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3.6. Creating Models, Views, and Controllers

At this point, you're ready to start working with files that relate directly to your project — namely, the models, views, and controllers that make up the heart of the application you'll be building for Claudia.

3.6.1. Models and Database Tables

You received an extremely brief introduction to models, views, and controllers in Chapter 1, so in this section, you'll concentrate on the database tables and models you'll need for Claudia's project. Before you delve too deeply into constructing models for your tables, here's a quick reminder of the tables' structures from Chapter 2:

First, the categories table:

CREATE TABLE 'categories' (
'id' INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
'name' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
'shortdesc' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
'longdesc' TEXT NOT NULL,
'status' ENUM( 'active', 'inactive' ) NOT NULL,
'parentid' INT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ( 'id' )
) TYPE = MYISAM;

Next, the products table:

CREATE TABLE 'products' (
'id' INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
'name' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
'shortdesc' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
'longdesc' TEXT NOT NULL,
'thumbnail' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
'image' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL,
'sizes' ENUM( 's', 'm', 'l', 'xl' ) NOT NULL,
'colors' ENUM( 'red', 'blue', 'green', 'brown', 'white', 'black' ) NOT NULL,
'grouping' VARCHAR( 16 ) NOT NULL,
'status' ENUM( 'active', 'inactive' ) NOT NULL,
'category_id' INT NOT NULL,

'featured' ENUM ('true', 'false') NOT NULL, 'price' FLOAT( 4, 2 ) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY ( ...