The Future of Plugin Dev

THE FUTURE
OF PLUGIN DEV
Brandon Kelly

Craft 3 Dev Preview
coming in May

Requests/second
(bigger is better)
EE Joomla Drupal 7 Craft 2 Craft 3
17.52
9.79
9.05
4.784.17

Response Times
(in milliseconds - smaller is better)
EE Joomla Drupal 7 Craft 2 Craft 3
57
102110
209
240

What has changed for
Craft has also changed
for plugins

• What’s changed in PHP
• What’s changed in Yii
• What’s changed in Craft
• Port a plugin
Game plan

Yii 2 and Craft 3 both 
require PHP 5.4
(Yii 1 required 5.1; Craft 2 required 5.3)

• JSON extension
• ZIP extension
• Upload progress-tracking hooks
• DateTime/DateTimeZone
PHP 5.2 features

• Namespaces
• Late static bindings
• Closures
PHP 5.3 features

Namespaces
namespace craftpluginsfoo;
class Plugin {
public function getClassName() {
return get_class($this);
}
}
$plugin = new Plugin();
echo $plugin->getClassName();
// => "craftpluginsfooPlugin"

Late static bindings
class Object {
public static function className() {
return get_called_class();
}
}
class Foo extends Object {
}
echo Foo::className();
// => "Foo"

Closures
$obj->on('thing', function($event) {
// ...
});

• Traits
• Short array syntax
• Function array dereferencing
• Class member access on
instantiation
PHP 5.4 Features

Traits
trait FooTrait {
public $bar = 'bar';
}
class Foo {
use FooTrait;
}
$foo = new Foo();
echo $foo->bar;
// => "bar"

Short array syntax
$myIndexedArray = [
'key1' => 1,
'key2' => 2
];
$myBoringArray = [1, 2, 3];

Function array dereferencing
function foo() {
return ['one', 'two', 'three'];
}
echo foo()[0];
// => "one"

Class member access on instantiation
class Foo {
public function bar() {
// ...
}
}
(new Foo())
->bar();

• No more “C” class name preﬁx
• Namespaces resemble the folder
structure (PSR-4)
• No more Yii::import()
• Path aliases deﬁne the root
namespaces for the autoloader
Class name/namespace changes

Path alias example
Yii::setAlias('@foo', '/path/to/foo');
echo Yii::getAlias('@foo/subpath');
// => "/path/to/foo/subpath"

Important path aliases to be aware of
Path Alias Server Path Root Namespace
@yii …/app/vendor/yiisoft/yii2 yii
@craft/app …/app craftapp
@craft/plugins/foo …/plugins/foo craftpluginsfoo

• Base class for everything
• Property getters/setters
• Event handling
• Behaviors
CComponent in Yii 1

• yiibaseObject
• yiibaseComponent
Split into two classes in Yii 2

• The new base class for
everything
• Only does property 
getters/setters
Object

• Extends Object
• Event handling
• Behaviors
Component

• Extend Object for classes that
don’t do anything besides
represent data (gloriﬁed arrays)
• Extend Component for
everything else
When to use which?

• yiibaseEvent
• yiidbTableSchema
• yiimailBaseMessage
• yiiwebCookieCollection
• yiiwebUrlRule
Object examples

• yiibaseModel
• yiidbConnection
• yiii18nI18N
• yiimailBaseMailer
• yiiwebRequest
Component examples

• Define object config settings as
public properties
• Pass configuration arrays into the
object constructor
Configuring objects

Object conﬁguration examples
class User extends Object {
public $age;
}
$user = new User(['age' => 21]);

class User extends Object {
public function setAge($age) {
// ...
}
public function getAge() {
// ...
}
}
$user = new User(['age' => 21]);

$user = Yii::createObject('fooUser');
$user = Yii::createObject([
'class' => 'fooUser',
'age' => 21
]);

• Base: yiidiServiceLocator
• They have sub-components
• Components accessed via magic
getters and get()
• Subcomponents are created the
ﬁrst time they’re requested
Service locators

• Base: yiibaseModule
• They are service locators, so they
have sub-components
• They also have controllers, views,
and sub-modules
Modules

• Base: yiibaseApplication
• They are modules
• They handle the request
• Only one application per request
Applications

• Web requests: 
yiiwebApplication 
• Console requests: 
yiiconsoleApplication
Two application classes

• Web and console applications
have controllers (no more
“console command” classes)
• Controller action routing works
the same either way
• They return the response
Controllers

• Request classes deﬁne the incoming
web/console request
• Response classes deﬁne the outgoing
web/console response
• The response is automatically sent at
the end of the application processing
Request vs. response

• Describes the HTTP request
• Method (GET, POST, etc.)
• Ajax/Pjax/Flash?
• Headers, body, parameters
• Acceptable content types/languages
• HTTP authentication
• URL, host name, URI, port, SSL
• Referrer, user agent, client IP
yiiwebRequest

