atk4.2 form submit-how to get new record id before insert to pass in arguments - forms

Question

I am referencing the 2 step newsletter example at http://agiletoolkit.org/codepad/newsletter. I modified the example into a 4 step process. The following page class is step 1, and it works to insert a new record and get the new record id. The problem is I don't want to insert this record into the database until the final step. I am not sure how to retrieve this id without using the save() function. Any ideas would be helpful.
class page_Ssp_Step1 extends Page {
function init(){
parent::init();
$p=$this;
$m=$p->add(Model_Publishers);
$form=$p->add('Form');
$form->setModel($m);
$form->addSubmit();
if($form->isSubmitted()){
$m->save();//inserts new record into db.
$new_id=$m->get('id');//gets id of new record
$this->api->memorize('new_id',$new_id);//carries id across pages
$this->js()->atk4_load($this->api->url('./Step2'))->execute();
}
}
}

Answer 1

There are several ways you could do this, either using atk4 functionality, mysql transactions or as a part of the design of your application.
1) Manage the id column yourself
I assume you are using an auto increment column in MySQL so one option would be to not make this auto increment but use a sequence and select the next value and save this in your memorize statement and add it in the model as a defaultValue using ->defaultValue($this->api->recall('new_id')
2) Turn off autocommit and create a transaction around the inserts
I'm from an oracle background rather than MySQL but MySQL also allows you to wrap several statements in a transaction which either saves everything or rollsback so this would also be an option if you can create a transaction, then you might still be able to save but only a complete transaction populating several tables would be committed if all steps complete.
In atk 4.1, the DBlite/mysql.php class contains some functions for transaction support but the documentation on agiletoolkit.org is incomplete and it's unclear how you change the dbConnect being used as currently you connect to a database in lib/Frontend.php using $this->dbConnect() but there is no option to pass a parameter.
It looks like you may be able to do the needed transaction commands using this at the start of the first page
$this->api->db->query('SET AUTOCOMMIT=0');
$this->api->db->query('START TRANSACTION');
then do inserts in various pages as needed. Note that everything done will be contained in a transaccion so if the user doesnt complete the process, nothing will be saved.
On the last insert,
$this->api->db->query('COMMIT');
Then if you want to, turn back on autocommit so each SQL statement is committed
$this->api->db->query('SET AUTOCOMMIT=1');
I havent tried this but hopefully that helps.
3) use beforeInsert or afterInsert
You can also look at overriding the beforeInsert function on your model which has an array of the data but I think if your id is an auto increment column, it won't have a value until the afterInsert function which has a parameter of the Id inserted.
4) use a status to indicate complete record
Finally you could use a status column on your record to indicate it is only at the first stage and this only gets updated to a complete status when the final stage is completed. Then you can have a housekeeping job that runs at intervals to remove records that didn't complete all stages. Any grid or crud where you display these records would be limited with AddCondition('status','C') in the model or added in the page so that incomplete ones never get shown.
5) Manage the transaction as non sql
As suggested by Romans, you could store the result of the form processing in session variables instead of directly into the database and then use a SQL to insert it once the last step is completed.