MVC and Module Structure - radus28/Vtiger-DevOps GitHub Wiki

Modules

1. Modules are organized into Hierarchical MVC pattern under 'modules' folder

2. Each module can have either one of

   1. MVC structure
      1. Models
      2. Views
      3. Actions (Controllers)
   2. Sub modules

3. Parent module is always Vtiger. It works as Base module as well as fallback module.

4. Each Module class composed of Modulename_Type_ClassName. Example Contacts_Save_Action

5. When an action or view not found inside specific module folder, it is fetched from Vtiger module as fallback. You can see How fall back works.

Module types

There are 2 types

• Extension - Just functionalities such as Emails, SMS, PDF Export
• Entity - Data/record based modules, such as Contacts, Products etc. Entity type has a special type named "Inventory Modules"

Inventory Module is an Entity module , but logically grouping inventory related modules like "Quotes","Invoice", "SalesOrder" and "PurchaseOrder" as sub modules.

Inventory Modules have Line Item block, which is a special blocks to Include Products.

Examples

• Entity modules - Contacts, Products, Organizations, Opportunities, Projects, vendors
• Inventory modules - Quotes, Invoice, PurchaseOrder, SalesOrder

See modules/Inventory/actions/Save.php which is an Extended class of modules/Vtiger/actions/Save.php as shown below

class Inventory_Save_Action extends Vtiger_Save_Action { .. }

Same way modules/Quotes/actions/Save.php is an extended of modules/Inventory/actions/Save.php

class Quotes_Save_Action extends Inventory_Save_Action {..}

Since Vtiger is the parent module the class hierarchy goes like

Vtiger -> Inventory -> Quotes | Sales Order | Invoice | PurchaseOrder

For Entity Modules it is

Vtiger -> Contacts | Leads | Organizations | .....

Settings

Now time to check Settings module ..

• This is a module only accessible to "Admin" users
• This is organized into several sub modules as shown below

• Each of these sub modules handles different functions of the App Settings, such as
  • CRON Tasks
  • Workflows
  • SMS configuration
  • Outgoing mail configuration

How MVC works

1. Actions - The controller Classes to perform actions. Example, Save, Delete, MassSave, Search and many more
2. Views - Responsible to display Contents. In vtiger contents are rendered through Smarty Templates
3. Models - All Back end / Database operations Happens here

Auto Loading

Auto Loading happens using PHP's spl_autoload_register() method at

includes/Loader.php

Class and file names follow below conventions

File path : MODULE-NAME/TARGET/FILE

Example : Contacts/actions/Save.php

Class name : Contacts_Save_Actions {}

Views

Take and example of a Detail View http://localhost/v72train/index.php?module=Accounts&view=Detail&record=73&app=MARKETING

This request is routed to

modules/Accounts/views/Detail.php

And class Accounts_Detail_View

This class Extended Vtiger_Detail_View class from

modules/Vtiger/views/Detail.php

And the __contstructor() Exposes all relevant methods as shown below

function __construct() {

	`parent::__construct();`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showDetailViewByMode');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showModuleDetailView');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showModuleSummaryView');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showModuleBasicView');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showRecentActivities');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showRecentComments');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showRelatedList');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showChildComments');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('getActivities');`

	`$this->exposeMethod('showRelatedRecords');`
`}`

And Request goes to process() Function

`function process(Vtiger_Request $request) {`

	`$mode = $request->getMode();`

	`if(!empty($mode)) {`

		`echo $this->invokeExposedMethod($mode, $request);`
		`return;`
	`}`


	`$currentUserModel = Users_Record_Model::getCurrentUserModel();`

	`if ($currentUserModel->get('default_record_view') === 'Summary') {`

		`echo $this->showModuleBasicView($request);`

	`} else {`

		`echo $this->showModuleDetailView($request);`

	`}`

`}`

If $mode is empty it goes to default DetailView or SummaryView Else Calls relevant Exposed Methods

Actions

Actions goes to the Module's Action file.

Example, in Contacts Edit View, below screen shows the hidden form parameters which are submitted to backend.

The Save Action Request goes to

modules/Contacts/actions/Save.php

and Class Contacts_Save_Action

which extends

modules/Vtiger/actions/Save.php

Vtiger_Save_Action->process($request)

Then in Line 54

$recordModel = $this->saveRecord($request);

it calls saveRecord() from Line 109

Finally in Line 116 it calls

$recordModel->save();

The $recordModel is from

modules/Contacts/models/Record.php

Note if no Record.php found under Contacts/models (MODULE-NAME/models) folder, request will be diverted to Vtiger/models/Record.php

In this case Contacts module has the class Class name Contacts_Record_Model

But save() method not exists, so it is called from it's Parent Vtiger/models/Record.php which calls

Vtiger_Record_Model->save()

then it calls

$this->getModule()->saveRecord($this);

From

modules/Vtiger/models/Module.php

IMPORTANT

1. REMEMBER THE WAY TO DEBUG THE ACTIONS OR VIEWS. THERE CAN BE MORE **TRICKY REQUESTS **THAN THIS
2. THESE ARE CORE FILES AND MODIFICATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED