Creating New Module based on Record Browser CRUD engine

lirit

Hey,

Thanks for replying.
I'm referring to the tutorial on creating a new module. It isn't copy&paste because some things have been changed I guess. For example, the install() method should not be declared static. And the abstract method require() isn't implemented, so it should.

So those errors I was able to fix. Anyway, my customization is composed of 2 things:
1. Creating a custom module which will relate to a Contact entry (much like the company module)
2. Customizing some fields of the Contacts module

I don't know how to begin in any of these directions. I'm guessing that customizing the Contacts module is much easier than creating a custom module and so I'd like to start with the custom module creation.
Any chance I could get some help/guidance on accomplishing this?

(By the way, the video tutorial is also offline).

Regards,
Liran.

ethnar

Thanks for the report - I'll correct our wiki soon.

In epesi most records available to end user are managed with RecordBrowser - our CRUD engine. As you created modules files already - you can technically jump right into it and modify contacts the way you like.

This part of wiki documentation is, I believe, most up-to-date, you can find it here:
http://www.epesi.org/index.php?title=Ut ... ordBrowser

There's also example custom modification module in epesi package - /modules/Custom/TasksModified. You can use it as reference.

For customizing fields - please remember that some modules relay on some fields (for instance "First Name" or "Group") - thus renaming or removing them may couse problems in other modules.
Adding fields if failry safe and easy - see TasksModified for reference. (on a side note - you can give arguments to new_record_field() like in TasksMod or as an array - same format as for installing recordSet).

Addons - those tabs with custom contents under the record main part - are easiest to manage. Just call

		Utils_RecordBrowserCommon::new_addon($recordset, $module, $function_name, $label);

Make sure that you use module's main part for that (not Common). Then just create this function and whatever you print in that method will pop up on the page.

Hope this helps,
Arek

lirit

Hey,

I'm not directly answering your post as I'm new to all of these things you mentioned (RecordBrowser and such).
I could not find anything like TasksModified plugin. Also I don't have a Custom directory inside modules/

Let's indeed ignore the whole customization to any module and focus just on creating a new custom module.
I don't need anything fancy in that module, it should be a simple CRUD module (is it possible to define custom select options?).

I have just browsed a little bit more in the GUI and found Menu -> Development -> Create module which seems interesting, I haven't seen it before. I'm taking a glance at it and it has things like creating a table and columns (which is only as far as I got right now). Possibly this could make things a whole lot easier?
I'd appreciate if you could elaborate on this if you think that this is what I need.

Regards,
Liran.

ethnar

Possibly TasksModified was removed from the package, my apologize for overlooking it.

If all you want is simple CRUD module - I still suggest to grab RecordBrowser and start from here.

"Create Module" option allows you to create module files and some basic database tables. If you pick that approach, you need to implement interface to browse, view and edit (at the very least).
If you decide to pick RecordBrowser instead, you just need to define fields, install recordSet, add menu and short body() method:

		$this->rb = $this->init_module('Utils/RecordBrowser', null ,'<recordset_name>');

		$this->display_module($this->rb);

Using RecordBrowser is much faster and gives you few candies you'd need to spend quite a while to implement (favorites, edit history, links to records)

Defining custom select elements is possible and widely supported. Starting from 'commondata' element type (linked to an array created with Utils_CommonDataCommon::new_array(<name>, <array>);), through selects based on other recordSets, finally to defining completely your own html element with QFfield_callback (bit more advanced).

To this moment, the simplest module you can look up is Premium/Projects (even without Premium/Projects/Tickets - Tickets only extend Projects) - pretty straightforward with quite numerous options in use.

Kind regards,
Arek

lirit

Ok so, going with RecordBrowser seems to be it, though I've no idea what it is.
What does it mean to "grab" it? making use of it or do I need to download a library?

Is there some tutorial to walk me through this with RB?

lirit

Ok, some progress...

I took your advise on building upon the Projects module and so I have.
The module has installed successfully as well, although I don't see an entry for it in the drop-down menu,
how should I access it to check for basic functionality?

ethnar

Simplest way to access a module is to add menu entry:
http://www.epesi.org/index.php?title=Add_menu_entry
For instance, place that in Common module:

public static function menu() {

	return array('Label'=>array());

}

And this entry will call your body(); method in main part of module.

lirit

I already have that 🙂

ethnar

Sorry, there was another minor error on the wiki.

