A model is a class that manages the behavior and data of a particular type of data in Perforce Chronicle. The model provides an API for retrieving, updating, and removing data. Models can vary greatly: a model's data can be read-only (e.g. for an external RSS feed) or write-only (for a message queue) or combinations that involve storage in files, Perforce, databases and other sources. Place models in the models folder under your module's folder.

Chronicle provides classes which can be extended when creating a model. P4Cms_Model provides a base implementation for data models that have key/value pairs (fields) along with useful functionality for, optionally, mapping in accessor/mutator methods for the underlying fields. P4Cms_Model does not provide any storage or retrieval allowing you to use an arbitrary backend. The P4Cms_Record class adds persistent storage of data models in Perforce and is recommended if that is your intended datastore. Lastly P4Cms_Record_PubSubRecord broadcasts events such as preSave, postSave, query, allowing other modules to participate in your model's life-cycle. This subject is covered in greater detail in our API documentation.

Here is the skeleton of a model based on P4Cms_Model for the Foo module:

<?php
/**
 * Model description
 *
 * @copyright   copyright info
 * @license     license info
 * @version     version info
 */
class Foo_Model_Bar extends P4Cms_Model
{
    // define the fields this model requires
    protected static $_fields = array(
        'type',
        'label',
    );

    /**
     * Description
     *
     * @return  string  The identifier in the form <type>-<label>
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->getValue('type') . '-' . $this->getValue('label');
    }
}