Upgrade Joomla CLi script to handle bulk import of items into articles

Question

I am upgrading a client's CLi script that is used to automatically bulk import news items into Joomla articles. The code was originally programmed for Joomla 3 and now needs to support Joomla 4.

I have completed quite a few upgrades, but am now stuck looping through the news item data and storing it using the Content::getInstance('Article', 'ContentModel') method. I have included my code below for reference.

Updated September 18

Current use statements

use Joomla\CMS\Factory;
use Joomla\CMS\Language\Text;
use Joomla\Component\Content\Administrator\Model\ArticleModel;
use Joomla\CMS\Table\Content;
use Joomla\CMS\Filter\OutputFilter;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Style\SymfonyStyle;
use Joomla\Console\Command\AbstractCommand;

Use of $app = Factory::getApplication();

Current insertArticles function

private function insertArticles(array $articles): array {

  $articleModel = new ArticleModel();

  foreach ($this->removeDuplicateAliases($articles) as $article) {
    $articleData = [
      'id' => 0,
      'catid' => 13,
      'title' => ucwords(strtolower($article->title)),
      'alias' => OutputFilter::stringURLSafe($article->title),
      'introtext' => strip_tags($article->storySummary, ['p', 'img', 'table']),
      'fulltext' => strip_tags($article->content, ['p', 'img', 'table']),
      'note' => 'DTN supplied topics: ' . str_replace('/', ', ', $article->topic),
      'state' => 1,
      'access' => 1,
      'created_by' => 386,
      'created_by_alias' => 'DTN News',
      'language' => '*',
      'metadata' => [
        'xreference' => $article->dtnpfUrl,
      ],
      'attribs' => [
        'show_publish_date' => 1,
      ],
      'rules' => [
        'core.edit.delete' => [],
        'core.edit.edit' => [],
        'core.edit.state' => []
      ],
    ];

    if (!$articleModel->save($articleData)) {
      throw new Exception($articleModel->getError());
    } else {
      $newIds[] = $articleModel->getItem()->id;
    }
  }
  return $newIds ?? [];
}

Updated

Included use statements from the command file for reference:

use Joomla\CMS\Factory;
use Joomla\CMS\Language\Text;
use Joomla\CMS\MVC\Model\ItemModel;
use Joomla\Component\Content\Site\Model;
use Joomla\CMS\Table\Content;
use Joomla\CMS\Filter\OutputFilter;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Style\SymfonyStyle;
use Joomla\Console\Command\AbstractCommand;

Command line error

Class "Ploszmarketing\Plugin\Console\Dtnnews\CliCommand\ArticleModel" not found

protected function doExecute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int {
  $symfonyStyle = new SymfonyStyle($input, $output);

  $symfonyStyle->title('DTN News Import');

  // Fetch the JSON data and Run the insertArticle bulk data import to articles function
  $curlOpts = [
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.dtn.com/publishing/news/articles?categoryId=1%2C2%2C3%2C4%2C5%2C6%2C16%2C17&limit=10&maxAge=15&apikey=placeholder',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 0,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET',
  ];

  try {
    $fetchedArticles = $this->curlToObject($curlOpts);
  
    if ($fetchedArticles) {
      $symfonyStyle->title(Text::_('Fetched Articles: ' . count($fetchedArticles)));
    }
  
    // Errors occur here
    $insertedIds = $this->insertArticles($fetchedArticles);
  
    if ($insertedIds) {
      $symfonyStyle->title(Text::_('Inserted IDs: ' . implode(', ', $insertedIds)));
    }
  
  } catch (exception $e) {
    $symfonyStyle->error(Text::_($e->getMessage()));
  }

  $symfonyStyle->success('Successful import!');

  return 0;

}

private function curlToObject(array $curlOpts): array {
  $ch = curl_init();
  curl_setopt_array($ch, $curlOpts);
  $result = curl_exec($ch);
  $error = curl_error($ch); // Get the last error
  curl_close($ch);
  if ($error) {
    throw new Exception($error);
  }
  return json_decode($result);
}

private function insertArticles(array $articles): array {
  // Replaced articleModel method with recommendation
  // $articleModel = Content::getInstance('Article', 'ContentModel');
  $articleModel = new ArticleModel();

  foreach ($this->removeDuplicateAliases($articles) as $article) {
    $articleData = [
      'id' => 0,
      'catid' => 13,
      'title' => ucwords(strtolower($article->title)),
      'alias' => OutputFilter::stringURLSafe($article->title),
      // I know strip_tags is deprecated for 8.2. I will fix after issues are resolved.
      'introtext' => strip_tags($article->storySummary, ['p', 'img', 'table']),
      'fulltext' => strip_tags($article->content, ['p', 'img', 'table']),
      'note' => 'DTN supplied topics: ' . str_replace('/', ', ', $article->topic),
      'state' => 1,
      'access' => 1,
      'created_by' => 386,
      'created_by_alias' => 'DTN News',
      'language' => '*',
      'metadata' => [
        'xreference' => $article->dtnpfUrl,
      ],
      'attribs' => [
        'show_publish_date' => 1,
      ],
      'rules' => [
        'core.edit.delete' => [],
        'core.edit.edit' => [],
        'core.edit.state' => []
      ],
    ];

    if (!$articleModel->save($articleData)) {
      throw new Exception($articleModel->getError());
    } else {
      $newIds[] = $articleModel->getItem()->id;
    }
  }
  return $newIds ?? [];
}

private function removeDuplicateAliases(array $articles): array {
  $db = JFactory::getDbo();
  $query = $db->getQuery(true);
  $query
    ->select('a.alias')
    ->from($db->quoteName('#__content', 'a'))
    ->where($db->quoteName('a.catid') . " = " . $db->quote('13'));
  $db->setQuery($query);
  $aliasLookup = array_flip($db->loadColumn());

  foreach ($articles as $i => $article) {
    if (isset($aliasLookup[OutputFilter::stringURLSafe($article->title)])) {
      unset($articles[$i]);
    }
  }
  return $articles;
}

