Yii: Submit a value to different model

Question

Here's a newbie question related to my latest exercise with Yii Framework.

I have a following structure in the database:

CREATE TABLE location(
      id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
      location TEXT);
CREATE TABLE parameter(
      id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
      name TEXT,
      value TEXT);
CREATE TABLE temperature(
      id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
      locationId INTEGER,
      value REAL NOT NULL,
      createDate DATETIME NOT NULL,
      FOREIGN KEY(locationId) REFERENCES location(id));
CREATE INDEX idx1_temperature ON temperature (createDate);

I'm trying to create a view containing both location data in a grid, but also a functionality to change a certain value in parameter-table. In practice I would have a list of all possible locations in a grid, in addition to a possibility to change the parameter.value where parameter.name="CURRENT_LOCATION".

What I've gotten so far is:

location/admin.php generating a view:

...
<h2>Change current location</h2>
<?php echo $this->renderPartial('_para', array('model'=>Parameter::model()->find('name="current_location"'))); ?>

<h2>Modify locations</h2>
<?php $this->widget('zii.widgets.grid.CGridView', array(
        'id'=>'location-grid',
        'dataProvider'=>$model->search(),
        'columns'=>array(
            'location',
            array(
                    'class'=>'CButtonColumn',
            ),
    ),
));
...

location/_para.php for embedding a form:

<?php
/* @var $this ParameterController */
/* @var $model Parameter */
/* @var $form CActiveForm */
?>

<div class="form">

<?php $form=$this->beginWidget('CActiveForm', array(
    'id'=>'parameter-form',
    'enableAjaxValidation'=>false,
)); ?>

    <?php echo $form->errorSummary($model); ?>

    <div class="row">
            <?php echo $form->labelEx($model,'value'); ?>
            <?php //echo $form->textField($model,'value'); ?>
            <?php echo $form->dropDownList($model,'value',CHtml::listData(Location::model()->findAll(), 'id', 'location')); ?>
            <?php echo $form->error($model,'value'); ?>
    </div>

    <div class="row buttons">
            <?php echo CHtml::submitButton('Save'); ?>
    </div>

<?php $this->endWidget(); ?>

</div><!-- form -->

So, what would need is to Save(=update) a given parameter-row, but I just seem not to get it right. I have debugged so far that it seems like the Submit Button causes the Location-controller's actionAdmin-function to be executed. That would be fine by me, if I just could instruct there to save the Parameter-record instead of the Location. Here's the actionAdmin-function from LocationController.php:

    public function actionAdmin()
    {

            $model=new Location('search');
            $model->unsetAttributes();  // clear any default values
            if(isset($_GET['Location']))
            {
                    $model->attributes=$_GET['Location'];
            }

            if(isset($_POST['Parameter']))
            {
                    $model->attributes=$_POST['Parameter'];
                    if($model->save())
                    {
                            $this->redirect(array('view','id'=>$model->id));
                    }
            }

            $this->render('admin',array(
                    'model'=>$model,
            ));
    }

I see a lot to posts covering multi model forms and such, but I just cannot get a grip on this. It may very well be that I'm trying to accomplish this in a totally wrong way. So, punch me to right direction, please.

Answer 1

Okay so, I think the best thing is to put the method for updating the Parameter in the ParameterController. That makes it easier to implement and is a bit cleaner.

So to do that, change the form code to this:

You might need to adjust the action in the form for it to work, e.g. /admin/parameter/update

<?php
/* @var $this ParameterController */
/* @var $model Parameter */
/* @var $form CActiveForm */
?>

<div class="form">

<?php $form=$this->beginWidget('CActiveForm', array(
    'id'=>'parameter-form',
    'enableAjaxValidation'=>false,
    // Check that the action method below is correct
    'action' => array('/parameter/update', 'id' => $model->id), 
)); ?>

    <?php echo $form->errorSummary($model); ?>

    <div class="row">
            <?php echo $form->labelEx($model,'value'); ?>
            <?php //echo $form->textField($model,'value'); ?>
            <?php echo $form->dropDownList($model,'value',CHtml::listData(Location::model()->findAll(), 'id', 'location')); ?>
            <?php echo $form->error($model,'value'); ?>
    </div>

    <div class="row buttons">
            <?php echo CHtml::submitButton('Save'); ?>
    </div>

<?php $this->endWidget(); ?>

</div><!-- form -->

If you have an existing update method in your ParameterController, see if it works as is. If it doesn't or you don't have the update method, try something like this:

public function actionUpdate($id)
{
    $model = Parameter::model()->findByPk($id);
    if(isset($_POST['Parameter']))
    {
        $model->attributes=$_POST['Parameter'];
        if($model->update())
        {
            // Below redirects to the previous URL
            $this->redirect(Yii::app()->request->urlReferrer);
        }
    }
}

I changed $model->save() to $model->update() because that won't call the validation rules and make it return false. If you want to validate for some reason, you will need to change the rule so that name and value are only required when creating a new parameter, like this:

array('name, value', 'required', 'on' => 'create'),

And then when you create your new Parameter, you would need to do $model = new Parameter('create');