Channel Entries API/Model: Get created Id or Entry by Field Name

Question

I hope that I can explain this succinctly. Platform is EE 2.10.1 (this is a sandbox, live version will be on 2.11.1).

I am working on an extension which is using Solspace's User Module's user_register_end hook. After entering the user to the member list, we need to process company information into the Companies channel.

I am achieving this by loading the channel entries and channel fields API and then calling the save_entry method:

ee()->load->library('api');
ee()->api->instantiate('channel_entries');
ee()->api->instantiate('channel_fields');

No problem so far. However, I need to process the information further and require the ID of the newly created company entry.

As far as I see, the save_entry method is only returning a success boolean - not the ID of the successfully created channel entry. First thought was to load the channel_entries_model to get the channel entry by field name. But get_entry only accepts the entry ID, which I don't have. Then I reckoned, I could use the get_recent_entries method of the channel_entries_model. However, when I run it I get the following error:

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice
Message: Undefined property: EE::$cp
Filename: core/Model.php
Line Number: 50
Fatal error: Call to a member function allowed_group() on a non-object in /var/www/html/system/expressionengine/models/channel_entries_model.php on line 189

How can I get the ID of the channel entry that has just been created through the API? I can create a custom query using Codeigniter - but would rather not.

Thanks for guidance and help.

Answer 1

Well, logically the last submitted insert query from the API is in the channel_data table. This tables Primary Key is entry_id, so you could try this CI command after you run the save_entry method:

$new_entry_id = ee()->db->insert_id();

Check to make sure it's returning the correct entry_id. I'm assuming this works within an execution cycle and uses a stored return in the database class and the insert_id method doesn't actually asynchronously retrieve that insert id via another SQL query. If it does retrieve it via a second query, you might run into collisions where two processes are spawned at near the same time and something like this happens:

process 1: save_entry
process 2: save_entry
process 1: insert_id (get's process 2's insert_id)
process 2: insert_id (get's process 2's insert_id);

Check the database class in CI core the database class to verify how the last inserted id is retrieved.

Ref: https://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/database/helpers.html

Edit

insert_id() uses this function: http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-insert-id.php

I think it should work fine for you. You can always do post data validation if you feel it's truly necessary, once you have your entry_id.

Edit

Try this after you save a new entry:

$new_entry_id = ee()->api_channel_entries->entry_id;