Views

This section describes how to use PHP on Couch to retrieve views results from a CouchDB server.

Creating views

As said in the documentation , views are stored in CouchDB documents called design documents. So to create a view, you have to create a design document.

Example

$view_fn="function(doc) { emit(doc.timestamp,null); }";
$design_doc = new stdClass();
$design_doc->_id = '_design/all';
$design_doc->language = 'javascript';
$design_doc->views = array ( 'by_date'=> array ('map' => $view_fn ) );
$client->storeDoc($design_doc);
class PHPOnCouch\CouchClient

PHPOnCouch\CouchClient::getView($id, $name)

The method getView($id, $name) sends back the CouchDB response of a view.

Params string $id:
 is the design document id without ‘_design/’
Params string $name:
 is the view name
Returns:The view response object.

Example :

$result = $client->getView('all','by_date');

View response

The CouchDB response of a view is an object containing :

  • total_rows , an integer of all documents available in the view, regardless of the query options
  • offset , an integer givving the offset between the first row of the view and the first row contained in the resultset
  • rows an array of objects.

Each object in rows contains the properties :

  • id : the id of the emited document
  • key : the emited key
  • value : the emited value
  • doc : the document object, if query parameter include_docs is set (read on for that).

Query parameters

The CoucClient implements chainable methods to add query parameters. The method names are mapped on their CouchDB counterparts :

  • key
  • keys
  • startkey
  • startkey_docid
  • endkey
  • endkey_docid
  • limit
  • stale
  • descending
  • skip
  • group
  • group_level
  • reduce
  • include_docs
  • inclusive_end
  • attachments

Example querying a view with a startkey, a limit and include_docs

$response = $client->startkey(100000000)->limit(100)->include_docs(true)->getView('all','by_date');

Which is the same as :

$client->startkey(100000000);
$client->limit(100);
$client->include_docs(true);
$response = $client->getView('all','by_date');

PHPOnCouch\CouchClient::setQueryParameters($params)

You also can set query parameters with a PHP array, using the setQueryParameters method :

Params array $params:
 A associative array of parameters to set.

Example:

$opts = array ( "include_docs" => true, "limit" => 10, "descending" => true );
$response = $client->setQueryParameters(opts)->getView("all","by_date");

PHPOnCouch\CouchClient::asArray()

When converting a JSON object to PHP, we can choose the type of the value returned from a CouchClient query.

Take for example the following JSON object :

{ "blog" : true, "comments" : { "title" : "cool" } }

This can be converted into a PHP object :

stdClass Object
(
    [blog] => true
    [comments] => stdClass Object
        (
            [title] => "cool"
        )
)

OR into a PHP array :

Array
(
    [blog] => true
    [comments] => Array
        (
            [title] => "cool"
        )
)

Using the defaults, JSON objects are mapped to PHP objects. The asArray() method can be used to map JSON objects to PHP arrays.

Example :

$response = $client->startkey(100000000)->limit(100)->include_docs(true)->asArray()->getView('all','by_date');

Format a view with CouchDB list formatting feature

More infos on CouchDB lists .

PHPOnCouch\CouchClient::getList($design_id, $name, $view_name, $additionnal_parameters = array())

This method retrieve a view and then format it using the algorithm of the $name list.

Params string $design_id:
 The id of the design document(without the _design part)
Params string $name:
 The name of the formatting algorithm.
Params string $view_name:
 The name of the view to use.
Params array $additionnal_parameters:
 The additionnal parameters.

Example :

$response = $client->limit(100)->include_docs(true)->getList('all','html','by_date');
// will run the view declared in _design/all and named *by_date*, and then
// pass it through the list declared in _design/all and named *html*.

PHPOnCouch\CouchClient::getForeignList($list_design_id, $name, $view_design_id, $view_name, $additionnal_parameters = array())

Retrieve a view defined in the document _design/$view_design_id and then format it using the algorithm of the list defined in the design document _design/$list_design_id.

Params string $list_design_id:
 The list design id
Params string $view_design_id:
 The view design id
Params array $additionnal_parameters:
 The additionnal parameters that can be passed.

Example :

$response = $client->limit(100)->getForeignList('display','html','posts','by_date');
// will run the view declared in _design/posts and named *by_date*, and then
// pass it through the list declared in _design/display and named *html*.

PHPOnCouch\CouchClient::getViewInfos($design_id)

More info on view informations here

The method getViewInfos($design_id) sends back some useful informations about a particular design document.

Params string $design_id:
 

The id of the design document to use
Returns stdClass:
 

Returns an object with the following properties:

Example :

$response = $client->getViewInfos("mydesigndoc");