The Table classes do NOT declare concrete public properties for
most of the database table columns. Instead, they use implied public
properties — and eventually the magic __get() and
__set() PHP methods as PHP 9 will remove support for
implied public properties in objects which do not extend directly from
\stdClass.
This means that when you get a Table object and type-hint it correctly, like the example below, your IDE will not offer any auto-completion suggestions or type hints for the database table columns supported by your table class.
/** @var \Acme\Component\Example\Administrator\Table\ItemTable **/
$table = $this->getMVCFactory()->createTable('Item', 'Administrator');
I find this annoying. The whole reason we're using an IDE is so we don't have to remember a large number of little things, like how the table columns are named in every table of every table the core CMS or our component is using.
Luckily, this is trivial to fix.
Given the following table definition:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `#__example_items` ( `id` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `catid` bigint(20) NOT NULL, `fromname` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `fromemail` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `subject` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `body` mediumtext NOT NULL, `enabled` tinyint(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT 1, `token` char(32) DEFAULT NULL, `created_on` datetime NULL DEFAULT NULL, `created_by` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `modified_on` datetime NULL DEFAULT NULL, `modified_by` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `locked_on` datetime NULL DEFAULT NULL, `locked_by` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE = InnoDB DEFAULT COLLATE = utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
You can add the following phpDoc DocBlock at the top of your class:
/** * @property int $id The primary key * @property int $catid The category ID, foreign key to #__categories * @property string $fromname Name of the sender * @property string $fromemail Email address of the sender * @property string $subject Subject line of this contact item * @property string $body Body text of this contact item * @property int $enabled Is it published? * @property string $token Reply token * @property string $created_on Date and time the record was created * @property int $created_by ID of the user who created the record * @property string $modified_on Date and time the record was last modified * @property int $modified_by ID of the user who last modified the record * @property string $locked_on Date and time the record was locked * @property int $locked_by ID of the user who locked the record */
Now you get full auto-completion, type hinting and inline documentation for your table columns. You're welcome!