ZF2 TableGateway join - zend-framework2

Question

I am in the process of trying to learn OO/Zend Framework over standard PHP.. I want to scream and write a mysql query instead of using the TableGateway method.
I have been following tutorials and have successfully printed out a table and some fields, although with the way I have gone about doing this, I am totally lost in how I should make this a join with another table and print out some fields there.
For example.
Table Fields
customer Idx, Company
contact Idx, First_Name
This is my customersController where I assume the work is carried out
namespace Customers\Controller;
use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;
use Zend\DB\TableGateway\TableGateway;
class CustomersController extends AbstractActionController
{
protected $customersTable;
public function indexAction()
{
return new ViewModel(array('customer' => $this->getCustomersTable()->select()));
//return new ViewModel(array('customers' => $this->fetchJoin()->select()));
}
public function addAction()
{
}
public function editAction()
{
}
public function deleteAction()
{
}
public function getCustomersTable()
{
if (!$this->customersTable) {
$this->customersTable = new TableGateway (
'customer', //table name
$this->getServiceLocator()->get('Zend\DB\Adapter\Adapter')
);
}
return $this->customersTable;
}
}
Am I on the right track here?

Answer 1

If you need to make joins read about Zend\Db\Sql and Zend\Db\Select
which you can read about here
http://framework.zend.com/manual/2.0/en/modules/zend.db.sql.html
An example would be:
In your model(that extends the TableGateway or the AbstractTableGateway)
in Some function you can have something like(this is from a project) :
$sql = new \Zend\Db\Sql\Sql($this->getAdapter());
$select = $sql->select()
->from('event_related_events')
->columns(array())
->join('event_invitees', 'event_invitees.event_id =
event_related_events.related_event_id')
->where(array('event_related_events.event_id' => $eventId));
$selectString = $sql->getSqlStringForSqlObject($select);
$results = $this->getAdapter()->query($selectString, \Zend\Db\Adapter\Adapter::QUERY_MODE_EXECUTE);
Then you can loop over the results and do what you need to.
Taking a look at more powerful ORM like Doctrine or Propel may also help, but may be an overkill for a small/hobby project.
EDIT: Answer for what was asked in comments
For Using expression(if, case etc) directly you can use something like :
$sql->select()
->from('table')
->columns(array(
'sorter' => new Expression('(IF ( table.`something` >= 'otherthing', 1, 0))'),
'some_count' => new Expression('(count(*))'),
)
)
Explaining the last line in SQL terms, it would be:
count(*) AS some_count

Answer 2

So this is my controller, basically from the Album example but now it will display customers from the customer table.
<?php
namespace Customers\Controller;
use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;
use Customers\Model\Customers;
use Customers\Form\CustomersForm;
class CustomersController extends AbstractActionController
{
protected $customersTable;
public function indexAction()
{
return new ViewModel(array(
'customer' => $this->getCustomersTable()->fetchAll(),
));
}
public function addAction()
{
}
public function editAction()
{
}
public function deleteAction()
{
}
public function getCustomersTable()
{
if (!$this->customersTable) {
$sm = $this->getServiceLocator();
$this->customersTable = $sm->get('Customers\Model\CustomersTable');
}
return $this->customersTable;
}
}
?>
The indexAction calls the getCustomersTable method which goes to the model (CustomersTable) and executes the "query" there.
<?php
namespace Customers\Model;
use Zend\Db\TableGateway\TableGateway;
class CustomersTable
{
protected $tableGateway;
public function __construct(TableGateway $tableGateway)
{
$this->tableGateway = $tableGateway;
}
public function fetchAll()
{
$resultSet = $this->tableGateway->select();
return $resultSet;
}
public function getCustomers($id)
{
}
public function saveCustomers(customers $customers)
{
}
public function deleteCustomers($id)
{
}
}
?>
So from your example, I should be trying to implement this into the fetchAll in the model?
Thanks for the help.
$sql = new \Zend\Db\Sql\Sql($this->getAdapter());
$select = $sql->select()
->from('customer')
->columns(array())
->join('contact', 'contact.Idx = customer.Idx')
->where(array('contact.Idx' => $eventId));
$selectString = $sql->getSqlStringForSqlObject($select);
$results = $this->getAdapter()->query($selectString, \Zend\Db\Adapter\Adapter::QUERY_MODE_EXECUTE);