Rename 'Model' to 'Entity'

[gmosx]

...like in Hibernate. Or maybe something like 'PersistentObject' or just 'Persistent'.

[emilniklas]

Are there any reasons for this other than personal preference? I'm totally open for discussion, I just want there to be thought behind whatever name we choose. :grin:

[gmosx]

I think Model is a very generic word, it has nothing to do with persisting with a database. Also, it's kind-of like a plural, i.e. refers to a collection of e.g. Entities that comprise the model. I am not sure what's the right word, but I don't like Model that match.

(On the other hand, Gateway is a very interesting choice ;-))

[gmosx]

Btw, I think a great name would be 'Record' (instead of Model).

[emilniklas]

I've done some googling, and this is what I see most frequently: "data model" is a term used to describe data structures in OOP in association with the persistence layer. "entity" is a term used to describe the thing we're representing.

So this is what it looks like to me:

"To represent the User entity, we create a User model, which the ORM persists in the database."

So... if we assume this is the terminology most frequently used, what should we call the class...?

• Entity, because the class represents a logical entity in our app, or
• Model, because the User class in the entity, and the Model class just a mixin for our data model specifics.

I'm not sure!

[luisvt]

In JPA it is mainly used the name entity for the annotation that we put at the top of the class

@Entity
public class Person {
...
}

The pattern that @emilniklas is fallowing is different from JPA pattern. He is following the Laravel pattern, which makes every class to extend a Model class.

class Flight extends Model
{
    //
}

So that, in my opinion the name model should be kept.