Models

A model is a class responsible for one database table. You state the table name and the list of fields in it, and the ready-made read and write methods come from the base class. The controller talks to the model and writes no SQL itself. Models live in the app/Models folder.

Creating a model

php spark make:model PostModel

The command creates the file app/Models/PostModel.php with many properties. These are enough to start:

// app/Models/PostModel.php
namespace App\Models;
 
use CodeIgniter\Model;
 
class PostModel extends Model
{
    protected $table = 'posts';
    protected $primaryKey = 'id';
    protected $returnType = 'array';
    protected $allowedFields = ['title', 'body', 'status'];
    protected $useTimestamps = true;
}

$table is the table name from the migration. $allowedFields lists the fields that may be written. $useTimestamps makes the model fill the created_at and updated_at columns itself.

The model in a controller

The model() function returns the model object:

// app/Controllers/Posts.php
namespace App\Controllers;
 
use App\Models\PostModel;
 
class Posts extends BaseController
{
    public function index(): string
    {
        $posts = model(PostModel::class)->findAll();
 
        return view('posts/index', ['posts' => $posts]);
    }
}

findAll() returns all rows of the table — each as an array. Open /posts: instead of posts written in the code, the list shows the records from the database added by the seeder.

One record

public function show(int $id): string
{
    $post = model(PostModel::class)->find($id);
 
    if ($post === null) {
        throw \CodeIgniter\Exceptions\PageNotFoundException::forPageNotFound();
    }
 
    return view('posts/show', ['post' => $post]);
}

find() looks a record up by its primary key and returns null if there is none. The address /posts/1 shows the first post, and /posts/999 shows the 404 page.

Reading methods

Creating and updating

$posts = model(PostModel::class);
 
$id = $posts->insert([
    'title' => 'New post',
    'body' => 'The text of the post',
]);
 
$posts->update($id, ['status' => 1]);

insert() adds a row and returns its identifier, update() changes the record with the given key. The save() method picks the action itself: if the data has an id key, the record is updated, otherwise created.

$posts->save(['id' => 5, 'title' => 'New title']);

Deleting

model(PostModel::class)->delete(5);

The row with key 5 is removed from the table. If the model sets protected $useSoftDeletes = true; and the table has a deleted_at column, the record is not erased but marked as deleted and stops appearing in queries.

Common mistake

A field missing from $allowedFields is silently dropped by the model: insert() passes without errors, yet the value is not saved. If a new column "does not save", check this list first. The protection exists so that a visitor cannot slip an extra field such as is_admin into a form.