Question

I have the following code where I need to check whether the attribute in question is a customer attribute or customer address attribute. How do I check that?


private $custom_columns = array();

public function __construct() 
{
    parent::__construct();
    $this->setId('customerGrid');
    $this->setUseAjax(true);
    $this->setDefaultSort('email');
    $this->setDefaultLimit('200');
    $this->setSaveParametersInSession(true);
    $attributeIds = Mage::getStoreConfig('sectionname/group/field');
    $this->custom_columns = array($attributeIds); 
}

$attributeIds return attribute codes like street if I select Street Address, gender if I select Gender and so on. Now what condition should be put in order to know whether a given attribute is customer or address attribute.

// Prepare Collection addition to store custom fields
foreach ($this->custom_columns as $col) 
{
   //Some Condition if its a Customer attribute
   collection->addAttributeToSelect($col);  
   //else some condition if its a Customer address attribute
   $collection->joinAttribute($col, "customer_address/$col", 'default_billing', null, 'left');
 }
 $this->setCollection($collection);
 return parent::_prepareCollection();
}

I just want to know what those conditions would be. Hope this is a little clearer

Answer 1

You can use magic has*() calls with each class extending Varien_Object to check whether a given property does, or does not exist.

Additionally, Varien_Object offers a non-magic hasData('property_name') method.

The hasData() method basically does the same thing, just indirectly – i.e. by passing the property name as argument to the method, instead of using it as camel-cased part of the methods name.

Mage_Customer_Model_Customer and Mage_Customer_Model_Address actually do extend Varien_Object, so you could call hasData('street') on an object instance to check for the existence of such property and use the result for your if/else scenario.

You could also magically call hasStreet(), but in your case the hasData() variant will definitely serve better (as you’re looping thru an array with variable property names).

Note that hasData() can only help you distinguish unique property names. Of course you cannot use hasData() to distinguish properties of the same name existing in both classes (e.g. 'entity_id').