/**
	***description: Saves a new work ticket
	***@param Ticket
	***@return string
	**/
	function saveTicket(Ticket $ticket) {




This method accepts a new Ticket object from
the AIR client and returns a string. Next, assign the
properties of the passed-in Ticket to local
variables. Doing so increases clarity and makes it easier to
act on these properties before progressing through the
function:





// place ticket attributes into vars in case you 
want to act on them somehow
        $duration = $ticket->duration;
        $category = $ticket->category;
        $details = $ticket->details;
        $client_id = $ticket->client_id;
        $project_id = $ticket->project_id;
        $account_id = $ticket->account_id;
        $start_time = $ticket->start_time;
        $end_time = $ticket->end_time;




Now, connect to your MySQL database, and build an INSERT
query for the new ticket:




	$dbh = mysql_connect('localhost','root','root');
	$sql = 'INSERT INTO `clocked`.`tickets` (`id`, `duration`, 
`category`, `details`, `client_id`, `project_id`, `submitted_time`, 
`invoice_id`, `account_id`, `start_time`, `end_time`) 
VALUES (NULL, ' . $duration . ', ' . $category . ', ' .
 $details . ', ' . $client_id . ', ' . 

    
    


Finally, execute the query, and return a string so the
client will know that the insertion was successful:




$result = mysql_insert($sql, $dbh);
return 'OK';
}

    
    

     


Now you have the code necessary to insert new tickets that
the AIR application submits. But the application also needs
two more pieces of information: the list of clients and the
list of projects. The lists are used to assign tickets where
they belong. When users open a new ticket, they select the
client and project from drop-down lists. The
getClients() function returns an array of
clients to the AIR application:



/**
	***description: returns array of clients
	***@return array
	**/
	function getClients() {
	$sql = 'SELECT * FROM `clocked`.`clients`';
	$dbh = mysql_connect('localhost','root','root');
	$result = mysql_query($sql, $dbh);
	$retVal = array();
		while ($client = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
		array_push($retVal, $client);	
		}
		return $retVal;	
	}

    



The client is selected first, so the next step for the
ticket application is to get the list of projects belonging
to the selected client. The getProjects() function does just
that:




/**
	***description: returns a client's projects
	***@param int
	***@return array
	**/
	function getProjects($client_id) {
		$sql = 'SELECT * FROM `clocked`.`projects` 
			WHERE `client_id` = '. $client_id .'';	
		$dbh = mysql_connect('localhost','root','root');
		$result = mysql_query($sql, $dbh);
		$retVal = array();
		while ($project = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
			array_push($retVal, $project);	
		}
		return $retVal;
	}

    


Finally, add a login method. This function is like most
PHP/MySQL login functions: It accepts an array containing
the user-supplied user name and password, then returns the
authenticated user's ID to the client. If the login is
unsuccessful, it returns the distinctly non-verbose string
"bad":




/**
	***description: checks credentials, returns the user's id
	***@param array
	***@return string
	**/
	function logIn($info) {
	    $user = $info[0];
 	    $pass = $info[1];
	    $dbh = mysql_connect('localhost','root','root');
	    $sql = "SELECT * FROM `clocked`.`accounts` 
	      WHERE username = '". $user ."' AND password ='". $pass ."'";
	    $result = mysql_query($sql, $dbh);
	    if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
			$row = mysql_fetch_object($result);
			$userid = $row->id;
			return id;
		}
		else {
			return "bad";	
		}
	}
}
?>


    
    


Remember to close out the class and <?php tag, then save the file.



Make the service available



You now have all the basic parts of a Zend_Amf-compatible
service. To make this service available to your
applications, you also need a "gateway" file. The gateway
file instantiates the Zend_Amf server and passes it
information about your services and custom objects. Create
the gateway.php file in the main application directory,
/clocked. This folder should be inside your web server's web
root.


     


Begin the gateway file's code with an include path declaration like this one:







<?php
if(set_include_path('/Applications/MAMP/Library/') === false){
die('Include path failed');
}



This statement adds the location of the Zend Framework to
the PHP path variable. Be sure to change this path to
reflect where you placed the library folder on your
computer. Alternatively, you can permanently add the Zend
Framework's location to your PHP path. Next,
require_once the Zend_Amf server file and your
ClockedService class:




require_once 'Zend/Amf/Server.php';
require_once 'include/services/ClockedService.php';

    
    


These next lines instantiate the server and tell it that the
ClockedService class should be exposed. The
latter is accomplished using the server's
setClass() method:




// Instantiate the server
$server = new Zend_Amf_Server();
$server->setClass('ClockedService');

    
    


Next, map the Ticket class to the class you'll
use in ActionScript on the AIR client. Call it
TicketVO. Set this class mapping with the
server's setClassMap() method, passing in the
ActionScript class name first and the PHP class name second:




$server->setClassMap('TicketVO', 'Ticket');

    
    


The final lines of the gateway file instruct the server on
what it should accept and what it should return:





$server->setProduction(false);
$response = $server->handle();
echo $response;
?>




The setProduction() function is set to False,
which causes the server's output to be more verbose. This
setting is useful during testing, but it should never be set
to False if the server is publicly available; the debugging
information is more than you would want to share with the
whole Internet. Next, assign the $response
variable to the server's handle() method to
instructs the server to handle the request. Finally, the
response is echoed back to the client. Be sure to add this
part, because without it, your clients will not get a
response. Figure 8 shows how your files and folders should
now be arranged.


 




Click here for larger image

Figure 8. The current directory structure



To test your work so far, open a web browser and navigate to
http://
localhost/clocked/gateway.php. You should see the words
Zend Amf Endpoint. Your browser may prompt you to download a
file instead of displaying Zend Amf Endpoint, and that is
also a successful test. If neither of those happens, review
your code and check your PHP error log for problems. If your
test was successful, you're ready to begin creating the
desktop component of clocked!



Join us next week as we go through the nuts and bolts of
creating the Clocked! desktop client using AIR.