• Describes the console command
• Requested route
• Requested parameters
yiiconsoleRequest

• Deﬁnes the HTTP response
• Status code (200, 404, etc.)
• Headers
• Cookies
• Body
yiiwebResponse

• HTML
• XML
• JSON
• JSONP
Web response formats

Formatted response examples
$response = Yii::$app->getResponse();
$response->data = $user;
$response->format = 'json';
$response->send();
{
"id": 5,
"username": "admin",
"age": 21
}

Formatted response examples
$response = Yii::$app->getResponse();
$response->data = $user;
$response->format = 'xml';
$response->send();
<response>
<id>5</id>
<username>admin</username>
<age>21</age>
</response>

• Deﬁned by “onEventName()”
methods on component classes
• Attached by setting a magic
“onEventName” property
• Raised by calling raiseEvent()
within the event method
Events in Yii 1

Yii 1 event example
class User extends CComponent {
public function wake() {
$this->onWake(new CEvent());
}
public function onWake($ev) {
$this->raiseEvent('onWake', $ev);
}
}
$user = new User();
$user->onWake = function($ev){/*...*/};

• Not explicitly predeﬁned
• Attached by calling on()
• Raised by calling trigger()
Events in Yii 2

Yii 2 event example
class User extends Component {
public function wake() {
$this->trigger('afterWake');
}
}
$user = new User();
$user->on('afterWake', function($ev){
// ...
});

Class-level event handler example
Event::on('fooUser', 'afterWake',
function($ev) {
// ...
}
);

• For JS and CSS resources
• They can have dependencies
• They can publish their ﬁles into
the web root when registered
• They can compile LESS, Sass,
Stylus, and CoﬀeeScript
Asset bundles

Deﬁning an asset bundle
class AppAsset extends AssetBundle
{
public $sourcePath = '@app/assets';
public $basePath = '@web/assets';
public $depends = [
'yiiwebJqueryAsset'
];
public $css = [
'css/app.scss'
];
}

Registering an asset bundle
Yii::$app->view->registerAssetBundle(
'fooAppAsset'
);

• All SELECT queries are defined
by yiidbQuery objects
• All other queries are defined by
yiidbCommand objects
• Schema-specific SQL is always
built with QueryBuilder
DB Queries

Query methodsQuery Deﬁnition Query Execution
select()
distinct()
from()
where()
innerJoin()
leftJoin()
rightJoin()
groupBy()
having()
union()
orderBy()
limit()
offset()
batch()
each()
all()
one()
scalar()
column()
count()
sum()
average()
min()
max()
exists()
createCommand()

SELECT query examples
$user = (new Query())
->from('{{%users}}')
->where(['id' => 5])
->one();

SELECT query examples
$users = (new Query())
->from('{{%users}}')
->where('age >= :min', [
':min' => 21
])
->all();

Command methodsQuery Deﬁnition Query Management Query Execution
insert()
batchInsert()
update()
delete()
createTable()
renameTable()
dropTable()
truncateTable()
addColumn()
dropColumn()
renameColumn()
alterColumn()
addPrimaryKey()
dropPrimaryKey()
addForeignKey()
dropForeignKey()
createIndex()
dropIndex()
cache()
noCache()
getSql()
setSql()
getRawSql()
prepare()
cancel()
bindParam()
bindPendingParams()
bindValue()
bindValues()
query()
queryAll()
queryOne()
queryScalar()
queryColumn()
execute()

More query examples
Yii::$app->db->createCommand()
->insert('users', [
'username' => 'brandon'
'age' => 29
])
->execute();

More query examples
Yii::$app->db->createCommand()
->update('users',
['age' => 30],
['id' => 5]
)
->execute();

How they map together
Query Execution Method Command Execution Method
all() queryAll()
one() queryOne()
count()
sum()
average()
min()
max()
exists()
scalar()
queryScalar()
column() queryColumn()

• Base: yiidbActiveRecord
• Records’ ::find() methods
return ActiveQuery objects
• ActiveQuery handles the query
deﬁnition and active record
object population
Active Record

Active record query example
$users = User::find()
->where('age => :min', [
':min' => 21
])
->all();

• Yii 2 uses PHP’s Intl extension to
format dates, numbers, etc.
• Only very basic single-language
fallbacks built-in.
• Only 30% of servers have Intl
• What could go wrong?
Internationalization

• No more Craft namespace
• Namespaces reﬂect the folder
structure now
• Root namespace is craftapp
• Plugins’ root namespaces follow
the pattern craftpluginsfoo
Namespaces

• Craft 2: craft() returns the
CraftWebApp instance
• Craft 3: Craft::$app returns the 
craftappwebApplication
instance
Accessing the Application instance