Error in the command line: Call to a member function save() on bool

Exception trace:

 at /var/www/upgrade/plugins/console/dtnnews_cli/src/CliCommand/RunDtnnewsCommand.php:126
 Ploszmarketing\Plugin\Console\Dtnnews\CliCommand\RunDtnnewsCommand->insertArticles() at /var/www/upgrade/plugins/console/dtnnews_cli/src/CliCommand/RunDtnnewsCommand.php:68
 Ploszmarketing\Plugin\Console\Dtnnews\CliCommand\RunDtnnewsCommand->doExecute() at /var/www/upgrade/libraries/vendor/joomla/console/src/Command/AbstractCommand.php:235
 Joomla\Console\Command\AbstractCommand->execute() at /var/www/upgrade/libraries/vendor/joomla/console/src/Application.php:1181
 Joomla\Console\Application->runCommand() at /var/www/upgrade/libraries/vendor/joomla/console/src/Application.php:403
 Joomla\Console\Application->doExecute() at /var/www/upgrade/libraries/src/Application/ConsoleApplication.php:206
 Joomla\CMS\Application\ConsoleApplication->doExecute() at /var/www/upgrade/libraries/vendor/joomla/console/src/Application.php:448
 Joomla\Console\Application->execute() at /var/www/upgrade/libraries/src/Application/ConsoleApplication.php:259
 Joomla\CMS\Application\ConsoleApplication->execute() at /var/www/upgrade/cli/joomla.php:76

I am unsure of how to handle the for loop with the new model in Joomla 4.

The Joomla 3 insertArticles function is below

private function insertArticles(array $articles): array {
  require_once JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . '/components/com_content/models/article.php';
  $articleModel = new ContentModelArticle([]);

  foreach ($this->removeDuplicateAliases($articles) as $article) {
    $articleData = [
      'id' => 0,
      'catid' => 13,
      'title' => ucwords(strtolower($article->title)),
      'alias' => JFilterOutput::stringURLSafe($article->title),
      'introtext' => strip_tags($article->storySummary, ['p', 'img', 'table']),
      'fulltext' => strip_tags($article->content, ['p', 'img', 'table']),
      'note' => 'DTN supplied topics: ' . str_replace('/', ', ', $article->topic),
      'state' => 1,
      'access' => 1,
      'created_by' => 386,
      'created_by_alias' => 'DTN News',
      'language' => '*',
      'metadata' => [
        'xreference' => $article->dtnpfUrl,
      ],
      'attribs' => [
        'show_publish_date' => 1,
      ],
      'rules' => [
        'core.edit.delete' => [],
        'core.edit.edit' => [],
        'core.edit.state' => []
      ],
    ];

    if (!$articleModel->save($articleData)) {
      throw new Exception($articleModel->getError());
    } else {
      $newIds[] = $articleModel->getItem()->id;
    }
  }
  return $newIds ?? [];
}

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The error message is saying that you are trying to call save() from a boolean value, either true or false. The reason $articleModel is false is due to it not being created as you expected, returning a value of false instead of the Model object.

The reason it failed is because you have used the Joomla 3 class name for the model and not the Joomla 4 class name.

This line in your insertArticles()

  $articleModel = new ContentModelArticle([]);

needs to be changed to

  $articleModel = new ArticleModel();

I have removed the array '[]'argument as I don't see that it is required in either version.

In the ..\components\com_content\src\Model\ArticleModel.php that you are referring to in the require_once line above the calling of the ArticleModel class you can see the name you need to be using.

/**
 * Content Component Article Model
 *
 * @since  1.5
 */
class ArticleModel extends ItemModel
{
    /**

Update: 17th September

There are several way you can achieve this within Joomla 4

$articleModel = new \Joomla\Component\Content\Administrator\Model\ArticleModel();

With a use statement that removes the need for the require_once statement.

use Joomla\Component\Content\Administrator\Model\ArticleModel;
...
$articleModel = new ArticleModel();

Or by getting the model from the dependency injection container

$mvcFactory = $this->app->bootComponent('com_content')->getMVCFactory();
$articleModel = $mvcFactory->createModel('Article', 'Administrator', ['ignore_request' => true]);

You can see an example of the last method in ..\plugins\sampledata\blog\blog.php at line #679 onwards where it is used in code very similar to what you are doing by adding sample articles to the Joomla instance.

$mvcFactory = $this->app->bootComponent('com_content')->getMVCFactory();

// Store the articles
foreach ($articles as $i => $article) {
            $articleModel = $mvcFactory->createModel('Article', 'Administrator', ['ignore_request' => true]);
...

    if (!$articleModel->save($article)) {
...
}