How to set article options and associations programmatically?

Question

I work on a custom Joomla 3 module that creates articles programmatically based on user input. I can create the articles, but I could not find a way to set the article options and associations when the article is created. I found this article on where the options are stored in the Joomla DB, but I would prefer not to write the DB directly, if possible. I would also need a solution to create associations for the newly created articles. For your reference, you can see my current source code below.

Thanks, W.

static function createArticle(GNGLocation $loc, GNGLang $lang, $title, $alias, $intro, $summary, $included, $excluded, $imageStr) {

$table = JTable::getInstance('Content', 'JTable', array());

$jcat = $loc->get('jcat_id_tour');
$jlang = $lang->get('joomlaName');

$intro .= "{loadposition gngscrollarticle}<BR>{loadposition gngpricingtable}<BR>{loadposition gngcontact}";

$data = array(
    'catid' => $jcat,
    'title' => $title,
    'alias' =>  $alias,
    'language' => $jlang,
    'introtext' => $summary,
    'fulltext' => $intro,
    'state' => 0,
);

// Bind data
if (!$table->bind($data))
{
    throw new Exception("Failed to bind article data. Error: " . $table->getError());
}

// Check the data.
if (!$table->check())
{
    throw new Exception("Failed to check article data. Error: " . $table->getError());
}

// Store the data.
if (!$table->store())
{
    throw new Exception("Failed to store article data. Error: " . $table->getError());
}


//write custom field values 

JModelLegacy::addIncludePath(JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . '/components/com_fields/models');

$model =& JModelLegacy::getInstance('Article', 'ContentModel', array('ignore_request'=>true));
$appParams = JFactory::getApplication()->getParams();
$model->setState('params', $appParams);
$item =& $model->getItem($table->id);


$custom_fields = FieldsHelper::getFields('com_content.article',  $item, True);
$custom_fields_by_name = \Joomla\Utilities\ArrayHelper::pivot($custom_fields, 'name');
$included_value = 'haliho';

$model_field = JModelLegacy::getInstance('Field', 'FieldsModel', ['ignore_request' => true]);
$model_field->setFieldValue($custom_fields_by_name['excluded']->id, $item->id, $excluded);
$model_field->setFieldValue($custom_fields_by_name['included']->id, $item->id, $included);

return $table->id;

}

Answer 1

The article options are held in json-encoded format in the attribs field in the database, so that is what you should set, eg:

$data["attribs"] = array("show_title" => 0, "show_tags" => 0);

The names of the options can be found from the edit article xml form definition in administrator/components/com_content/models/forms/article.xml.

The Content Table code in libraries/src/table/content.php has the lines:

if (isset($array['attribs']) && is_array($array['attribs']))
{
    $registry = new Registry($array['attribs']);
    $array['attribs'] = (string) $registry;
}

and this has the effect of converting your array of options into a json-encoded string, so you don't need to worry about it.

(As far as I can see, nowadays the standard way of defining which fields should be json-encoded is to use the Table class

protected $_jsonEncode = array();

variable, and you specify a list of the field names of fields which should be json-encoded. But maybe the hard-coded com_content code predates that and hasn't been changed.)

The creation of the associations is a bit more complex because the standard code for this isn't within the Table functionality but rather within the AdminModel class (found in libraries/src/MVC/Model/AdminModel.php), and it does direct writes to the associations database table. So my recommendation would be to study the relevant code within AdminModel::save() and copy it, adapting it to your needs if necessary.

Alternatively you can set up a model class which inherits from AdminModel, but you have to do a bit of fiddling with your code to make it work, and it's going to be more open to problems with Joomla upgrades I reckon, because you're not really using AdminModel in the standard way. However, if you want to go down that route you could use something like the code below. I've tested a version of the code and it works for me. It would fit after your $data = array(...) line, replacing the calls to Table functionality.

class MyModel extends JModelAdmin
{

    public function save($data)
    {
        $this->option = "com_content";  // needed to make it save to the content table
        $this->name = "0";              // needed to make the primary key = 0 (indicating a new record)
        $this->associationsContext = "com_content.item";    // needed for setting the associations
        parent::save($data);
    }

    public function getTable($type = 'Content', $prefix = 'JTable', $config = array())  // how AdminModel gets the com_content table
    {
        return JTable::getInstance($type, $prefix, $config);
    }

    public function getForm($data = array(), $loadData = true) {} // abstract function in parent, so needs to be present
}

$data["attribs"] = array("show_title" => 0, "show_tags" => 0);
$data["associations"] = array("en-NZ" => 47);   // replace with a relevant value
$data["id"] = 0;

$model = new MyModel();
$model->save($data);