Question

I want to save an object or form to the database. Only I can’t find the easiest (or normal) way for how to do this.

I found a lot of tutorials, but none seem to be easy or current. Can someone please help me with this?

I use version 1.9.3 of the Zend Framework.

Answer 1

The easiest way (aka the way using the smallest amount of code) to insert a row into a database table using Zend_Db is:

$data = array(
    'created_on'      => '2007-03-22',
    'bug_description' => 'Something wrong',
    'bug_status'      => 'NEW'
);

$db->insert('bugs', $data);

The above code will insert a new row into the bugs table whereas $db is the Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract-subclass you created with Zend_Db::factory(). Please see Writing Changes to the Database in the Zend Framework manual for more details and the whole spectrum of features Zend_Db provides.

For the sake of completeness, the above code will issue a query to the database similar to:

INSERT INTO bugs (created_on, bug_description, bug_status) 
    VALUES ('2007-03-22', 'Something wrong', 'NEW')

The next step would be a more sophisticated approach using Zend_Db_Table.

EDIT:

Given that you have a Zend_Form ($form) with the appropriate fields created_on, bug_description and bug_status and provided that you have the right filters and validators in place, adding a new row with values given in the form is as easy as

if ($form->isValid($_POST)) {
    $db->insert('bugs', $form->getValues());
}

Storing a custom object is also very easy:

// $bug is your custom object representing a bug
$db->insert('bugs', array(
    'created_on'      => $bug->getCreatedOn(),
    'bug_description' => $bug->getDescription(),
    'bug_status'      => $bug->getStatus()
));