creating-new-entities.md

Creating New Entities

save

New Quick entities can be created and persisted to the database by creating a new entity instance, setting the attributes on the entity, and then calling the save method.

var user = getInstance( "User" );
user.setUsername( "JaneDoe" );
user.setEmail( "[email protected]" );
user.setPassword( "mypass1234" );
user.save();

When we call save, the record is persisted from the database and the primary key is set to the auto-generated value (if any).

We can shortcut the setters above using a fill method.

fill

Finds the first matching record or creates a new entity.

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of key / value pairs to fill in to the new entity.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Sets attributes data from a struct of key / value pairs. This method does the following, in order:

1. Guard against read-only attributes.
2. Attempt to call a relationship setter.
3. Calls custom attribute setters for attributes that exist.
4. Throws an error if an attribute does not exist (if ignoreNonExistentAttributes is false which is the default).

var user = getInstance( "User" );
user.fill( {
    "username": "JaneDoe",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "password": "mypass1234"
} );
user.save();

populate

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of key / value pairs to fill in to the new entity.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Populate is simply an alias for fill. Use whichever one suits you best.

create

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of key / value pairs to fill in to the new entity.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Creates a new entity with the given attributes and then saves the entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).create( {
    "username": "JaneDoe",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "password": "mypass1234"
} );

There is no need to call save when using the create method.

firstOrNew

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to restrict the query. If no entity is found the attributes are filled on the new entity returned.
newAttributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to fill on the new entity if no entity is found. These attributes are combined with attributes.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Finds the first matching record or returns an unloaded new entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" )
    .firstOrNew( { "username": rc.username } );

firstOrCreate

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to restrict the query. If no entity is found the attributes are filled on the new entity created.
newAttributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to fill on the created entity if no entity is found. These attributes are combined with attributes.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Finds the first matching record or creates a new entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" )
    .firstOrCreate( { "username": rc.username } );

findOrNew

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
id	any	true		The id value to find.
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to fill on the new entity if no entity is found.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Returns the entity with the id value as the primary key. If no record is found, it returns a new unloaded entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).findOrNew(
    9999,
      {
              "firstName" : "doesnt",
              "lastName"  : "exist"
      }
);

findOrCreate

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
id	any	true		The id value to find.
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to use when creating the new entity if no entity is found.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Returns the entity with the id value as the primary key. If no record is found, it returns a newly created entity.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).findOrCreate(
    9999,
      {
        "username"  : "doesntexist",
              "firstName" : "doesnt",
              "lastName"  : "exist",
              "password"  : "secret"
      }
);

updateOrCreate

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to restrict the query. If no entity is found the attributes are filled on the new entity created.
newAttributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of attributes to update on the found entity or the new entity if no entity is found.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Updates an existing record or creates a new record with the given attributes.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).updateOrCreate( {
    "username": "newuser"
} );

Hydration Methods

Hydration is a term to describe filling an entity with a struct of data and then marking it as loaded, without doing any database queries. For example, this might be useful when hydrating a user from session data instead of doing a query every request.

hydrate

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
attributes	struct	false	{}	A struct of key / value pairs to fill in to the entity.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Hyrdates an entity from a struct of data. Hydrating an entity fills the entity and then marks it as loaded.

If the entity's keys are not included in the struct of data, a MissingHydrationKey is thrown.

var user = getInstance( "User" ).hydrate( {
    "id": 4,
    "username": "JaneDoe",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "password": "mypass1234"
} );

user.isLoaded(); // true

hydrateAll

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
mementos	array	false	[]	An array of structs to hydrate into entities.
ignoreNonExistentAttributes	boolean	false	false	If true, does not throw an exception if an attribute does not exist. Instead, it skips the non-existent attribute.

Hydrates a new collection of entities from an array of structs.

var users = getInstance( "User" ).hydrateAll( [
    {
        "id": 3,
        "username": "JohnDoe",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "password": "mypass4321"
    },
    {
        "id": 4,
        "username": "JaneDoe",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "password": "mypass1234"
    }
] );