October CMS

October CMS – Execute Console Commands Sequentially

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to execute long running PHP processes sequentially in October CMS from anywhere of your code.

First, you must define a default driver, which is pretty much a handler for managing how to run a queued job, identifying whether the jobs succeeded or failed, and trying the job again. In October CMS, the driver settings are located in the file in ./config/queue.php.

<?php

return [

    /*
    |-------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Default Queue Driver
    |-------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | The Laravel queue API supports a variety of back-ends via an unified
    | API, giving you convenient access to each back-end using the same
    | syntax for each one. Here you may set the default queue driver.
    |
    | Supported: "null", "sync", "database", "beanstalkd",
    |            "sqs", "iron", "redis"
    |
    */

    'default' => 'database',

<?php

return [

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------

| Default Queue Driver

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------

| The Laravel queue API supports a variety of back-ends via an unified

| API, giving you convenient access to each back-end using the same

| syntax for each one. Here you may set the default queue driver.

| Supported: "null", "sync", "database", "beanstalkd",

| "sqs", "iron", "redis"

'default' => 'database',

If you are new to this, I recommend to start with the database driver. This driver is good enough to execute your console commands synchronously in the background without slowing down your PHP calls. As a next step, you have to register a custom console command in your Plugin.php file. For example company.pluginname.

/**
 * Register console commands
 */
public function register() {

    $this->registerConsoleCommand('company.pluginname', 'Company\Pluginname\Console\Test');
}

/**

* Register console commands

public function register() {

$this->registerConsoleCommand('company.pluginname', 'Company\Pluginname\Console\Test');

}

For test purposes, I created a console command company.pluginname which will execute the method backupList.

bash-4.4# php artisan company:pluginname 123 --customer=list
Parameter ID 123 passed.

1 2	bash-4.4# php artisan company:pluginname 123 --customer=list Parameter ID 123 passed.

<?php namespace Company\Pluginname\Console;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;

class Test extends Command
{
    /**
     * @var string The console command name.
     */
    protected $name = 'company:pluginname';

    /**
     * @var int
     */
    protected $customerId = 0;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description = 'No description provided yet...';

    /**
     *
     */
    public function backupList()
    {
        $this->output->writeln(sprintf('Parameter ID %s passed.', $this->customerId));
        
        // Call API
        // Compress response and save on disk
        // Write information into Log table
    }

    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     * @return void
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        $this->customerId = $this->argument('customerId');

        $option = $this->option('customer');

        $args = explode(',', $option);

        if (in_array('list', $args)) {
            $this->backupList();
        }
    }

    /**
     * Get the console command arguments.
     * @return array
     */
    protected function getArguments()
    {
        return [
            ['customerId', InputArgument::REQUIRED, '(Required) Customer Id']
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Get the console command options.
     * @return array
     */
    protected function getOptions()
    {
        return [
            ['customer', null, InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED, 'An example option.', null],
            ['queue', null, InputOption::VALUE_OPTIONAL, 'An example option.', null]
        ];
    }
}

<?php namespace Company\Pluginname\Console;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;

use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;

use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;

class Test extends Command

{

/**

* @var string The console command name.

protected $name = 'company:pluginname';

/**

* @var int

protected $customerId = 0;

/**

* @var string

protected $description = 'No description provided yet...';

/**

public function backupList()

{

$this->output->writeln(sprintf('Parameter ID %s passed.', $this->customerId));

// Call API

// Compress response and save on disk

// Write information into Log table

}

/**

* Execute the console command.

* @return void

public function handle()

{

$this->customerId = $this->argument('customerId');

$option = $this->option('customer');

$args = explode(',', $option);

if (in_array('list', $args)) {

$this->backupList();

}

/**

* Get the console command arguments.

* @return array

protected function getArguments()

{

return [

['customerId', InputArgument::REQUIRED, '(Required) Customer Id']

];

}

/**

* Get the console command options.

* @return array

protected function getOptions()

{

return [

['customer', null, InputOption::VALUE_REQUIRED, 'An example option.', null],

['queue', null, InputOption::VALUE_OPTIONAL, 'An example option.', null]

];

}

Let’s assume you have a front-end controller http://yourpage.dev/customer/list that calls an API, creates a list and saves it on disk. Executing all these steps can be time-consuming and simply slow down your controller. Instead, you can run such processes in the background with Artisan::queue.

<?php namespace Company\Pluginname\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Artisan;

class Customer extends Controller
{
    public function list($id)
    {
        Artisan::queue('company:pluginname', [
            'customerId' => 123,
            '--customer' => 'list',
            '--queue' => 'default'
        ]);
    }
}

<?php namespace Company\Pluginname\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Artisan;

class Customer extends Controller

{

public function list($id)

{

Artisan::queue('company:pluginname', [

'customerId' => 123,

'--customer' => 'list',

'--queue' => 'default'

]);

}

As soon as you hit the controller, artisan will queue a new record in the table jobs and wait until a queue worker executes the job. You just have to make sure that a Queue Worker is running in the background, otherwise jobs won’t get executed.

bash-4.4# php artisan queue:work --tries=3
[2020-04-14 04:11:52] Processing: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand
[2020-04-14 04:11:54] Processed:  Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand
[2020-04-14 04:11:54] Processing: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand
[2020-04-14 04:11:55] Processed:  Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand
[2020-04-14 04:11:55] Processing: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand
[2020-04-14 04:12:14] Processed:  Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

bash-4.4# php artisan queue:work --tries=3

[2020-04-14 04:11:52] Processing: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

[2020-04-14 04:11:54] Processed: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

[2020-04-14 04:11:54] Processing: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

[2020-04-14 04:11:55] Processed: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

[2020-04-14 04:11:55] Processing: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

[2020-04-14 04:12:14] Processed: Illuminate\Foundation\Console\QueuedCommand

I recommend to start a queue worker with Supervisor which is well explained on https://medium.com/@rohit_shirke/configuring-supervisor-for-laravel-queues-81e555e550c6

October CMS – How To Use Models In Custom Components

Components in October CMS can be used for custom output, such as JavaScript snippets, dynamic content from a web service or models. Components can also handle AJAX requests or other incoming data. In this tutorial, I will simply show you how to register a new component and output a list with records from the users table.

First of all, you have to register a new component in your Plugin.php file. For example, users.

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox;

use System\Classes\PluginBase;
use System\Classes\SettingsManager;

class Plugin extends PluginBase
{

    /**
     * Register Component
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function registerComponents()
    {
        return [
            'Playground\Sandbox\Components\Users' => 'users'
        ];
    }
}

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox;

use System\Classes\PluginBase;

use System\Classes\SettingsManager;

class Plugin extends PluginBase

{

/**

* Register Component

* @return array

public function registerComponents()

{

return [

'Playground\Sandbox\Components\Users' => 'users'

];

}

Create the following structure within the components folder which must contain the file Users.php and users/default.htm.

.
└── playground
    └── sandbox
        ├── Plugin.php
        ├── components
        │   ├── Users.php
        │   └── users
        │       └── default.htm

└── playground

└── sandbox

├── Plugin.php

├── components

│ ├── Users.php

│ └── users

│ └── default.htm

Below you will find the content for the default.htm file which will basically output a list of all users.

<div class="list-users">
    {% for person in __SELF__.getPeople %}
        {{ person.username }} {{ person.email }}
    {% endfor %}
</div>

{% for person in __SELF__.getPeople %}

{% endfor %}

</div>

The Users.php file only requires a method getPeople and a reference to the new model, called UsersModel.

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Components;

use Cms\Classes\ComponentBase;
use Playground\Sandbox\Models\Users as UsersModel;

class Users extends ComponentBase
{
    /**
     * Define component details.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function componentDetails()
    {
        return [
            'name' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.plugin.name',
            'description' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.plugin.description'
        ];
    }

    public function getPeople()
    {
        return (new UsersModel())->getPeople();
    }
}

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Components;

use Cms\Classes\ComponentBase;

use Playground\Sandbox\Models\Users as UsersModel;

class Users extends ComponentBase

{

/**

* Define component details.

* @return array

public function componentDetails()

{

return [

'name' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.plugin.name',

'description' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.plugin.description'

];

}

public function getPeople()

{

return (new UsersModel())->getPeople();

}

In order to access a model, you must create one within the models folder.

