Batoi RAD Framework Objects, Arrays And Libraries

The Code Framework provides three core objects to be used in application development - $DB, $APP and $USER. These objects are automatically instantiated and are available in the application. The $DB object is responsible for database access and data manipulation. The second object $APP is the instance of application when an HTTP request is made and carries all related data. The $USER object carries data of the user accessing the system (uses Row Gateway Data Pattern), and is only instantiated if the controller is private. The interaction of $APP and $USER objects are based on RBAC (Role-based Access Control) scheme as described in Overview of Batoi Code Framework Architecture.

The speciality of the objects is that one does not need to instantiate these three objects. These objects are automatically available within the application main scope. You can also make them available within any Model class by accepting them as global within class constructor; i.e.,
global $DB, $APP, $USER;
$this->DB = $DB;
$this->APP = $APP;
$this->USER = $USER;

Database Object ($DB)

The Database object requires the values of the Code Framework Array, $_DELIGHT, (usually stored in the file sys.inc.php created during the installation of the framework) to get instantiated. The $DB object is basically PDO (PHP Database Object), and can be used in application instance to perform database operations. As PDO supports many major databases including MySQL, PGSQL, and Oracle, etc., developers can choose databases freely based on situations and requirements. It is required that all database queries must be executed through prepared statements - well, that gives immunity against SQL injection.

Application Object ($APP)

The application object requires application event ID (that is available on $_REQUEST) to get instantiated. It depends on other critical parameters like ID (event ID that determines the application instance) or IDN (This is the name of application instance (availed from $_REQUEST superglobal and can be used instead of ID). The later is usually employed for beautifying URL, and also for tagging event's ID for readability during development. After instantiation of $APP object, the following values becomes available to the application instance:

User Object ($USER)

The User object requires $APP an object to get instantiated, but you do not need to be worried - it is taken care of automatically. On the other hand, $USER is instantiated only if $APP->ISPUBLIC returns false (managed within the controller - you do not need to manage this code, rather will mark the controller as private on the Code Framework IDE). The $USER object depends on critical parameters like User's ID and VERIFIER (the verifier is a unique string generated at the time of user creation and differentiates users having common session pool in the server for different applications - again you do not need to be worried about this as these things are taken care of automatically), but avails it from $_SESSION superglobal. After instantiation of $USER the object, the following values becomes available to the application instance:

The Code Framework Array

These are system variables and MUST NOT be used during application development. The table below lists all elements of the Code Framework Array:

When the Code Framework is installed, the first four elements are defined. These values are stored in the file and are the same for all instances of the application. The fifth element is defined during runtime when a controller receives an HTTP request.

Apart from the Code Framework Array, a few elements from $_REQUEST/ $_SESSION Super Globals should not be used as they store system runtime data. These are listed in the table below:

The Code Framework Libraries

The Code Framework Libraries are classes developed or distributed as part of the Code Framework to facilitate additional objects to develop your application. These classes are available in /lib the directory, and are autoloaded when instantiated (i.e., you do not need to include these class files in the application when you want to instantiate them). The names of these classes usually start with Delight_.

The following are the classes currently available as the Code Framework Libraries: