<p>When extending Craft's active record classes (like UserRecord), you'll only be able to setup the AR relationships one way (from your class to Craft's i.e. <code>MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord =&gt; UserRecord</code>) as you've done.  Setting up the relationship in the other direction (<code>UserRecord =&gt; MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord</code>) would require hacking core Craft files (not recommended).</p>

<p>For queries going in that direction, you'd need to go outside the scope of AR and use <a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/database.query-builder" rel="nofollow">QueryBuilder</a> to manually build the SQL query you need.</p>

<p>As for your current structure, I'm not sure what the purpose of <code>MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord</code> is.  Why not just have <code>MyPortal_UserProfileRecord</code> and <code>MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord</code> link to <code>UserRecord</code> directly? Maybe you just want a single place for that interaction instead of two, I suppose.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-25T10:23:44.930Z
I see. Coming from Laravel, where you can easily add relations to a model (record), without altering it's code, by defining these in the "boot" function of your plugin class, I figured it would be possible to do the same in Yii. Perhaps this is not possible?
Ok. I'll make some helper functions in my account service class, to handle organization vs member vs private user. Ex:
function isOrganization($craft_user_id) { ... }
function getOrganizationMembers($craft_user_id) { ... }
Yes, I wanted a unified place, but I'll ditch the proxy user record in favor of the service helper functions. 
Thanks
CodeMonkey
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-25T17:52:24.827Z
FWIW what you're trying to do will be a lot easier in the upcoming Craft 3 (which uses Yii 2)
Brad Bell
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-02T07:17:13.557Z
Yeah, I did some quick reading about that, and it does seem quite nice. =)

Any ETA on Craft 3?
CodeMonkey
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-24T19:58:30.420Z
2016-02-24T19:58:30.420Z
Brad Bell
<p>I'm writing a customer portal plugin that will have 3 types of users.</p>

<ul>
<li>Organizations</li>
<li>Organization members</li>
<li>Private</li>
</ul>

<p>I would like to use Craft's built in UserRecord for front end login, backend management, ..?, and extend it to handle these three user types. </p>

<p>The way I have it set up so far, is that I have a proxy user record, which handles the relations to the organization profile and user profile records. Below I have listed the relevant attributes/keys and relations for each of the records:</p>

<p><br>
<strong>MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord:</strong><br>
Acts as a middle man between the Craft UserRecord and the two records further below.</p>

<pre><code>id
craft_user_id
organization_id  (# | null if private user)
user_id  (# | null if organization)

'craft_user' =&gt; array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'UserRecord', 'craft_user_id'),
'organization_profile' =&gt; array(static::HAS_ONE, 'MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
'user_profile' =&gt; array(static::HAS_ONE, 'MyPortal_UserProfileRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
</code></pre>

<hr>

<p><br>
<strong>MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord:</strong></p>

<pre><code>id
proxy_user_id
contact_user_id

'proxy_user' =&gt; array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
// Organization members:
'user_profiles' =&gt; array(static::HAS_MANY, 'MyPortal_UserProfileRecord', 'organization_id'),
// Contact user:
'contact_user' =&gt; array(static::HAS_ONE, 'MyPortal_UserProfileRecord', 'organization_id'),
</code></pre>

<hr>

<p><br>
<strong>MyPortal_UserProfileRecord:</strong><br>
Handles both private users and organization members.</p>

<pre><code>id
proxy_user_id
organization_id  (# | null if private user)

'proxy_user' =&gt; array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
'organization' =&gt; array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord', 'organization_id'),
</code></pre>

<hr>

<p><br></p>

<h1>Questions:</h1>

<ol>
<li>Is it possible to extend the Craft UserRecord itself with the
necessary attributes and relations to handle the
OrganizationProfileRecord and the UserProfileRecord, and ditch the
proxy user record? If so, how do I do that?</li>
<li>If not possible, should I structure my records and relations differently than I have done so far?</li>
<li>Are there any pitfalls I should be vary of?</li>
</ol>

<p><br>
Please let me know if I should provide any further information! :)</p>

<p>Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide!  <em>bowing</em></p>

<p>/Monkey    </p>

<plugin-development><users><extends>
How to extend UserRecord?
# How to extend UserRecord?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-24)

I'm writing a customer portal plugin that will have 3 types of users.

Organizations
Organization members
Private

I would like to use Craft's built in UserRecord for front end login, backend management, ..?, and extend it to handle these three user types. 
The way I have it set up so far, is that I have a proxy user record, which handles the relations to the organization profile and user profile records. Below I have listed the relevant attributes/keys and relations for each of the records:

MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord:
Acts as a middle man between the Craft UserRecord and the two records further below.
id
craft_user_id
organization_id  (# | null if private user)
user_id  (# | null if organization)

'craft_user' => array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'UserRecord', 'craft_user_id'),
'organization_profile' => array(static::HAS_ONE, 'MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
'user_profile' => array(static::HAS_ONE, 'MyPortal_UserProfileRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),



MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord:
id
proxy_user_id
contact_user_id

'proxy_user' => array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
// Organization members:
'user_profiles' => array(static::HAS_MANY, 'MyPortal_UserProfileRecord', 'organization_id'),
// Contact user:
'contact_user' => array(static::HAS_ONE, 'MyPortal_UserProfileRecord', 'organization_id'),



MyPortal_UserProfileRecord:
Handles both private users and organization members.
id
proxy_user_id
organization_id  (# | null if private user)

'proxy_user' => array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord', 'proxy_user_id'),
'organization' => array(static::BELONGS_TO, 'MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord', 'organization_id'),



Questions:

Is it possible to extend the Craft UserRecord itself with the
necessary attributes and relations to handle the
OrganizationProfileRecord and the UserProfileRecord, and ditch the
proxy user record? If so, how do I do that?
If not possible, should I structure my records and relations differently than I have done so far?
Are there any pitfalls I should be vary of?


Please let me know if I should provide any further information! :)
Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide!  bowing
/Monkey

**Tags:** plugin-development, users, extends


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-02-24. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

When extending Craft's active record classes (like UserRecord), you'll only be able to setup the AR relationships one way (from your class to Craft's i.e. `MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord => UserRecord`) as you've done. Setting up the relationship in the other direction (`UserRecord => MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord`) would require hacking core Craft files (not recommended).

For queries going in that direction, you'd need to go outside the scope of AR and use [QueryBuilder](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/database.query-builder) to manually build the SQL query you need.

As for your current structure, I'm not sure what the purpose of `MyPortal_ProxyUserRecord` is. Why not just have `MyPortal_UserProfileRecord` and `MyPortal_OrganizationProfileRecord` link to `UserRecord` directly? Maybe you just want a single place for that interaction instead of two, I suppose.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I see. Coming from Laravel, where you can easily add relations to a model (record), without altering it's code, by defining these in the "boot" function of your plugin class, I figured it would be possible to do the same in Yii. Perhaps this is not possible? Ok. I'll make some helper functions in my account service class, to handle organization vs member vs private user. Ex: function isOrganization($craft_user_id) { ... } function getOrganizationMembers($craft_user_id) { ... } Yes, I wanted a unified place, but I'll ditch the proxy user record in favor of the service helper functions.  Thanks  
> **username_1**: FWIW what you're trying to do will be a lot easier in the upcoming Craft 3 (which uses Yii 2)  
> **username_0**: Yeah, I did some quick reading about that, and it does seem quite nice. =)  Any ETA on Craft 3?  

---