├── models
│   └── Users.php

1 2	├── models │ └── Users.php

For test purposes, I simply return all records from the users table.

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Models;

use Model;

/**
 * Class Users
 * @package Playground\Sandbox\Models
 */
class Users extends Model
{
    /**
     * @var string The database table used by the model.
     */
    public $table = 'users';

    /**
     * Return all records from users table.
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getPeople()
    {
        return self::all();
    }
}

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Models;

use Model;

/**

* Class Users

* @package Playground\Sandbox\Models

class Users extends Model

{

/**

* @var string The database table used by the model.

public $table = 'users';

/**

* Return all records from users table.

* @return mixed

public function getPeople()

{

return self::all();

}

Now you can use the new component anywhere in your template files. I recommend to use [users] in your parent template file, because it will allow you to use the component in your child templates.

description = "Default layout"

[users]
==
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
</head>
<body>

<section id="body">
    <div class="wrapper">
        {% component 'users' %}
    </div>
</section>

{% scripts %}
{% framework extras %}
</body>

</html>

description = "Default layout"

[users]

<!doctype html>

<head>

</head>

<body>

{% component 'users' %}

</div>

</section>

{% scripts %}

{% framework extras %}

</body>

</html>

After a page reload, should you immediately see the list.

For more information, check out https://octobercms.com/docs/cms/components. The source code of this tutorial can be found on https://github.com/tobias-forkel/october-cms-playground

October CMS – Add Menu Item And Store Backend Settings

At some point you probably want to make your custom plugin for October CMS configurable and allow backend users to make changes within the plugin space. October CMS has a simple and intuitive backend navigation, which you can easily extend in no-time. Let’s assume you have a custom plugin that calls an external API. Here is how you can store API credentials by using the Settings Manager.

First of all, you must register the settings in your Plugin.php file.

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox;

use System\Classes\PluginBase;
use System\Classes\SettingsManager;

class Plugin extends PluginBase
{

    /**
     * Register Settings
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function registerSettings()
    {
        return [
            'settings' => [
                'label'       => 'playground.sandbox::lang.settings.label',
                'description' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.settings.description',
                'icon'        => 'icon-flask',
                'category'    => SettingsManager::CATEGORY_SYSTEM,
                'class'       => 'Playground\Sandbox\Models\Settings',
                'keywords'    => 'playground sandbox other keyswords',
            ]
        ];
    }
}

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox;

use System\Classes\PluginBase;

use System\Classes\SettingsManager;

class Plugin extends PluginBase

{

/**

* Register Settings

* @return array

public function registerSettings()

{

return [

'settings' => [

'label' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.settings.label',

'description' => 'playground.sandbox::lang.settings.description',

'icon' => 'icon-flask',

'category' => SettingsManager::CATEGORY_SYSTEM,

'class' => 'Playground\Sandbox\Models\Settings',

'keywords' => 'playground sandbox other keyswords',

]

];

}

After that you must create a Settings.php file with the following content inside your models folder.

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Models;

use Model;

/**
 * Class Settings
 * @package Playground\Sandbox\Models
 */
class Settings extends Model
{
    /**
     * @var array
     */
    public $implement = ['System.Behaviors.SettingsModel'];

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    public $settingsCode = 'playground_sandbox_settings';

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    public $settingsFields = 'fields.yaml';

    // Set defaults
    public function initSettingsData()
    {
        $this->enabled = 0;
        $this->api_key = '';
    }
}

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Models;

use Model;

/**

* Class Settings

* @package Playground\Sandbox\Models

class Settings extends Model

{

/**

* @var array

public $implement = ['System.Behaviors.SettingsModel'];

/**

* @var string

public $settingsCode = 'playground_sandbox_settings';

/**

* @var string

public $settingsFields = 'fields.yaml';

// Set defaults

public function initSettingsData()

{

$this->enabled = 0;

$this->api_key = '';

}

If you define default values inside the method initSettingsData, make sure the above fields match with the definitions inside the fields.yaml file.

tabs:
    fields:
        enabled:
            label: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.enabled
            comment: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.enabled_comment
            tab: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.tab_default
            type: checkbox
        api_key:
            label: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.api_key
            comment: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.api_key_comment
            tab: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.tab_default
            type: text

tabs:

fields:

enabled:

label: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.enabled

comment: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.enabled_comment

tab: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.tab_default

type: checkbox

api_key:

label: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.api_key

comment: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.api_key_comment

tab: playground.sandbox::lang.settings.tab_default

type: text

Once the fields.yaml file is created, you should see a new form within the new tab.

