Yii CDbCriteria and Model->findAll, how to add custom column?

Question

I have a calendar app in Yii where I store events per user. I'd like to dynamically build a title for each event.

This code is in my controller:

$criteria = new CDbCriteria;
$criteria->select = array('all_day','end','id','start');
$criteria->condition = 'user_id ='.$user->id;
$events = Calendar::model()->findAll($criteria);
foreach($events as $event) {
  $event->title = 'test title';
}
echo CJSON::encode($events);

In my Calendar model, I've added a new property called $title:

public $title;

But then when I go to echo the JSON, title doesn't show up...

[{"all_day":false,"end":"-948712553","id":"2","start":"-146154706"}]

What do I need to do to add title to the JSON result set?

Answer 1

This happens because CJSON::encode encodes the attributes of each model, and custom properties are not added to the attributes of the model. The way custom properties are added to the model, this can not be done in a straightforward way.

I did come up with a workaround though taking the hint from this answer:

$events = Calendar::model()->findAll($criteria);
$rows=array();// we need this array
foreach($events as $i=>$event) {
    $event->title = 'test title';
    $rows[$i]=$event->attributes;
    $rows[$i]['title']=$event->title;
}

echo CJSON::encode($rows); // echo $rows instead of $events

The code above should work.

Answer 2

you can extend your model and provide your new attribute like this:

    public function getTitle() {
        return "test title";
    }

    public function getAttributes($names = true) {
        $attrs = parent::getAttributes($names);
        $attrs['title'] = $this->getTitle();

        return $attrs;
    }