Feature Request: Include subdirectories

[alexanderhorner]

Currently only files with the right suffix and inside the content/ directory (or whatever set in the config) are accessible. For large projects it would be great if you could sort your database files into subdirectories.

[ryangjchandler]

@alexanderhorner This has been request before and I know people who have achieved it with custom drivers. Would like to have this as a feature in v1.x but I'll need to try and get the conventions right. Making it configurable AND reliable is important but also a challenge.

Here's the first problem I can think of:

Say you have the following file content/posts/2021/01/01/my-first-post.md. In order to update this file when the model is updated, we'd need to know the full path (after content/posts).

The full path could be stored inside of the primary key of the model (perhaps slug or something), but this would only work for non-incrementing files. Working around this would involve adding some internal column to the schema and praying that it doesn't collide with a model's own column, perhaps __orbit_key or something.

The next option would be making the path configurable and buildable. The new version of Orbit will have a config builder (instead of the separate dedicated methods), so it could look something like:

OrbitOptions::make()
    ->buildPathUsing(function (Post $post) {
        return $post->created_at->format('Y/m/d') . '/' . $post->slug;
    });

This API feels a little bit nicer imo since it's fully configurable but it is an extra step when working with Orbit. Sub-directories are probably rare at the moment because it's just not possible without a custom driver. The amount of extra code is minimal though.

Using this callback approach would work in most scenarios (I think). When creating a new Post via Post::create(), the record is saved to the SQLite cache before the file is created so we'll definitely have a valid Post model by the time this callback is invoked. When retrieving a model using Post::find() we would also the model so the path can be generated.

The tricky part with the approach is when we refresh the SQLite cache. At the moment, the cache is re-instated by looping through all of the files and assuming the filename is the primary key (relates to the point earlier).

Chances are I'll look further into the 2nd approach since it feels nicer and a little more powerful (user-configurable).

Sorry for the essay too, just some of my thoughts on the subject!

[alexanderhorner]

You could start simpler. Use base content directory for creating new files, but also search subdirectories when retrieving. Subdirectories would be completely manual that way and just for the user to order it a bit.

[alexanderhorner]

Just had time to read everything more thoroughly. Thanks for the answer, excited for the future of this project.

[felixdorn]

Why not a method on the model like getOrbitPath (or something prettier) rather than a configuration option?

Edit:

trait Orbital {
    public string $path = '';


    public function getOrbitPath(): string {
       if $this->path != "" {
// or a more complex solution that allow for things like :id-:slug
          return $this->getAttribute($this->path);
      }

     // current logic
  }
}

So now if someone needs to customize things a little they can override the getOrbitPath method or just use the property.

(note: I never used orbit)

[ryangjchandler]

All configuration is moving into a builder object to reduce the number of potential methods that need to be defined. Inspired by Spatie's packages that use a similar approach.