Finding entry by content

Question

I'm currently creating a plugin for craft and have stumbled across a slight problem. I'll try summarise of what I am doing and what I am trying to achieve.

So, I'm trying creating a plugin which will update entries within craft via an external API. I have managed to get the initial save to work using these following lines:

$entry = new EntryModel();
$entry->getContent()->title = $project->name;
$entry->sectionId = 10;
craft()->entries->saveEntry($entry);

The issue arises when I'm trying to update the model. Obviously, I don't want to duplicate entries.

I can get the entry using this line:

EntryRecord::model()->findById(45);

(this is just used for testing, eventually I will be getting the record via a custom variable).

What I'm trying to do here is update the title of this record, from what I can see this is stored in the craft_content table.

Basically what I'd like to do is something like :

EntryModel::model()->findByAttributes(array('title'=>$project->name);

So I can then update the content title of that row. I can see I can't do it this way, would you be able point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

It sort of depends on what information you have to identify the entry. If your external service knows the entry id that would be the most direct — otherwise you would have to find the entry by some other unique property.

To update an entry (given $entryId, $newTitle):

$entry = craft()->entries->getEntryById($entryId);
if ($entry) {
    $entry->getContent()->setAttributes(array(
        'title' => $newTitle
    ));
    craft()->entries->saveEntry($entry);
}

To update an entry (given $sectionHandle, $title, and $newTitle - or other unique property):

$criteria = craft()->elements->getCriteria(ElementType::Entry);
$criteria->section = $sectionHandle;
$criteria->title = $title;
$entries = craft()->elements->findElements($criteria);

foreach ($entries as $entry) {
    $entry->getContent()->setAttributes(array(
        'title' => $newTitle
    ));
    craft()->entries->saveEntry($entry);
}

Could also use the 'search' method (although less reliable):

$criteria = craft()->elements->getCriteria(ElementType::Entry);
$criteria->search = 'fieldHandle:searchstring';

In the last two cases, would need to handle the possibility that more than 1 entry is returned.

Also, when creating entries might want to include the authorId and typeId, in addition to sectionId:

$entry = new EntryModel();
$entry->sectionId  = $sectionId
$entry->typeId     = $typeId
$entry->authorId   = $authorId;
$entry->enabled    = true;
$entry->getContent()->setAttributes(array(
    'title' => $title
));
craft()->entries->saveEntry($entry);