More extensive documentation for defining models for plugins

Question

I'm trying to get a better understanding of how to define new models in plugins, but the documentation at http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/plugins/models doesn't get me very far.

For example, there is:

protected function defineAttributes()
{
    return array(
        'name' => AttributeType::String,
        'type' => array(AttributeType::Enum, 'values' => "alcohol,mixer,other"),
    );
}`

I've seen other plugins define attributes with an array element of 'required' => true, but the only example I see here is 'values'. Is there somewhere I can see a list of the available options when defining attributes? Or is it a better practice to define the attributes simply and then define validation rules in the rules() method?

I know the docs say to check out the CModel documentation, but it doesn't even have defineAttributes. Does Craft itself have more in depth documentation on this topic?

Answer 1

Have a look at Stephen Lewis' archived blog article about validation. Even better, buy the book.