationName, someRelationName.attribute, someRelationName.someOtherRelationName.attribute';

json_encode_with_relations( $myModels, $modelAttributeNames );

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for this great Yii example.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. clever to use CHtml::value() for it! I've wondered how to do that.

    But I think returning full models in a json response should be used with care due to:

    1) amount of data transfered (optimization for both transfer and traversing the data in js later)
    2) risk of exposing data not inteded to expose for client (security)

    just my two cents on that :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. this is like a charm
    very very thankssssssssss

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for this great Yii example

    ReplyDelete