Public and Private Messages [ 202 ] If the user isn't connected to the user, or isn't logged in, then we simply remove the template tag from the view so they don't see any update or post box on the page: $this->registry->getObject('template')->getPage()- >addTag( 'status_update', '' ); } } } else { $this->registry->getObject('template')->getPage()- >addTag( 'status_update', '' ); } Now, we need to process status updates and prole posts, and create the templates that make up the nal aspect of our view. Process a new message The same logic that we used to determine whether the user should see a post form is what we need to use to determine if we should process a status update, or public message submission. Status model To save the status update or public prole post in the database, we will need a status model; as with our previous models, this simply needs to represent the elds from the database, with setter methods for these elds, and a save method to insert a new record into the database. In the future, we may wish to extend this to pull in statuses from the database, and save changes to them, as well as deleting statuses, perhaps if the owner of the message or the owner of the prole the message was posted on wishes to edit or delete it. The following is suitable code for our status model ( models/status.php): <?php /** * Status model */ class Status { /** * The registry object */ private $registry; Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Chapter 7 [ 203 ] /** * Statuses ID */ private $id; /** * Poster of the status update / profile message */ private $poster; /** * The profile the status update / profile message was posted on */ private $profile; /** * Type of status */ private $type; /** * The update / profile message itself */ private $update; /** * Reference for the type of status */ private $typeReference = 'update'; /** * Constructor * @param Registry $registry the registry object * @param int $id ID of the status update / profile message * @return void */ public function __construct( Registry $registry, $id=0 ) { $this->registry = $registry; $this->id = 0; } /** * Set the poster of the status / profile message Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Public and Private Messages [ 204 ] * @param int $poster the id of the poster * @return void */ public function setPoster( $poster ) { $this->poster = $poster; } /** * Set the profile that the message / status is posted on * @param int $profile the profile ID * @return void */ public function setProfile( $profile ) { $this->profile = $profile; } /** * Set the status / profile message itself * @param String $status * @return void */ public function setStatus( $status ) { $this->status = $status; } /** * Set the type of status / profile message * @param int $type * @return void */ public function setType( $type ) { $this->type = $type; } /** * Set the type reference, so we can get the type ID from the database * @param String $typeReference the reference of the type * @return void */ Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Chapter 7 [ 205 ] public function setTypeReference( $typeReference ) { $this->type = $typeReference; } /** * Generate the type of status based of the type reference * @return void */ public function generateType() { $sql = "SELECT * FROM status_types WHERE type_reference='{$this->typeReference}'"; $this->registry->getObject('db')->executeQuery( $sql ); $data = $this->registry->getObject('db')->getRows(); $this->type = $data['ID']; } /** * Save the status / profile message * @return void */ public function save() { if( $this->id == 0 ) { $insert = array(); $insert['update'] = $this->status; $insert['type'] = $this->type; $insert['poster'] = $this->poster; $insert['profile'] = $this->profile; $this->registry->getObject('db')- >insertRecords( 'statuses', $insert ); $this->id = $this->registry->getObject('db')->lastInsertID(); } } } ?> Now that we have some functionality to easily insert the status into the database, we need to update our prole controller to process the new status update. Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Public and Private Messages [ 206 ] Controller additions As we discussed earlier, we need to take the same logic we used for displaying the status form, to determine whether we should process a status submission. We can then combine our new status model to insert the status. Within the listRecentStatuses method in the profilestatusescontroller, under the authentication check line, we can check for any $_POST data being submitted, and if there is, we can call a new method to process the submission: // post status / public message box if( $this->registry->getObject('authenticate')->isLoggedIn() == true ) { if( isset( $_POST ) && count( $_POST ) > 0 ) { $this->addStatus( $user ); } Since we have placed this within our listRecentStatuses method, once any processing has been done, the user is presented with the list of statuses and public prole messages for that user. The addStatus method only inserts the status into the database if the user is posting the status either to their own prole, or the prole of one of their contacts: /** * Process a new status submission / profile message * @param int $user the profile the message is being posted on * @return void */ private function addStatus( $user ) { $loggedInUser = $this->registry->getObject('authenticate')- >getUser()->getUserID(); if( $loggedInUser == $user ) { require_once( FRAMEWORK_PATH . 'models/status.php' ); $status = new Status( $this->registry, 0 ); $status->setProfile( $user ); $status->setPoster( $loggedInUser ); $status->setStatus( $this->registry->getObject('db')- >sanitizeData( $_POST['status'] ) ); $status->generateType(); $status->save(); // success message display } Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Chapter 7 [ 207 ] else { require_once( FRAMEWORK_PATH . 'models/relationships.php' ); $relationships = new Relationships( $this->registry ); $connections = $relationships->getNetwork( $user, false ); if( in_array( $loggedInUser, $connections ) ) { require_once( FRAMEWORK_PATH . 'models/status.php' ); $status = new Status( $this->registry, 0 ); $status->setProfile( $user ); $status->setPoster( $loggedInUser ); $status->setStatus( $this->registry->getObject('db')- >sanitizeData( $_POST['status'] ) ); $status->generateType(); $status->save(); // success message display } else { // error message display } } } Displaying a conrmation message Once the user has posted their message on another user's prole, they are redirected to the prole. Although the prole now has their message on it, there isn't a direct conrmation message to the user, so let's look at adding a notication to conrm to the user that their post was successful. As we won't always wish to display a message, such as if the user hasn't submitted the form, then we either need to clear the template tag, or simply place it within some HTML comments, for example: <!