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== Introduction ==

This tutorial assumes you are using [[Creating Views|views]] and [[DBObject|controls]] based on previous tutorial examples.

This guide will give you a brief overview of how you 
might manipulate batches of objects with your own custom 
functions. 

== Instance Functions ==

Since all pets play, we're going to add a function called 
“play” to our [[:Category:Control|Control]] [[DBObject]] “pet”. 

<pre>
	function play () { 
		// do some playful things 
		return ($this->PetName . “ the “ . $this->BreedName . 
		“  is playing\n”); 
	} 
</pre>

In a [[:Category:View|View]] Action, to play with our instance of pet we can simply do this: 

<pre>
	$Pet = new Pet (1); 
	echo $Pet->play (); 
</pre>

== Static Functions ==

We're going to need a function called “playAll” in our 
Control DBObject "Pet" that will execute the play function for all pets. 

<pre>
	static function playAll () { 
		$Pets = Pet::populate (); // get all pets 
		$return = ''; 
		// iterate through all instances of Pet in $Pets
		if (is_array ($Pets) && count ($Pets)) foreach ($Pets as $Pet) {
			// play with the current pet
			$return .= $Pet->play ();
		} 
		return $return; 
	} 
</pre>

From within a [[:Category:View|View]] Action, to play with all our pets we can simply do this: 

<pre>
	echo Pet::playAll ();
</pre>
[[Category:Control]]