Now you can access the settings values within your controller, console or component by implementing the following model.

use Playground\Sandbox\Models\Settings;

1	use Playground\Sandbox\Models\Settings;

For test purposes, I created a new controller and implemented the above model to get access to the API key.

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller;
use Playground\Sandbox\Models\Settings;

class Swing extends Controller
{
    /**
     * @var Plugin settings
     */
    protected $settings;

    /**
     * Sandbox constructor.
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->settings = Settings::instance();
    }

    /**
     * @param $params
     */
    public function index($params)
    {
        try {

            $enabled = $this->settings->enabled;

            if ($enabled) {
                
                // Use settings values
                var_dump($this->settings->api_key);
            }
        }

        catch (\Exception $ex) {
            $ex->getMessage();
        }
    }
}

<?php namespace Playground\Sandbox\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller;

use Playground\Sandbox\Models\Settings;

class Swing extends Controller

{

/**

* @var Plugin settings

protected $settings;

/**

* Sandbox constructor.

public function __construct()

{

$this->settings = Settings::instance();

}

/**

* @param $params

public function index($params)

{

try {

$enabled = $this->settings->enabled;

if ($enabled) {

// Use settings values

var_dump($this->settings->api_key);

}

catch (\Exception $ex) {

$ex->getMessage();

}

Here you go.

The entire source code can be found on https://github.com/tobias-forkel/october-cms-playground.

Laravel – Carbon and Queries

Carbon is probably the most effective way to handle DateTime strings flawlessly and implement PHP code that everybody can easily extend or debug.

echo Carbon::now()->subMinutes(2)->diffForHumans(); // '2 minutes ago'

1	echo Carbon::now()->subMinutes(2)->diffForHumans(); // '2 minutes ago'

In the following example, I would like to demonstrate how you can filter a collection in Laravel by using Carbon. As you can see, the below example will simply return all People who have registered in the past two weeks.

$from = Carbon::now()->subWeeks(2);
$to = Carbon::now();

$people = (new People())
    ->whereBetween('registered_at', [$from, $to])
    ->orderBy('registered_at', 'desc')
    ->get();

$from = Carbon::now()->subWeeks(2);

$to = Carbon::now();

$people = (new People())

->whereBetween('registered_at', [$from, $to])

->orderBy('registered_at', 'desc')

->get();

The method subWeeks() will do all the work for you and return a valid DateTime string from 14 days ago which can be used for the whereBetween query method. If you prefer using days, you can simply use subDays() instead.

One possible use case could be a front-end controller that handles AJAX requests.

<?php namespace Your\Plugin\Controllers\Frontend;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller;
use Your\Plugin\Models\People;
use Response;
use Carbon\Carbon;

class Work extends Controller
{

    public function index($weeks)
    {
        try {

            $from = Carbon::now()->subWeeks($weeks);
            $to = Carbon::now();

            $people = (new People())
                ->whereBetween('registered_at', [$from, $to])
                ->orderBy('registered_at', 'desc')
                ->get()
                ->toArray();

            return Response::json($people, 200)->send();
        }

        catch (\Exception $ex) {
            $ex->getMessage();
        }
    }
}

<?php namespace Your\Plugin\Controllers\Frontend;

use Illuminate\Routing\Controller;

use Your\Plugin\Models\People;

use Response;

use Carbon\Carbon;

class Work extends Controller

{

public function index($weeks)

{

try {

$from = Carbon::now()->subWeeks($weeks);

$to = Carbon::now();

$people = (new People())

->whereBetween('registered_at', [$from, $to])

->orderBy('registered_at', 'desc')

->get()

->toArray();

return Response::json($people, 200)->send();

}

catch (\Exception $ex) {

$ex->getMessage();

}

October CMS – Widget OC Media Manager

If you work with the form elements fileupload or mediafinder in combination with user admin roles ( Settings > Administrators ) you may end up with the following error while saving a model.

