CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpmodelcakephp-2.0saving-data
Todd
Todd

Reputation: 5454

cakephp saving data for a related model's related model (not typo)

I've run into a bit of a problem saving data in cake php.

here are the models/relationships.

I am in a view for creating new district, in which I've allowed the user to create multiple new departments. while creating each department, the user may create multiple groups for that dept. Now the trouble is I'm unsure of how to save the group data.

for each department that is created on the fly, im using the multiple index method for the inputs (i.e. "Department.0.name", Department.0.type) so this will be a cinch to save using the saveAll method. However, for each group that is created, i will need a department_id, and since none of the District's departments have yet been saved, they don't have an id. how can i save this new district's data, saving the new departments, and their associated new created groups? is there a way that i can address the name attribute of the group inputs that will create the proper association, something like "Department.0.Group.0.name", for instance?

Thanks in advance!!! if anything is unclear, please don't hesitate to say so, I'll be glad to rephrase.

Upvotes: -2

Views: 2283

Answers (1)

Andrew Senner
Andrew Senner

Reputation: 2509

What does your POST data array look like?

<?php

debug($this->data);

?>

If it is not in the correct format, the associated models won't get saved.. Cake knows to grab the "lastInsertId()" of the models which haven't been saved yet, so you don't have to worry about those... What i'm not sure about, and the docs don't really go into, is how deep the save goes. The example provided is as follows:

$this->data =
Array
(
    [Article] => Array
        (
            [title] => My first article
        )
    [Comment] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [comment] => Comment 1
                    [user_id] => 1
                )
            [1] => Array
                (
                    [comment] => Comment 2
                    [user_id] => 2
                )
       )
)

$this->Article->saveAll($this->data);

This is the correct structure (cakephp 1.3) for saving associated models of a 'hasMany' relationship, but i'm not sure if it goes any deeper than one child.

One thing that comes to my mind is to build the array according to the format above, but leave the parent model out. Then manually save the parent model data, grab the ::getLastInsertId(); then do a saveAll on departments and groups.

[UPDATE] I just tested your theory and it will work the way you intend.

<?php

echo $this->Form->input('Department.0.Group.0.name');

?>

Will produce:

<input name="data[Department][0][Group][0][name]" type="text" id="Department0Group0name">

[UPDATE 2] I did some exploring in lib/Cake/Model/Model.php and found this:

<?php
...

public function saveAssociated($data = null, $options = array()) {
    ...
    ... // code omitted.
    ...
    if ($options['deep']) {  // This will recurse infinitely through all associations
        $saved = $this->{$association}->saveAssociated($values, array_merge($options, array('atomic' => false)));
    }
    ...
    ...
    ... // code omitted.
...
?>

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions