Migrating from Grocery CRUD

Grocery CRUD renders HTML CRUD pages; Grocery Restable exposes the same definitions as a REST API (your front end can be anything). The definition API is kept, so most controller code can be moved almost verbatim.

Before / after

Grocery CRUD (CodeIgniter 3):

public function employees_management()
{
    $crud = new grocery_CRUD();
    $crud->set_theme('datatables');
    $crud->set_table('employees');
    $crud->set_relation('officeCode', 'offices', 'city');
    $crud->display_as('officeCode', 'Office City');
    $crud->set_subject('Employee');
    $crud->required_fields('lastName');
    $crud->set_field_upload('file_url', 'assets/uploads/files');
    $output = $crud->render();
    $this->_example_output($output);
}

Grocery Restable (CodeIgniter 4, Grocery CRUD style controller):

use GroceryRestable\CodeIgniter4\Libraries\GroceryRestable;

public function employees(string ...$segments)
{
    $crud = new GroceryRestable();
    $crud->set_table('employees');
    $crud->set_relation('officeCode', 'offices', 'city');
    $crud->display_as('officeCode', 'Office City');
    $crud->set_subject('Employee');
    $crud->required_fields('lastName');
    $crud->set_field_upload('file_url', 'files');      // relative to writable/grocery-restable/uploads
    return $crud->render($segments);                     // JSON API instead of HTML
}

app/Config/Routes.php

\GroceryRestable\CodeIgniter4\Routes::resource($routes, 'crud/employees', 'Examples::employees');   // keep it outside the built-in /api prefix

Or, preferably, define it once in app/Config/GroceryRestable.php ($api->resource('employees')->…) and use the built-in /api routes. Remember to grant permissions (->setPermissions() / ->public()), see Authentication.

Method mapping

Grocery CRUD	Grocery Restable	Notes
set_table	setTable
set_subject	setSubject
set_primary_key($field, $table)	setPrimaryKey
columns, unset_columns	columns, unsetColumns	list output; relation names embed by default
fields, add_fields, edit_fields	same (camelCase)	writable fields
unset_fields, unset_add_fields, unset_edit_fields	same
set_read_fields, unset_read_fields	setReadFields, unsetReadFields	single record output
display_as	displayAs	labels in errors, _schema, OpenAPI
required_fields, unique_fields	same
set_rules($field, $label, $rules)	setRules	same argument order supported
field_type / change_field_type	fieldType	hidden, invisible, readonly, password, enum, set, true_false, integer, date, …
set_relation	setRelation	$where as array preferred; raw SQL only in code
set_relation_n_n	setRelationNtoN	writes via the relation name in the body
—	setRelationHasMany	new
set_field_upload	setFieldUpload	stored outside the web root by default; optional max size
unset_add, unset_edit, unset_delete, unset_read/unset_view, unset_list, unset_export	same	405 when disabled
unset_clone, set_clone	same	clone is disabled by default
unset_operations	same	read-only resource
unset_print	no-op
where, or_where, like, or_like	same	applied to reads, updates and deletes; no raw SQL / $escape
order_by	orderBy	default order
limit	limit	default page size
callback_before_insert … callback_delete	same (camelCase)	extra trailing AuthContext argument
callback_before_clone, callback_after_clone	same
callback_column	callbackColumn	output transformation
callback_before_upload, callback_after_upload, callback_upload	same	see uploads docs for arguments
callback_field, callback_add_field, callback_edit_field, callback_read_field	—	form rendering is the client’s job; use _schema metadata
add_action	addAction	a real endpoint POST /{resource}/{id}/actions/{name}
set_theme, set_language, set_lang_string, unset_jquery*, unset_texteditor, set_crud_url_path	—	HTML specific
render()	render($segments)	returns a JSON response
getState()	—	the HTTP method and path define the operation

Behaviour differences

• Validation returns 422 with per-field messages instead of re-rendering a form.
• Unknown fields are errors (Grocery CRUD silently ignored them).
• Uploads are validated for extension and real content; executables are always refused; files live in writable/grocery-restable/uploads and are downloaded through GET /{resource}/{id}/file/{field}.
• Relations are embedded on request (select=*,offices(city)), not flattened into a display string; the title template is used by /_options/{field} for dropdowns.
• Security: nothing is public until you grant permissions or configure an authentication mode — there is no page protected by “the controller’s login check” unless you add a CodeIgniter filter.