Welcome to The Cookbook

Creating virtual fields is easy. In each model you can define a $virtualFields property that contains an array of field => expressions. An example of a virtual field definition using MySQL would be:

var $virtualFields = array(
    'name' => 'CONCAT(User.first_name, " ", User.last_name)'
);

1. var $virtualFields = array(
2. 'name' => 'CONCAT(User.first_name, " ", User.last_name)'
3. );

var $virtualFields = array(
    'name' => 'User.first_name || \' \' || User.last_name'
);

1. var $virtualFields = array(
2. 'name' => 'User.first_name || \' \' || User.last_name'
3. );

In subsequent find operations, your User results would contain a name key with the result of the concatenation. It is not advisable to create virtual fields with the same names as columns on the database, this can cause SQL errors.

Creating virtual fields is straightforward and easy, interacting with virtual fields can be done through a few different methods.

Model::hasField()

Model::hasField() has been updated so that it can return true if the model has a virtualField with the correct name. By setting the second parameter of hasField to true, virtualFields will also be checked when checking if a model has a field. Using the example field above,

$this->User->hasField('name'); // Will return false, as there is no concrete field called name
$this->User->hasField('name', true); // Will return true as there is a virtual field called name

1. $this->User->hasField('name'); // Will return false, as there is no concrete field called name
2. $this->User->hasField('name', true); // Will return true as there is a virtual field called name

Model::isVirtualField()

This method can be used to check if a field/column is a virtual field or a concrete field. Will return true if the column is virtual.

$this->User->isVirtualField('name'); //true
$this->User->isVirtualField('first_name'); //false

1. $this->User->isVirtualField('name'); //true
2. $this->User->isVirtualField('first_name'); //false

Model::getVirtualField()

This method can be used to access the SQL expression that comprises a virtual field. If no argument is supplied it will return all virtual fields in a Model.

$this->User->getVirtualField('name'); //returns 'CONCAT(User.first_name, ' ', User.last_name)'

1. $this->User->getVirtualField('name'); //returns 'CONCAT(User.first_name, ' ', User.last_name)'

Model::find() and virtual fields

As stated earlier Model::find() will treat virtual fields much like any other field in a model. The value of a virtual field will be placed under the model's key in the resultset. Unlike the behavior of calculated fields in 1.2

$results = $this->User->find('first');

// results contains the following
array(
    'User' => array(
        'first_name' => 'Mark',
        'last_name' => 'Story',
        'name' => 'Mark Story',
        //more fields.
    )
);

1. $results = $this->User->find('first');
2. // results contains the following
3. array(
4. 'User' => array(
5. 'first_name' => 'Mark',
6. 'last_name' => 'Story',
7. 'name' => 'Mark Story',
8. //more fields.
9. )
10. );

Pagination and virtual fields

Since virtual fields behave much like regular fields when doing find's, Controller::paginate() has been updated to allows sorting by virtual fields.

When you are using virtualFields and models with aliases that are not the same as their name, you can run into problems as virtualFields do not update to reflect the bound alias. If you are using virtualFields in models that have more than one alias it is best to define the virtualFields in your model's constructor

function __construct($id = false, $table = null, $ds = null) {
	parent::__construct($id, $table, $ds);
	$this->virtualFields['name'] = sprintf('CONCAT(%s.first_name, " ", %s.last_name)', $this->alias, $this->alias);
}

1. function __construct($id = false, $table = null, $ds = null) {
2. parent::__construct($id, $table, $ds);
3. $this->virtualFields['name'] = sprintf('CONCAT(%s.first_name, " ", %s.last_name)', $this->alias, $this->alias);
4. }

This will allow your virtualFields to work for any alias you give a model.

The implementation of virtualFields in 1.3 has a few limitations. First you cannot use virtualFields on associated models for conditions, order, or fields arrays. Doing so will generally result in an SQL error as the fields are not replaced by the ORM. This is because it difficult to estimate the depth at which an associated model might be found.

A common workaround for this implementation issue is to copy virtualFields from one model to another at runtime when you need to access them.

$this->virtualFields['full_name'] = $this->Author->virtualFields['full_name'];

1. $this->virtualFields['full_name'] = $this->Author->virtualFields['full_name'];

Alternatively, you can define $virtualFields in your model's constructor, using $this->alias, like so:

public function __construct($id=false,$table=null,$ds=null){
  parent::__construct($id,$table,$ds);
  $this->virtualFields = array(
    'name'=>"CONCAT($this->alias.first_name,' ',$this->alias.last_name)"
  );
}

1. public function __construct($id=false,$table=null,$ds=null){
2. parent::__construct($id,$table,$ds);
3. $this->virtualFields = array(
4. 'name'=>"CONCAT($this->alias.first_name,' ',$this->alias.last_name)"
5. );
6. }