Custom methods with Jamie Rumbelow's MY_Model

[eluser]RMinor[/eluser]
Hello, I am refactoring my models to use Jamie Rumbelow's MY_Model. I've run into a snag with some custom methods that need to be called when inserting a record. I am modifying my model that adds information about a photo album. Each time an album is created I want to create a unique code (for the mobile application to upload to it), save the title as a slug, insert dynamically created local and GMT timestamps based on the user's input of date and time, and insert create and update timestamps. I can see from his book how to do the create and update timestamps, but how would I do the rest? How do I pass the user's title to the create_slug method. How would I use the create_timestamp method on insert? My model is below:

Code:

<?php

class Album_model extends MY_Model {

public $belongs_to = array('profile');

public $has_many = array('photo');

public $validation = array(
  array('field' => 'title', 'label' => 'Title', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'description', 'label' => 'Description', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'date', 'label' => 'Date', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'time', 'label' => 'Time', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'city', 'label' => 'City', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'state', 'label' => 'State', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'zip_code', 'label' => 'Zip Code', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'private', 'label' => 'Private', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
  array('field' => 'mobile_uploads', 'label' => 'Mobile Uploads', 'rules' => 'trim|required'),
);

public $before_create = array('create_timestamps', 'create_slug');

public $before_update = array('update_timestamps');

public function __construct() {
  parent::__construct();
}

/**
  * Method to insert timestamps
  * @param type $row
  * @return type
  */
protected function create_timestamps($row) {
  $row['created_at'] = $row['updated_at'] = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
  return $row;
}

/**
  * Method to update timestamp
  * @param type $row
  * @return type
  */
protected function update_timestamps($row) {
  $row['updated_at'] = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
  return $row;
}

/**
  * Method to create an album slug
  * @param string $title - This is the user input title, how would I use this properly here
  * @return string
  */
protected function create_slug($row, $title) {
  $row['slug'] = url_title($title, '-', true);
  return $row;
}

  
/**
  * Method to create a mobile application album code
  * @param integer $length
  * @return string
  */
protected function create_mobile_code($length = 6) {
  $album_code = '';
  $possible = "2346789bcdfghjkmnpqrtvwxyzBCDFGHJKLMNPQRTVWXYZ";
  $max_length = strlen($possible);
  if ($length > $max_length) {
   $length = $max_length;
  }
  $i = 0;
  while ($i < $length) {
   $character = substr($possible, mt_rand(0, $max_length-1), 1);
   if (!strstr($album_code, $character)) {
    $album_code .= $character;
    $i++;
   }
  }
  $this->db->select('album_code');
  $this->db->where('album_code', $album_code);
  $query = $this->db->get('album');
  if ($query->num_rows == 0) {
   return $album_code;
  } else {
   $this->create_mobile_code();
  }
}

/**
  * Method to create a MySQL timestamp (local and GMT) to be used by the mobile application
  * @param string $date
  * @param string $time
  * @ return string
  */
protected function create_album_timestamp($date, $time) {
  if (!$date || !$time) {
   return '';
  }
  $pm = strrpos($time, 'PM');
  if ($pm === FALSE) {
   $parts = explode(':', $time);
   $hour = $parts[0];
   switch ($hour) {
    case '0':
     $hour = '00';
     break;
    case '1':
     $hour = '01';
     break;
    case '2':
     $hour = '02';
     break;
    case '3':
     $hour = '03';
     break;
    case '4':
     $hour = '04';
     break;
    case '5':
     $hour = '05';
     break;
    case '6':
     $hour = '06';
     break;
    case '7':
     $hour = '07';
     break;
    case '8':
     $hour = '08';
     break;
    case '9':
     $hour = '09';
     break;
   }
   $more_parts = explode(' ', $parts[1]);
   $new_time = $hour . ':' . $more_parts[0] . ':00';
   $timestamp = $date . ' ' . $new_time;
  } else {
   $parts = explode(':', $time);
   $hour = $parts[0] + 12;
   $more_parts = explode(' ', $parts[1]);
   $new_time = $hour . ':' . $more_parts[0] . ':00';
   $timestamp = $date . ' ' . $new_time;
  }
  return strtotime($timestamp);
}

/**
  * Method to create an album
  *
  * In the future we may want to store both local timestamps and GMT
  * timestamps
  *
  * @param array $create_array
  * @param int $user_id
  * @return int or boolean
  */
public function create($create_array, $user_id) {
  if (!is_numeric($user_id)) {
   throw new Exception('The user id must be an integer.');
  }
  $album_code = $this->create_mobile_code();
  $slug = url_title($create_array['album_title'], '-', TRUE);
  $defaults = array(
   'title'    => '',
   'slug'    => $slug,
   'description'  => '',
   'date'    => '',
   'time'    => '',
   'city'    => '',
   'state'  => '',
   'zip_code'   => '',
   'local_timestamp' => '',
   'gmt_timestamp'  => '',
   'mobile_code'  => $album_code,
   'profile_id'  => $user_id,
   'private'   => '',
   'mobile_uploads' => '',
  );
  $data = array_merge($defaults, $create_array);
  $data['local_timestamp'] = $this->_convertTime($create_array['album_date'], $create_array['album_time']);
  $data['gmt_timestamp'] = gmdate($this->_convertTime($create_array['album_date'], $create_array['album_time']));
  $this->db->insert('album', $data);
  if ($this->db->affected_rows() == 1) {
   return $slug;
  }
  return FALSE;
}
}