Creating content using JTableContent

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Introduction

While it is possible to add content to the database directly via queries, using JTableContent is the preferred method as it will not only simplify the task for you, but provides additional methods for checking and saving that content, not to mention other benefits.

The Object

Using JTableContent begins by creating a new instance

$article = JTable::getInstance('content');

We can now define the properties of this object that our new article will consist of.

Properties of the object

Each property of the newly created object corresponds with a field in the database. For example, our article may be defined as

$article->title            = 'This is my super cool title!';
$article->alias            = JFilterOutput::stringURLSafe('This is my super cool title!');
$article->introtext        = '<p>This is my super cool article!</p>';
$article->catid            = 9;
$article->created          = JFactory::getDate()->toSQL();;
$article->created_by_alias = 'Super User';
$article->state            = 1;
$article->access           = 1;
$article->metadata         = '{"page_title":"","author":"","robots":""}';
$article->language         = '*';

Data Validation

JTableContent provides a data validation method, JTableContent::check. Using this method, we can validate our data, or raise a notice if it fails.

if (!$article->check()) {
	JError::raiseNotice(500, $article->getError());

	return FALSE;
}

Saving the article

Finally, we use JTableContent::store to save the article.

if (!$article->store(TRUE)) {
	JError::raiseNotice(500, $article->getError());

	return FALSE;
}

Version Note

JTableContent is not autoloaded prior to Joomla! version 3.0, so it needs to included.

JTable::addIncludePath(JPATH_PLATFORM . 'joomla/database/table');

Complete Example

if (version_compare(JVERSION, '3.0', 'lt')) {
	JTable::addIncludePath(JPATH_PLATFORM . 'joomla/database/table');
}

$article->title            = 'This is my super cool title!';
$article->alias            = JFilterOutput::stringURLSafe('This is my super cool title!');
$article->introtext        = '<p>This is my super cool article!</p>';
$article->catid            = 9;
$article->created          = JFactory::getDate()->toSQL();;
$article->created_by_alias = 'Super User';
$article->state            = 1;
$article->access           = 1;
$article->metadata         = '{"page_title":"","author":"","robots":""}';
$article->language         = '*';

// Check to make sure our data is valid, raise notice if it's not.
if (!$article->check()) {
	JError::raiseNotice(500, $article->getError());

	return FALSE;
}

// Now store the article, raise notice if it doesn't get stored.
if (!$article->store(TRUE)) {
	JError::raiseNotice(500, $article->getError());

	return FALSE;
}