Definition of Common part of module should look like this:

class MyModuleCommon extends ModuleCommon {

This should fix the missing entry in your module. I already fixed that issue on the wiki as well, I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Arek

lirit

Ahh yes, don't know how I missed that.
I fixed it, then re-installed the plugin, nothing changed though.

I'm suppose to see a new entry in the Menu drop-down menu, right?
Does it matter what is the directory the plugin is in? I've put it in modules's Insurances/Claims.

Regards,
Liran.

ethnar

It is only important for the name of the class (main, common and install parts).

It also has to be in /modules directory, but as I understand you have option to install it in Main Setup, so that's covered.

I don't really know what's the issue with the menu in your module. Could you please attach here or send to me via PM package containing that module (and only that module), with full path starting from epesi directory (in your case: /modules/Insurances/Claims/<files here>). That's the easiest way to solve it, I believe.

lirit

thanks Arek, I guess I will.

Silly me, I didn't notice that I didn't prepend the directory name to the class but I fixed it
and re-installed the module, still no joy.

lirit

Ok, problem with the menu solved.
Silly me, the file names as copied from the wiki had a "space" suffix and so they weren't loaded.

Next on, customizing the module a bit more.

lirit

Arek thanks for all the help.

A couple more questions on how to get things done so I can get going with the custom modules.
To describe the situation first, I got 2 custom modules added, one called Polisa is linked to a customer
and the 2nd called Claim is linked to a Polisa ID.

Now the questions:

1. Is it possible to show for each customer, all of his related Polisa's? (just like it currently shows in the bottom things like Details, Notes, Mails, Activities).
1.1. (similar to previous point) - is it possible to show for each Polisa all the related Claim entries?

2. Claims is related to Polisa's via the 'select' param so I'm seeing that as well in the listing (browse mode) but is it possible to also show the Contacts entry for the listing (or maybe to the edit mode) as well?

Next is the attachment/addon thing, I'll do some reading about that in the wiki first and then open a new thread for it.

Regards,
Liran.

lirit

Some progress with that.
I was able to get an 'addon' working for the Claims -> Polisa (from my module to my module).

Now I'm wondering how to add it for the contacts module so it'll show my Polisa module entries.
I'm able to show it but it wouldn't display any record (it say an error with my addon) so I guess that my addon function isn't working properly.

ethnar

Hello again,

Regarding broken addon - it simply means function is not callable. Make sure you:

1. Install the addon where you install Polisa recordSet (even and especially when you want to add addon to contacts - no need to modify CRM/Contacts whatsoever)
2. Point the addon (2nd argument) to module where Polisa is installed, main part of the module (w/o Common!)
3. Make sure function exists in the main part of this module and that it's public.

Should work that way.

lirit

Right, the problem was that I accidentally placed it in the common's module instead of the main one
like I did for the other module.

Second question is, what should I specify in the array() to get the relation between the contact itself as edited/showing in the contacts module to the polisa' module entry which is associated with that contact?

I tried using 'contact' as well as 'contact_id' but both are not valid.
This is my addon code snippet:



	public function contact_insurance_polisa_addon($arg) {

		$rb = $this->init_module('Utils/RecordBrowser','insurance_polisa');

		$polisa = array(array('contact_id'=>$arg['id']), array('contact_id'=>false), array());

		$this->display_module($rb,$polisa,'show_data');

	}

ethnar

It should be exactly the key of the field that holds the contact (lowercase, with _'s).

If your field is called "Customer", it should be

array(array('customer'=>$arg['id']), ...

If your field name is 'Contact' and it doesn't seem to work, what is the result you are getting? None or all records displayed?

lirit

Ahh ok, I changed it to "customer" as it is defined in my module and it works.
So I'm assuming the $arg holds the primary key (i.e: the contact_id) and it attempts to compare that with my module's entry for it, which is 'customer' as I defined it in the fields.

In this case, how do I tie up my 2nd module to show up there as an addon but it doesn't have a customer field.
To describe it again, the polisa module is associated with the contacts module via a customer's name. Then I have a claims module which is associated with a polisa via a polisa id. How would I go about showing in the contacts screen also all the claims record associated with that customer?

ethnar

You'd then need to pick all polisa's that link to this contact (Utils_RecordBrowserCommon::get_records() - see wiki), build an array with ids of those records:

$ids = array();

foreach ($records as $r) $ids[] = $r['id'];

And then build crits with:

array('polisa_id'=>$ids)

Not truly optimal performance-wise, but it's rather rare case for us.

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