Abyss ORM Models

A model is a native syntax representation of (in Nox's case) a MySQL table and its columns. Instead of manually creating the table and columns in MySQL syntax or through a tool such as phpMyAdmin, you can keep all of your logic in one language - PHP.

Building a Model

All of your models should be in your Nox application models directory. By default, this is the app/models directory. This is configured in the nox.json file.

You must have an existing database before making and synchronizing your models. Nox does not create a database for you, only the tables via the models. Your database should then be configured for Abyss in the nox-env.php class file as constants.

Below is an example model that represents a Users table in MySQL with defined columns.

<?php
    use \Nox\ORM\ColumnDefinition;
    use \Nox\ORM\Interfaces\MySQLModelInterface;
    use \Nox\ORM\MySQLDataTypes\Integer;
    use \Nox\ORM\MySQLDataTypes\VariableCharacter;

    class UsersModel implements MySQLModelInterface {

        /**
         * The name of this Model in the MySQL database as a table
         */
        private string $mysqlTableName = "users";

        /**
         * The string name of the class this model represents and can instantiate
         */
        private string $representingClassName = "User";

        public function getName(): string{
            return $this->mysqlTableName;
        }

        public function getInstanceName(): string{
            return $this->representingClassName;
        }

        public function getColumns(): array{
            return [
                new ColumnDefinition(
                    name:"id",
                    classPropertyName: "id",
                    dataType : new Integer(),
                    defaultValue: 0,
                    autoIncrement: true,
                    isPrimary: true,
                    isNull:false,
                ),
                new ColumnDefinition(
                    name:"name",
                    classPropertyName: "name",
                    dataType : new VariableCharacter(65),
                    defaultValue: "",
                ),
                new ColumnDefinition(
                    name:"email",
                    classPropertyName: "email",
                    dataType : new VariableCharacter(65),
                    defaultValue:"",
                ),
                new ColumnDefinition(
                    name:"creation_timestamp",
                    classPropertyName: "creationTimestamp",
                    dataType : new Integer(),
                    defaultValue: time(),
                ),
            ];
        }
    }

This tells the Abyss ORM how to build or synchronize with a table named users in your MySQL database.

Important notes about models in Nox: