ExtendedModel extends Model to include the ability to add arbitrary values to a single field that will be JSON encoded in storage and transparently decoded in use. This allows you to extend your Model data with any number of additional values without needing to change your schema.

Note that these values are not indexable directly, but for additional data that you don't need to search on, this can be useful. You can also build simple additional tables for indexing associated data that does need to be searched on, but that is outside of the scope of this class.

Usage:

1. By specifying allowed extended fields in $verify

<?php

class Foo extends ExtendedModel {
    // store extended data in a field named extradata
    public $_extended_field = 'extradata';

    public $verify = array (
        // regular field validations, followed by extended fields:
        'favorite_food' => array (
            'extended' => 1 // mark as extended
        ),
        'favorite_color' => array (
            'extended' => 1, // can also have validation rules:
            'regex' => '/^(red|green|blue|yellow|orange|purple|pink|brown)$/i'
        )
    );
}

// fetch an item
$foo = new Foo (1);

// since we've defined the extended fields, we can access them directly
$foo->favorite_food = 'pizza';

// this will fail to save because the validation fails
$foo->favorite_color = 'black';
if (! $foo->put ()) {
    echo $foo->error;
}

?>

2. By accessing the extradata field directly (will automatically serialize and unserialize for you), or through the ext() method:

<?php

class Foo extends ExtendedModel {
    // store extended data in a field named extradata
    public $_extended_field = 'extradata';
}

// fetch an item
$foo = new Foo (1);

// get its extradata field
$extra = $foo->extradata;

// or
$extra = $foo->ext ();

// add some fields to it
$extra['favorite_food'] = 'pizza';
$extra['favorite_color'] = 'green';

// or
$foo->ext ('favorite_food', 'pizza');
$foo->ext ('favorite_color', 'green');

// set it and save it
$foo->extradata = $extra;
$foo->put ();

// next time we retrieve the item
// our data will be there
$foo = new Foo (1);
$extra = $foo->extra;
echo $extra['favorite_food'];

// or
$foo = new Foo (1);
echo $foo->ext ('favorite_food');

?>