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How to get and display list of the Cobalt records using API

To display list of the records we have a special API method. It is one line call. Very simple.

First you have to include API file. You can also use this to check if API is available at all.

$file = JPATH_ROOT.'/components/com_cobalt/api.php';
if(JFile::exists($file))
{
	include_once $file;
}

And then you can call it.

$api = new CobaltApi();
$data = $api->records(
	$section_id, 
	$view_what, 
	$orderby, 
	$type_ids,
	$user_id,
	$category_id, 
	$limit, 
	$template,
	$client,
	$client_id,
	$lang,
	$ids
);

This method return array with 4 keys html, total, list and ids.

echo '<h1>Records</h1>';
echo JText::sprintf('Total found %d records', $data['total']);
echo $data['html'];

Or you can use list

<ul>
<?php
foreach($data['list'] AS $item) {
	printf('<li><a href="%s">%s</a></li>', $item->url, $item->title);
} ?>
</ul>
Parameter Description
$section_id ID of the section in which records are stored.
$view_what special system parameter to affect records search. See view_wnat tabe below.
$orderby How to order. example r.ctime DESC. See list of orders below.
$type_ids One type ID or array of the IDs.
$user_id ID of the user. If you pas this parameter you will get records of only this user. This is one of the most important parameters for socialization in other extensions.
$category_id ID of category. You will get records of given category or given category node depending on your section or category “Records mode” parameter.
$limit How many records to select
$template In what template. This is contain something like default, simple_list, table
$client Name of the extension that use Cobalt article. For example when we get discussions of Joomla core articles the client is com_cobalt
$client_id Id of the parent article.
$lang true or false - show articles of current language only or any language.
$ids array of record IDs. If you ant to show specific articles you can get their IDs first by SQL query and then pass to list them.

Let’s assume you display list of records and you want to give user some control what and how to show. For example you want use to choose template or limit, here is the list of XML elements for creating a form that store values to call this method later.

<fieldset name="general2" label="FS_WHATTOSHOW">
	<field name="list_type" type="list" label="F_WHATTOSHOW">
		<option value="">XML_OPT_ANYARTICLE</option>
		<option value="author_created">XML_OPT_AUTHORCREATED</option>
		<option value="author_favorited">XML_OPT_AUTHORFAVORITED</option>
		<option value="author_rated">XML_OPT_AUTHORRATED</option>
		<option value="author_commented">XML_OPT_AUTHORCOMMENTED</option>
		<option value="author_visited">XML_OPT_AUTHORVISITED</option>
		
		<option value="visitor_created">XML_OPT_VISITORCREATED</option>
		<option value="visitor_favorited">XML_OPT_VISITORFAVORITED</option>
		<option value="visitor_rated">XML_OPT_VISITORRATED</option>
		<option value="visitor_commented">XML_OPT_VISITORCOMMENTED</option>
		<option value="visitor_visited">XML_OPT_VISITORVISITED</option>
		
		<option value="who_comment">XML_OPT_WHOCOMMENT</option>
		<option value="who_rate">XML_OPT_WHORATE</option>
		<option value="who_visit">XML_OPT_WHOVISIT</option>
		<option value="who_favorite">XML_OPT_WHOFAVORITE</option>
		
		<option value="tag_related">XML_OPT_TAGRELATED</option>
		<option value="author_tag_related">XML_OPT_AUTHORTAGRELATED</option>
		<option value="field_data">XML_OPT_FIELDDATA</option>
		<option value="user_field_data">XML_OPT_USERFIELDDATA</option>
	</field>
	<field name="orderby" type="list" label="CORDERING">
		<option value="r.ctime ASC">XML_OPT_CTIMEASC</option>
		<option value="r.ctime DESC">XML_OPT_CTIMEDESC</option>
		<option value="r.mtime DESC">XML_OPT_MODIFIEDDESC</option>
		<option value="r.mtime ASC">XML_OPT_MODIFIEDASC</option>
		<option value="r.title ASC">XML_OPT_TITLEASC</option>
		<option value="r.title DESC">XML_OPT_TITLEDESC</option>
		<option value="name ASC">XML_OPT_AUTHORASC</option>
		<option value="name DESC">XML_OPT_AUTHORDESC</option>
		<option value="r.hits DESC">XML_OPT_MOSTHITS</option>
		<option value="r.hits ASC">XML_OPT_LEASTHITS</option>
		<option value="r.votes_result DESC">XML_OPT_MOSTRATED</option>
		<option value="r.votes_result ASC">XML_OPT_LEASTRATED</option>
		<option value="r.comments DESC">XML_OPT_MOSTCOMMENTED</option>
		<option value="r.comments ASC">XML_OPT_LEASTCOMMENTED</option>
		<option value="r.favorite_num DESC">XML_OPT_MOSTFAVOR</option>
		<option value="r.favorite_num ASC">XML_OPT_LEASTFAVOR</option>
		<option value="RAND() ">XML_OPT_RANDOM</option>
	</field>
	<field name="section_id" type="meresourcessection" label="CSECTION" />
	<field name="type" type="mertype" multi="1" label="F_ONLYFOLLOWINGTYPES" />
	<field name="limit" type="text" size="3" default="5" label="CLIMIT" />
	<field  name="template" label="F_TMPLOVERRIDE" type="mersubtmpls" tmpltype="itemlist"  />
	<field name="field_from" type="meresourcesfields" label="F_SEARCHFROMFIELD" type_strict="1" filters="'text','radio','select','checkbox','multiselect','boolean','email','telephone','listautocomplete','datetime','image','status'" description="You can choose only 'text', 'radiobutton', 'select_simple', 'checkbox', 'multiselect', 'select_relate' field type." />
		<field name="field_in" type="meresourcesfields" default="" label="F_SEARCHINFIELD" filters="'text','radio','select','checkbox','multiselect','boolean','email','telephone','listautocomplete','datetime','image','status'" description="You can choose only 'text', 'radiobutton', 'select_simple', 'checkbox', 'multiselect', 'select_relate' field type." />
</fieldset>

This form will contain all data to be passed to API method. You probably will not need it all. May be only limit and template. It depends of integration.

References

view_what values

This values require $user_id

view_what Value Description
created Created by user given in $user_id
favorited Bookmarked by user given in $user_id
rated Rated by user given in $user_id
commented Commented by user given in $user_id
visited Visited or read by user given in $user_id

This values require record_id in the url or set by JRequest::setVar('record_id')

view_what Value Description
who_comment Who comment this record also comment records
who_rate Who rated this record also comment records
who_visit Who visited this record also comment records
who_favorite Who bookmarked this record also comment records
tag_related Articles with the same tags of current article
author_tag_related With the same tags or current article that user given in $user_id has
user_field_data Records of user given in $user_id with similar field. Require special parameters to be set.
field_data Records with similar field. Require special parameters to be set.

Ordering values

Ordering value Descritpion
r.ctime ASC Time created ascending
r.ctime DESC Time created descending or most recent
r.mtime DESC Time modified descending or las commented
r.mtime ASC Time modified ascending
r.title ASC Record title ascending
r.title DESC Record title descending
name ASC Use name ascending
name DESC User name descending
r.hits DESC Record hits/views descending or most popular
r.hits ASC Records hits/views ascending or least popular
r.votes_result DESC Mostly high rated first
r.votes_result ASC Least ratad first
r.comments DESC Most commented
r.comments ASC Least commented
r.favorite_num Most favorited
r.favorite_num Least favorited
RAND() Random ordering