—{status_update_message} > If we do this, we simply need to start the contents of the message template with > and end it with <! to ensure the message itself isn't commented out. Since we have used the same logic to process the form as we used to display the form, we can also customize the message based on the context of the submission, for example, You have updated your status, or You have posted on John's wall. Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Public and Private Messages [ 208 ] We can then add the message to the view, like so: $this->registry->getObject('template')->addTemplateBit( 'status_ update_message', 'profile/statuses/update_confirm.tpl.php' ); View We need to add two template tags to our statuses list le (views/default/ templates/profile/statuses/list.tpl.php ), one for the status update/prole message submit form, and the other (wrapped in HTML comments) for the success or error message to use: {status_update} <! {status_update_message} > Five small new templates are required, for: • Form to update your own status • Form to post a message on someone else's prole • Success conrmation message when your own status is updated • Success conrmation message when you post on someone else's prole • Error message, if you try to post on the prole of someone you are not connected to (although the lack of a form for this should prevent this happening) Updating your own status: views/default/templates/profile/statuses/ update.tpl.php . <p>Tell your network what you are up to</p> <form action="profile/statuses/{profile_user_id}" method="post"> <textarea id="status" name="status"></textarea> <br /> <input type="submit" id="updatestatus" name="updatestatus" value="Update" /> </form> Posting on someone else's prole: views/default/templates/profile/statuses/ post.tpl.php . <p>Post a message on {profile_name}'s profile</p> <form action="profile/statuses/{profile_user_id}" method="post"> <textarea id="status" name="status"></textarea> <br /> <input type="submit" id="postmessage" name="postmessage" value="Update" /> </form> Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Chapter 7 [ 209 ] Success message after updating your own status: views/default/templates/ profile/statuses/update_confirm.tpl.php . > <p style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 5px;">Your status has been saved</p> <! Success message after posting on someone else's prole: views/default/ templates/profile/statuses/post_confirm.tpl.php . > <p style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 5px;">Your message has been posted on {profile_name}'s profile</p> <! Error message after trying to post on the prole of an unconnected user: views/ default/templates/profile/statuses/error.tpl.php . > <p style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 5px;">You are not connected to {profile_name}, so your message was not saved.</p> <! In action With the new logic and templates in place, let's try updating our own status. We now have a form to allow us to update our status as shown in the following screenshot: Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Public and Private Messages [ 210 ] After submitting the form, we have a new status in our updates stream, and a conrmation message is displayed as shown in the following screenshot: Private messages We obviously need to keep private messages separate from the rest of the site, and ensure that they are only accessible to the sender and the receiver. While we could alter the public messages feature developed earlier, this would raise a few issues, such as being more difcult to tell whether the message being sent or read was private, and when using the Internet in a public area, the message would be shown on the area of the social network the user would most likely be visiting, which isn't ideal for private information. Because private messages will be separate from statuses, and won't need to make use of other media types to make them more interesting (though, we could set them up to make use of other media if we wanted), it makes sense for us to also use separate database tables and models for this feature. Database Our database needs provisions for the sender of the message, the recipient of the message, the subject of the message, and of course the message itself. We should also provide for if the message has been read, when the message was sent, and an ID for the message. Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Chapter 7 [ 211 ] The following illustrates a suitable structure for a messages table in our database: Field Type Description ID Integer, Auto- increment, Primary Key Reference ID for the message Sender Integer The sender of the message Recipient Integer The recipient of the message Subject Varchar The subject the message relates to Sent Timestamp When the message was sent Message Longtext The contents of the message itself Read Boolean Indicates whether the message has been read or not More than one recipient? This database structure, and the code that follows, only supports one recipient per message. Our users might want to send to more than one recipient—feel free to add this functionality if you wish. Message model As with the majority of our database access, we require a model (models/message. php ) to create, update, and retrieve message-related data from the database and encapsulate it within itself. It would also be helpful if the model pulled in a little more information from the database, including: • A more user friendly representation of the date (we can get this via the MySQL DATE_FORMAT function) • The name of the sender, by joining the messages table to the prole table • The name of the recipient, by joining the messages table to the prole table again The rst part of our model simply denes the class variables: <?php /** * Private message class */ class Message { Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> . type_reference='{$this->typeReference}'"; $this->registry->getObject('db' )-& gt;executeQuery( $sql ); $data = $this->registry->getObject('db' )-& gt;getRows(); $this->type. $this->profile; $this->registry->getObject('db' )- >insertRecords( 'statuses', $insert ); $this->id = $this->registry->getObject('db' )-& gt;lastInsertID(); . Status( $this->registry, 0 ); $status->setProfile( $user ); $status->setPoster( $loggedInUser ); $status->setStatus( $this->registry->getObject('db' )- >sanitizeData(