"A widget with class name 'ocmediamanager' has not been bound to the controller" on line 597 of /var/www/src/modules/backend/classes/Controller.php

1	"A widget with class name 'ocmediamanager' has not been bound to the controller" on line 597 of /var/www/src/modules/backend/classes/Controller.php

In order to fix that, you must review the permissions of your admin user account for Upload and manage media contents – images, videos, sounds, documents. and select Allow or Inherit, depending on how you setup your roles.

After saving the permissions, you should be able to upload or select an image and save the model.

October CMS – How To Fix Broken Thumbnails

I recently started setting up a dockerized October CMS environment based on Alpine Linux, MariaDB and PHP-FPM which was actually a very straightforward process. However, for some reason the integrated image resizer didn’t create thumbnails of uploaded images.

Unfortunately there was nothing in the log files which could help me to identify the cause of the problem. After checking the file permissions, I decided to trace back the issue and found the reason in file vendor/october/rain/src/Database/Attach/Resizer.php.

The method getMimeType() returned always null, which broke the entire image manipulation process.

// Get the file extension
$this->extension = $file->guessExtension();
$this->mime = $file->getMimeType();

// Get the file extension

$this->extension = $file->guessExtension();

$this->mime = $file->getMimeType();

After a quick research I found out that getMimeType requires php_fileinfo which I simply forgot to set in my Dockerfile. After adding php7-fileinfo and rebuilding the container, the issue was finally fixed.

PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Interface ‘SessionHandlerInterface’ not found in /var/www/src/vendor/ laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Session/FileSessionHandler.php on line 10

Today I successfully installed my first October CMS project locally via composer / command line. The installation was pretty straightforward and worked surprisingly well on my Alpine Linux docker container which includes NGINX, PHP-FPM and MariaDB.

October.Demo
- v1.0.1:  First version of Demo
Seeded System 
Seeded Backend 
.=========================================.
                ,@@@@@@@,                  
        ,,,.   ,@@@@@@/@@,  .oo8888o.      
     ,&%%&%&&%,@@@@@/@@@@@@,8888\88/8o     
    ,%&\%&&%&&%,@@@\@@@/@@@88\88888/88'    
    %&&%&%&/%&&%@@\@@/ /@@@88888\88888'    
    %&&%/ %&%%&&@@\ V /@@' `88\8 `/88'     
    `&%\ ` /%&'    |.|        \ '|8'       
        |o|        | |         | |         
        |.|        | |         | |         
`========= INSTALLATION COMPLETE ========='

October.Demo

- v1.0.1: First version of Demo

Seeded System

Seeded Backend

.=========================================.

,@@@@@@@,

,,,. ,@@@@@@/@@, .oo8888o.

,&%%&%&&%,@@@@@/@@@@@@,8888\88/8o

,%&\%&&%&&%,@@@\@@@/@@@88\88888/88'

%&&%&%&/%&&%@@\@@/ /@@@88888\88888'

%&&%/ %&%%&&@@\ V /@@' `88\8 `/88'

`&%\ ` /%&' |.| \ '|8'

|o| | | | |

|.| | | | |

`========= INSTALLATION COMPLETE ========='

However, when I tried to open the front-end I got the following error.

PHP message: PHP Fatal error:  Interface 'SessionHandlerInterface' not found in /var/www/src/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Session/FileSessionHandler.php on line 10

1	PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Interface 'SessionHandlerInterface' not found in /var/www/src/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Session/FileSessionHandler.php on line 10

After a quick research I found the solution on Stackoverflow. I basically forgot to install the PHP extension php7-session inside my docker container. I manually installed the missing extension, but also updated my Dockerfile in case I have to rebuild my container.

bash-4.4# apk add php7-session
fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.7/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.7/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
(1/1) Installing php7-session (7.1.33-r0)
OK: 291 MiB in 87 packages

bash-4.4# apk add php7-session

fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.7/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.7/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

(1/1) Installing php7-session (7.1.33-r0)

OK: 291 MiB in 87 packages

After that I manually killed all PHP processes to make sure php-fpm loads the new extension with the next page reload.

pkill php

pkill php