Yii2: Performing CRUD Operations on a Variable Inside a Class Unrelated to the Database Table

Question

Problem Statement

I am currently working on a Yii2 project where I have a class that represents a table and this class contains a variable which is not directly related to any table column. Let's call this class CustomModel. Within CustomModel, I have a variable, let's say $customVariable, that I need to perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on.

Class Structure

php
class CustomModel extends \yii\db\ActiveRecord
{
    public $customVariable;

    // Other class properties and methods

     /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            [['customVariable'], 'safe],
        ];
    }
}

What I've tried inside CustomModelController

public function actionCrud()
    {
        $model = new CustomModel();

        if ($model->load(Yii::$app->request->post())) {

            $model->save();            
            return $this->redirect(['custom-model/index']);
        }

        return $this->render('_form', [
            'model' => $model,
        ]);
    }

Inside the view form

<?php $form = ActiveForm::begin([
        'fieldConfig' => [
            'template' => '{label}{input}{error}',
            'errorOptions' => ['class' => 'error'],
            'options' => [
                'class' => 'form-group form-group-default'
            ],
        ],
    ]); ?>
<div class="row ">
    <div class="col-md-6 col-xl-3">
        <?php echo $form->field($model, 'customVariable')->textInput(['maxlength' => true]) ?>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="form-group pull-right">
    <?php echo Html::submitButton('Save', ['class' => 'btn btn-success']) ?>
</div>

<?php ActiveForm::end(); ?>

But it's not updating the variable despite successfully submitting the form

Answer 1

Active Record is always mapped to the table column, model itself being representative of a single row. Trying to updating a random variable not related to the database table is misuse of the AR pattern.

I suggest you use DAO to update random table fields.