• Magic property names are still
available: 
Craft::$app->entries
• We’ve also added getter methods
for all services: 
Craft::$app->getEntries()
Accessing the Application components

• userSession is now user /
getUser()
• httpSession is now session /
getSession()
Application component name changes

• In Craft 2, routes pointed to
templates by default, and could
point to a controller action with a
special syntax
• That’s reversed in Craft 2: by
default routes point to actions
Routes and controllers

Craft 2 route example
return array(
// Template route:
'foo' => 'path/to/template',
// Controller action route:
'bar' => array(
'action' => 'foo/bar'
)
);

Craft 3 route example
return [
// Template route:
'foo' => [
'template' => 'template/path',
],
// Controller action route:
'bar' => 'foo/bar'
];

• Params captured by URL rules
are now passed directly to the
action’s arguments
• URL Manager’s
setRouteVariables() is now
setRouteParams()
Routes and controllers

• No more defineAttributes()
• Attributes must be deﬁned as
public properties on the model
• Validation rules must be deﬁned
in the rules() method
Model changes in Craft 3

Craft 2 model example
class User extends BaseModel {
protected function defineAttributes()
{
return array(
'id' => AttributeType::Number,
'age' => AttributeType::Number
);
}
}

Craft 3 model example
class User extends Model {
public $id;
public $age;
public function rules() {
return [
['id,age', 'number']
];
}
}

• No more defineAttributes()
• Column names are determined
by analyzing the table
• Validation rules must be deﬁned
in the rules() method
• Records no longer create tables
Record changes in Craft 3

• TemplatesService is now
craftappwebView
• include*()→register*()
• render()→renderTemplate()
• register[Css|Js]Resource()
register asset bundles
Templates

• “beginPage”, “endPage”,
“beginBody”, and “endBody”
events are triggered when
rendering templates
Templates

• No more separation of
component models and their
“type” classes
‘Types

Field type architectureCraft 2 Craft 3
Field Model
Field Type
Field Model

Widget type architectureCraft 2 Craft 3
Widget Model
Widget Type
Widget Model

Task type architectureCraft 2 Craft 3
Task Model
Task Type
Task Model

Element type architectureCraft 2 Craft 3
Element Model
Element Type
Element Model

• No more defineSettings()
• Settings are now deﬁned directly
on the component classes as
public properties
‘Type settings

Craft 2 ﬁeld type example
class XFieldType extends BaseFieldType
{
protected function defineSettings() {
return array(
'maxlen' => AttributeType::Number
);
}
// ...
}

Craft 3 ﬁeld type example
class X extends Field
{
public $maxlen;
// ...
}

• ElementCriteriaModel ,
modifyElementsQuery(), and
defineCriteriaAttributes()
are dead!
• Replaced with Element Query
classes
Element Queries

• Elements’ ::find() methods
return ElementQuery objects
• ElementQuery handles the query
deﬁnition and element object
population
Element Queries

• Element types that need custom
query parameters can extend
ElementQuery and override their
element class’ ::find() method
to return their custom element
query class
Element Queries

• Element queries have protected
beforePrepare() and
afterPrepare() methods that
can be overridden to support
custom parameters
Element Queries

Element query example
class User extends Element {
public static function find() {
return new UserQuery(
get_called_class()
);
}
// ...
}

Element query example
class UserQuery extends ElementQuery {
public $age;
protected function beforePrepare() {
if ($this->age) {
$this->subQuery->andWhere(
['age' => $this->age]
);
}
return parent::beforePrepare();
}
}

• Primary plugin class is no longer
necessary
• Plugins are modules
• General plugin info now deﬁned
by conﬁg.json
Plugins

conﬁg.json example
{
"name": "Foo",
"version": "1.0",
"developer": "Pixel & Tonic",
"developerUrl": "http://foo.com"
}

• Plugins are modules
• Primary plugin class is optional
• General plugin info now deﬁned
in conﬁg.json
• No more strict class name/folder
requirements
Plugins

• Craft 2 would automatically
create/drop tables based on your
records on install/uninstall
• Craft 3 leaves it up to the plugin,
calling its install() and
uninstall() methods
Installing Plugins

• By default, install() and
uninstall() will check for an
“Install” migration within the
plugin, and call its safeUp() and
safeDown() methods
Installing Plugins

• Craft has an InstallMigration
class that can be extended
• All you have to do is override its
defineSchema() function,
deﬁning your plugin’s default
table schema.
Installing Plugins

Install migration example
class Install extends InstallMigration
{
protected function defineSchema() {
'{{%foo_users}}' => [
'columns' => [
'username' => 'string(36)',
'age' => 'integer'
]
]
}
}

• Craft has its own Install migration
that the installer runs: 
craft/app/migrations/Install.php
• Also shows how to add default
content to the tables
Installing Plugins

Thank you!
Try the Craft 3 Dev Preview today at
buildwithcraft.com/3

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