Author Topic: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous? (Read 1089 times)

jimurl · April 20, 2012, 08:48:04 am

Hi,

I'm using the tokenValues hook customize our use of nick_name. Since not every contact has a nick_name , we want to use first_name if nick_name is missing; and if there's no first_name either, then use a greeting such as 'Friend'. Below is the code to do this. I had to look up the contact['first_name'] for each contact using the api because, if the token {contact.first_name} was missing from the email or label, then the $value['first_name'] token is empty.

What I am concerned is- is this a bad idea? will the thousands of api calls when doing a mass mailing become a problem? I have used this only once so far, to generate a few dozen mailing labels, which is a very small sample.

If it does seem safe and not likely to overload a server, I can add it to the bottom of this page: http://civicrm.org/node/637

Code: [Select]

function custom_civicrm_tokenValues( &$values, &$contactIDs ) {
    if ( is_array( $contactIDs ) ) {
        $single = false;
    } else {
        $contactIDs = array( $contactIDs );
        $single = true;
    }
        foreach ( $contactIDs as $cid ) {
        if ( $single ) {
            $value =& $values;
        } else {
            $value =& $values[$cid];
        }
            if ( !isset( $value['nick_name'] ) || empty( $value['nick_name']) || ($value['nick_name'] == '') || ( $value['nick_name'] == 'NULL' ) ) {
                   // $value['nick_name'] = $value['first_name'];
                 $params = array( 'id' => $cid , 'sequential' => 1 , 'version' =>'3' , 'return' => 'first_name' );  
                 $results = civicrm_api('Contact', 'getsingle', $params);
                 $value['nick_name'] = $results['first_name'];
                 //var_dump($results['values'[0]['first_name']);
            }
            if ( ($value['nick_name']  == '?') || ($value['nick_name']  == '_') || ($value['nick_name']  == '') ) {
                $value['nick_name']  = "Friend";
            }
    }
}

xavier · April 20, 2012, 09:08:28 am

Hi,

1) There is now a new param on the hook showing what params are actually requested. this avoid generating a token when not used.
2) always specify the return fields with only the fields you want (first,nick) to avoid fetching email/address for nothing

Otherwise, it's running one query per contact, this obviously isn't super good but should be ok. The API doesn't handle yet a list of contact ids as a param, but the BAO under it does, so it shouldn't be super complicated to modify. Would be great if you could help on that.

Finally on the code:
you don't have to add the require api/api.php
99% sure you don't get to civicrm_initialize in this case (plenty initialised before already when generating a token)
you could have used the getsingle method instead of the get, so that's $result['nick_name]

jimurl · April 23, 2012, 10:36:48 am

Hi Xavier,

I updated my code above to reflect your suggestions. Yes, all of those should cut down on processing. I can look at the API and see if I have the skills to allow it to accept a list of $cids. Thanks.

xavier · April 23, 2012, 10:58:16 am

Hi,

Feel free to join us on IRC if you want to discuss implementation or need some help

X+

Erik Hommel · April 24, 2012, 11:55:16 pm

Great if you can contribute!!!

jimurl · June 25, 2012, 09:25:54 am

For those thinking to try my suggestion above, I recommend a better 'recipe', described by Coleman Watts in a blog post called "Create Your Own Tokens for Fun and Profit":
http://civicrm.org/blogs/colemanw/create-your-own-tokens-fun-and-profit

It describes a bit better of a way, using the DAO, rather than the api. The benefits of the other method are summarized in a statement 1/3 of the way through:

Quote

You'll also notice that we were able to process all the contacts in bulk with a single query - much faster than calling the api once per contact!

.

xavier · June 25, 2012, 09:58:33 am

@jimurl,

Agree, better. The best would be that the api is able to handle a list of ids beside a single id. Would avoid that your token brakes if the underlying DAO does.

Do you think you could make it happen?

X+

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Author Topic: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous? (Read 1089 times)

jimurl

placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?

xavier

Re: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?

jimurl

Re: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?

xavier

Re: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?

Erik Hommel

Re: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?

jimurl

Re: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?

xavier

Re: placing api calls in civicrm_tokenValues - is this dangerous?