Best practices for Joomla - Get another model in a view from another controller

Question

I need to get data from another model than the view specific controller/model into the view. But I'm not sure if the way I'm doing it now is correct.

I do that via the following way in the view.html.php file:

JModelLegacy::addIncludePath(JPATH_SITE . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'components' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'com_mycomponent' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'models');

//get instance of model class, where class name will be fooModelBar
$model = JModelLegacy::getInstance('Messages', 'MyModel');

//call model method
$this->messages = $model->getData();

But I have a feeling this is not the "correct" way to handle things. Can anyone educate me where I actually have to put this code? I know I am probably not doing it correctly by adding the model to the view.html.php file, but I am a bit confused where I need to add it. I tried adding a display() method to the profile controller but that didn't do anything.

Answer 1

My approach would be to update your code to move away from JModelLegacy and by placing the addIncludePath in the subcontroller using the following lines.

mycomponent/controller/messages.php

Use Joomla\CMS\MVC\Model\BaseDatabaseModel;
.    .    .
BaseDatabaseModel::addIncludePath(JPATH_SITE . '/components/com_mycomponent/models');
$this->msgsModel = BaseDatabaseModel::getInstance('Messages', 'MyModel');

Alternatively you can use $this->addModelPath from the BaseController class that your controller may already extend, which issues the above addIncludePath statement, see /libraries/src/MVC/Controller/BaseController at line 143. However the addIncludePath statement may not actually be required if the model directory is already in the path of your component.

By setting the $this->msgsModel in the subcontroller you should be able to call the model in the sub controller, another Model, a Helper, other code file or View(although probably not recommended under MVC rules) easily.

//call model method
$this->messages = $this->msgsModel->getData();

The View should only access $this->messages to get the data as it should not be concerned with how or where $this->messages is created.

Ignoring the comment about FooModelBar I would say you need to create a file called /component/com_mycomponent/models/messages.php with a class name of MyModelMessages to hold the code of your Model. Because you aren't following the Joomla naming convention so that it can be automagically resolved, you can use whatever replacement you choose for MyModel.

Answer 2

$model     = $this->getModel('name');
$getMethod = $model->myFunction($someParams);

Answer 3

According to the (relatively new) Joomla manual, this should be done quite simply in the controller:

/* In the Controller class */
public function display($cachable = false, $urlparams = false)
{
    // Load another model from the controller
    $messagesModel = $this->getModel('Messages');
    
    // Load the current view
    $view = $this->getView();

    // Make the messages model available to the view
    $view->setModel($messagesModel);

    parent::display($cachable, $urlparams);
    return $this;
}

/* In the View class */

public function display($tpl = null)
{
    $default_model = $this->getModel();
    $messages_model = $this->getModel('Messages');
}