PicoORM

PicoORM: a very lightweight ORM for PHP 8.0+

by Paige Julianne Sullivan paige@paigejulianne.com

https://paigejulianne.com

---

Background

Back in 2010, I was building a hosted VOIP PBX that required a LOT of calls to the database. I wanted to make it as simple as I could without having to import a huge ORM (you know which ones I'm talking about). I wrote this code and have been making continual enhancements over the years to it.

---

Contributing, Issues, and Support

I welcome your contributions to the source code. Feel free to fork the repository and submit pull requests. For support and issues, please use the GitHub issue tracker at https://github.com/paigejulianne/picoorm/issues

You may also find additional information on the GitHub discussions page at https://github.com/paigejulianne/picoorm/discussions

Finally, you can check my blog at https://paigejulianne.com/?s=picoorm for additional information and tutorials.

---

Installation

Via composer

Execute the following command in your CLI:

composer require paigejulianne/picoorm

Via direct download

Download the PicoORM.php file into your source directory and include it.

include_once("PicoORM.php");

---

Usage

Setup the PDO Connection

After including PicoPDO, you'll need to set these global variables in order for proper operation:

$PICOORM_DSN        ; your DSN - see the PHP PDO Driver documentation for format
$PICOORM_USER       ; database user name
$PICOORM_PASS       ; database user password
$PICOORM_OPTIONS    ; see the PDO PDO Driver documentation for options

Inherit the PicoORM class

To begin working with tables, simply extend the PicoORM class, naming your class the same as the table name. For example, to work with a table called users, you would create a class called Users that extends PicoORM. (Note: if using MySQL or MariaDB, the class/table name is case-insensitive. Other databases may be case-sensitive.)

NOTE: Since version 1.7.1-alpha, the namespace for this class is PaigeJulianne\PicoORM

use PaigeJulianne\PicoORM;
class Users extends PicoORM {
    // your code here
}

PicoORM will assume that the table can be found in the database that you specified in the PDO connection. If you need to specify a different database, you can do so by adding a prefix to the class name. For example, if you have a table called users in a database called mydatabase, you would create a class called mydatabase\Users that extends PicoORM. Example:

use PaigeJulianne\PicoORM;
class mydatabase\Users extends PicoORM {
    // your code here
}

Loading a record from the database

Simply call the constructor with the primary key value as the parameter. For example, if your table has a primary key called id, you would call the constructor like this:

$user = new Users(1);

Loading a record from the database using a different column as the primary key

If your table uses a different column as the primary key, you can specify that column name as the second parameter to the constructor. For example, if your table has a primary key called user_id, you would call the constructor like this:

$user = new Users(1,"user_id");

Loading a record from the database using a different column as the primary key and a different database

$user = new mydatabase\Users(1,"user_id");

Creating a new record

To create a new record, simply call the constructor with no parameters. For example:

$user = new Users();

Saving a record

To save a record, simply call the save() method. For example:

$user->save();

Deleting a record

To delete a record, simply call the delete() method. For example:

$user->delete();

Setting a field value

To set a field value, simply set the property. For example:

$user->first_name = "Paige";

The field will not be saved to the database until you call the save() method or the object is destroyed (goes out of scope or script ends).

Getting a field value

To get a field value, simply get the property. For example:

echo $user->first_name;

Using custom SQL queries

To use custom SQL queries, simply call the query() method. For example:

$user = new Users();
$user->query("SELECT * FROM __DB__ WHERE first_name = ? AND last_name = ?",["Paige","Sullivan"]);

Note: the __ DB __ placeholder will be replaced with the table name. For example, if your table name is users, the query will be executed as:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE first_name = ? AND last_name = ?

Using custom SQL queries with a different database

$user = new mydatabase\Users();
$user->query("SELECT * FROM __DB__ WHERE first_name = ? AND last_name = ?",["Paige","Sullivan"]);