Displaying Fields

How to show fields in templates, and what to do when the data isn’t there.

Reading Fields

A SmartArray is an object, not an array, so you read fields with the arrow operator (->) instead of square brackets:

use Itools\SmartArray\SmartArrayHtml;

$users = SmartArrayHtml::new([
    ['name' => "Jean O'Brien",    'city' => 'Vancouver', 'phone' => '604-555-0132'],
    ['name' => 'Tom & Jerry Inc', 'city' => 'Ottawa',    'phone' => null],
]);

$user = $users->first();

echo $user->name;  // Jean O&​apos;Brien (with a plain array this would be $user['name'])

The arrow syntax pays off in double-quoted strings: fields interpolate directly, with no braces or quotes needed:

// with a plain PHP array, every field needs braces and quotes
$plain = $user->toArray();
echo "<p>Contact {$plain['name']} in {$plain['city']} at {$plain['phone']}</p>";

// with a SmartArray, it's just the arrow
echo "<p>Contact $user->name in $user->city at $user->phone</p>";
// <p>Contact Jean O&​apos;Brien in Vancouver at 604-555-0132</p>

You can even run whole method chains inside a string, something plain PHP values can’t do. Wrap the expression in curly braces and it works: "Phone: {$user->phone->or('(no phone)')}<br>\n".

Fallbacks with or()

Sometimes real data has missing values: a phone number nobody entered, a nickname left blank. SmartArray calls a value missing when it’s blank ("") or NULL in the database, and or() shows a default in its place. The result stays a SmartString, so even a fallback that came from data encodes on output:

$user = SmartArrayHtml::new(['name' => 'Jean', 'phone' => null, 'nickname' => '']);

echo $user->phone->or('(no phone)');    // (no phone) - phone is NULL
echo $user->nickname->or('Guest');      // Guest - nickname is blank ("")
echo $user->nickname->or($user->name);  // Jean (a data fallback encodes on output)

Showing a “No Results” Message

Every list template needs the empty branch. Collections answer with isEmpty(), isNotEmpty(), and count():

$matches = $users->where('city', 'Ottawa');

if ($matches->isEmpty()) {
    echo '<p>No users found.</p>';
} else {
    echo "<p>Found {$matches->count()} user(s):</p>\n";
    foreach ($matches as $user) {
        echo "<li>$user->name</li>\n";
    }
}
// <p>Found 1 user(s):</p>
// <li>Tom &​amp; Jerry Inc</li>

When Data Is Missing

An empty result displays as nothing. You can chain and echo without checking first:

use Itools\ZenDB\DB;

$users = DB::select('users');  // suppose the table is empty

echo $users->first()->name;    // prints nothing

Typos are another story. Misspell a column on a row from your results and you get a warning naming the key and your file and line, so typos surface the first time the page runs:

$user = DB::select('users')->first();  // this time the table has rows

echo $user->nmae;
// Warning: nmae is undefined in listings.php:12

Requiring Data: The Guards

When a record must exist, like an article looked up from the URL, guard methods stop the page instead of rendering blanks. They fire when there’s no matching record (an empty result), and otherwise hand the result back unchanged, so they chain inline:

$articles = SmartArrayHtml::new([
    ['num' => 7, 'title' => 'Fall Fair Sept 20-21'],
]);
$num = (int)($_GET['num'] ?? 0);

$article = $articles->where('num', $num)->first()->or404('Article not found');

// past this line, $article is a real row
echo "<h1>$article->title</h1>";  // with ?num=7 this prints: <h1>Fall Fair Sept 20-21</h1>

Method	When there’s no record
or404($text)	Sends a 404 page with $text and stops (default: “The requested URL was not found on this server.”)
orDie($text)	Prints $text and stops
orThrow($text)	Throws RuntimeException with $text
orRedirect($url)	Sends a 302 redirect to $url and stops

Messages HTML-encode automatically, so interpolating user input into them is safe: ->orDie("No results for '$keyword'").

Checking a Single Field

The guards work on single fields too: SmartString has the same four methods, and on a field they fire when the value is missing (blank or NULL) rather than when a record is missing:

$user->phone->orDie('No phone number on file.');  // phone is NULL, so this stops the page

To check for a missing value without stopping the page, use isMissing():

if ($user->phone->isMissing()) {
    echo '<p>No phone on file</p>';
}

The full family (isEmpty(), ifNull(), ifEquals(), and more) is in SmartString’s Conditionals and Error Checking page.

Keys That Property Syntax Can’t Type

You won’t need this on day one, but it comes up: some queries return keys that aren’t valid property names, most often table-prefixed columns from SQL joins (users.id). Wrap those in braces:

$row = SmartArrayHtml::new(['users.id' => 42, 'first-name' => 'Jean', 0 => 'zero']);

echo $row->{'users.id'};    // 42 (dotted keys, e.g. from SQL joins)
echo $row->{'first-name'};  // Jean (dashes)
echo $row->{0};             // zero (numeric keys)

SmartArrays are writable too, with the same syntax in reverse: $user->status = 'Active'. Template code rarely needs it; see Writing Values when you do.