CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I use to be able to so this:

         $params = array(
            'name'      => 'locationType',
            'version'   => 3
         );

         $j2c_system_location_types = civicrm_api('constant','get', $params);


To get location type values.

However, with latest civicrm 4.4.3 I am getting an error code returned:
Unknown civicrm constant or method not callable

Yes, the constant api is deprecated in 4.3 and probably broken in 4.4. See https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/API+changes#APIchanges-4.3.0:DeprecateConstantAPI

thanks for info.

now how can i figure out what the pseudoconstant name usage is for locationType ?

Did you click the documentation link?
In a nutshell we are moving away from hardcoded references to pseudoconstant names in our code. Now you can just ask the api for the option list associated with any field and it will give it to you. No more having to know magic names like "pcm" or "individual_prefix".

yup, i did click and i did read the wiki. that is how i found the term pseudoconstant.

the single example makes reference to a gender_id field and the following code:

civicrm_api3('contact', 'getoptions', array('field' => 'gender_id'));

so first not so clear conclusion is that if i use _api3 instead of _api, i don't need to add a version => 3 element in the params array.

would love to see were this is mentioned in the wiki :-)

second not so clear conclusion is that the first var in the api function call (as in the example case 'contact') refers to a civicrm database table (the contact table) and the gender_id is a column name in this table that references a field that gets option values.

with this conclusion I was able to come up with the following code to replace the depreciated function call usage:

         $params = array(
            'field'      => 'location_type_id',
            'version'   => 3
         );
         $j2c_system_location_types = civicrm_api('address', 'getoptions', $params);

or even

         $params = array(
            'field'      => 'location_type_id',
            'version'   => 3
         );
         $j2c_system_location_types = civicrm_api('email', 'getoptions', $params);

Maybe you can point me to some documentation that would make this clearer for others not that familiar with civi development and api and if not maybe i can help improve the existing references for others.

Thanks again for your response.