Doctrine_Table Vs class That extends from BaseClass - zend-framework

Question

I am a little confused in this Doctrine model concept , lets say we a table called "article"
Doctrine will generate class called
i am using Zend framework and Doctrine 1.2
models/generated/BaseArticle.php
models/ArticleTable.php
models/Article.php
Is it true to call the ArticleTable in the controller in this way
$tableArticle = Doctrine::getTable('Article');
then to save it in the Article Object like this
$article = new Article();
$fArticles = $tableArticle->getFeaturedArticles();
foreach ($fArticles as $fArticle) {
$article->fromArray($fArticle);
echo $article->title
}
Or I have to let the Article.php to call the ArticleTable ?
then to initiate an Article.php object in the controller ?
class Article extends BaseArticle
{
public function getFArticles()
{
$tableArticle = Doctrine::getTable('Article');
$obj = $tableArticle->getFeaturedArticles();
return $obj;
}

Answer 1

Article.php should not call ArticleTable.php unless really, really needed. In table classes you will only hold queries called by controller like:
$featuredArticles = ArticleTable::getInstance()->getFeatured() ;
Above code is simpler and you will have autocompletion in any IDE.
The reason not to call queries in Article.php is that you will have easier transition to Doctrine2 one day.
For a table call tbl_article or just article, doctrine will generate Article.php and BaseArticle.php. Base classes must not be changed manually.
Article class is where your logic goes. For example, you fetch list of ALL articles in database. When you display them, you want feature articles to have a star (just an example):
controller:
$allArticles = ArticleTable::getInstance()->findAll() ;
template (Smarty version here):
{foreach $allArticles as $article}
{if $article->isFeatured()} <img src=.. some image ..>{/if}
<h5>{$article->title}
{/foreach}
and the model class
class Article extends BaseArticle
{
const STATUS_FEATURED = 1 ;
public function isFeatured()
{
return $this->status == self::STATUS_FEATURED ;
}
}
All these are just some examples, in real life it is much more usefull.
And what are you actually trying to do with this fromArray($fArticle)? I don't see any point of that code.