Working with JSON

JSON is a very simple, compact, and therefore widely used format for AJAX application's data exchange. Yii has a few handy ways to work with it. Therefore, let's create a simple application that will show a news list and update it every two seconds.

Getting ready

1. Create a new application by using the yiic webapp tool.

2. Create and set up a new database.

3. Add a table named news with at least id, created_on, and title fields, as shown in the following code:

   CREATE TABLE `news` (`id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,`created_on` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,`title` varchar(255) NOT NULL,PRIMARY KEY (`id`))

4. Generate a News model using Gii.

How to do it...

1. Create a new controller named protected/controllers/NewsController.php as follows:

   <?php
   class NewsController extends Controller
   {
      public function filters()
      {
         return array(
            'ajaxOnly + data',
         );
      }
   
      public function actionIndex()
      {
         $this->render('index');
      }
   
      public function actionData...