Rows from a database table should have the possibility to be instantiated as different types of objects depending on the values in the database row. Currently Zend_Db_Table_Abstract and Zend_Db_Table_Rowset_Abstract do not enable it.

I suggest that a protected method called getRowClass(array $data = array()) is added to both the _Table and Rowset abstract classes.

The methods to be modified are the following (changes made against ZF 1.7.2): -Zend_Db_Table_Abstract -- public function createRow(array $data = array(), $defaultSource = null) Replace lines

@Zend_Loader::loadClass($this->_rowClass);
$row = new $this->_rowClass($config);

With

$className = $this->_getRowClass($data);
$row = new $className($config);

-- public function fetchRow($where = null, $order = null) Replace lines

@Zend_Loader::loadClass($this->_rowClass);
return new $this->_rowClass($data);

With

$className = $this->_getRowClass($rows[0]);
return new $className($data);

-Zend_Db_Table_Rowset_Abstract -- public function current() Replace lines

$this->_rows[$this->_pointer] = new $this->_rowClass(
  array(
    'table'    => $this->_table,
    'data'     => $this->_data[$this->_pointer],
    'stored'   => $this->_stored,
    'readOnly' => $this->_readOnly
  )
);

With

$className = $this->_getRowClass($this->_data[$this->_pointer]); // Find the correct class name
$this->_rows[$this->_pointer] = new $className(
  array(
    'table'    => $this->_table,
    'data'     => $this->_data[$this->_pointer],
    'stored'   => $this->_stored,
    'readOnly' => $this->_readOnly
  )
);

Both Zend_Db_Table_Abstract and Zend_Db_Table_Rowset_Abstract should contain the following method, which then can be overridden in inheriting classes.

/**
 * Returns a string matching the class name for this data. Default implementation returns the classname
 * given in ROW_CLASS configuration option.
 * @param array $data
 * @return string Name of the class matching the given data.
*/
protected function _getRowClass(array $data = array())
{
  @Zend_Loader::loadClass($this->_rowClass);
  return $this->_rowClass;
}