07_Code_Builder

Using the Code Builder

Bonfire ships with a flexible code builder that is intended to help you create boilerplate code for your modules to streamline your development process and help ensure you don't forget those crucial little details when putting your own modules together. It ships with all you need to create your own:

• Models
• Controllers
• Migrations
• Forms
• Contexts
• Even entire modules

It's designed to be flexible and powerful enough to allow you to easily create your generators with a minimum of time. You can also customize the templates for any of the generators that you have installed in your application.

Generating Code

Creating New Generators

You can create your own generators for you personal use, or for sharing with other devs, quickly and easily.

Generator Location

Each generator must have it's own folder under the the core_modules/builder/generators folder. The folder name must match the name of the generator in general.

Let's say you're creating a generator to build a form. That folder must be named form and be located at core_modules/builder/generators/form in order for the Code Builder to find it.

Folder Structure

Within the generator folder, you will have the following file and folder structure:

templates/
{generator_name}_generator.php

The templates folder stores the files that form the templates of any files or views that your module will generate.

The only required file is the generator file which is name exactly the same as the generator folder, with _generator appended to the name. For our form generator, the file would be named form_generator.php.

The Generator File

The generator file is a simple PHP class that extends the BF_Generator class to add the specific functionality that your generator needs. The BF_Generator provides lots of tools and default capabilities for you so that making a generator is as easy as possible.

A skeleton genetor file looks like this:

class {Name}_Generator extends BF_Generator {

	public $title 		= '';
	public $description	= '';
	public $template 	= '';

	protected $fields = array();

	//--------------------------------------------------------------------

	public function generate($params)
	{
		. . .
	}

	//--------------------------------------------------------------------

}

The first thing is to change the {Name} placeholder to match the name of your generator. This must be Initial caps and words separated by underscores.

$title The $title variable holds the name of your generator as you want it displayed in menus, on the generator page, etc. This will typically be the name of your generator plus the word 'Generator'. Like Form Generator.

$description The $description variable holds the description of your generator. This will also appear on the main Code Builder page as well as the first line on your Generator's form page.

$template The $template stores the name or names of the template files used by your application.

$fields This stores the information that your generator needs to collect from the user at generation time. Full details are discussed below.

The generate() method is what is called when it comes time to actually perform the generation. The $params parameter is an array of all information collected from the form in an associative array. At this point, the fields have already been validated so you can simply proceed with your code generation.

The Fields Array