Question

Hey we have three tables in our database which are connected through two relationships which are Account and Invoices.

Accounts (id….)
Invoices (id, sender_id, receiver_id)
Relationships (id, sender_id, receiver_id)

Sender and receiver are both foreign keys which reference the account table so in cakePHP an account_id. The relationship table specifies relationships where invoices can be sent or received and the invoice table displays the invoices that have been sent.

How do we link both these foreign keys with Accounts in CakePHP?

Cake is finding there is a relationship and listing the receivers available to send an invoice to. At the moment its sending the right sender_id to the database but the sending the relationship_id to the database as the receiver_id in the invoice table.

Already gone through this but doesnt work: http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/associations-linking-models-together.html#hasandbelongstomany-habtm

Here is what we have for our two models:

Account model:

class Account extends AppModel{

    var $name='Account';
    public $useTable = 'accounts';
    public $primaryKey = 'id';
    var $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
        'User' =>
            array(
                'className'=>'User',
                )
            );
    var $hasMany = array(
        'Template' =>
            array(
                'className'=>'Template',
                'foreignKey'=>'account_id',     
            ),  
            'InvoiceRecieved' => array(
                'className'=>'Invoice',
                'foreignKey'=>'receiver_id',        
            ),
            'InvoiceSent' => array(
                'className'=>'Invoice',
                'foreignKey'=>'sender_id',      
            )

        );



    }

Invoice model:

class Invoice extends AppModel{ 
    var $name='Invoice'; 
    var $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
        'Field' =>
            array(
                'className'=>'Field',
                'joinTable'=>'fields_invoices'

                )
            );
    var $belongsTo = array(
            'Sender' => array(
            'className' => 'Account',
            'foreignKey' =>'account_id',
            ),
            'Receiver' => array(
            'className' => 'Account',
            'foreignKey' =>'receiver_id',
            )
        ); 

    public $useTable='invoices';
    public $primaryKey='id';

Invoice Controller:

 $accounts2=$this->User->AccountsUser->find('list', array(
            'fields'=>array('account_id'),'conditions' => array(
            'user_id' => $this->Auth->user('id'))));

    $accounts=$this->User->Relationship->find('list', array('fields'=>array('receiver_id'),'conditions' =>  array('sender_id' => $accounts2)));

if($this->request->is('post')){
        ($this->Invoice->set($this->request->data));
        //if($this->Invoice->validates(array('fieldList'=>array('receiver_id','Invoice.relationshipExists')))){

            $this->Invoice->save($this->request->data); 
            $this->Session->setFlash('The invoice has been saved');  
      }else { 
                $this->Session->setFlash('The invoice could not be saved. Please, try again.');
             }
    //}
     $this->set('accounts', $accounts); 
     $this->set('accounts2', $accounts2); 

Add view:

<?php
echo $this->Form->create('Invoice', array('action'=>'addinvoice'));
echo $this->Form->input('sender_id',array('label'=>'Sender: ', 'type' => 'select', 'options' => $accounts3));
echo $this->Form->input('receiver_id',array('label'=>'Receiver: ', 'type' => 'select', 'options' => $accounts));
echo $this->Form->end('Click here to submit Invoice');

?>

Answer 1

I don’t think you need a join table for invoices, and senders and receivers. You can store these foreign keys in your invoices table. Your relationships would then be:

<?php
class Invoice extends AppModel {

    public $belongsTo = array(
        'Sender' => array(
            'className' => 'Account',
            'foreignKey' => 'sender_id'
        ),
        'Receiver' => array(
            'className' => 'Account',
            'foreignKey' => 'receiver_id'
        )
    );
}

If you then need to distinguish invoices that have been sent or not, you could also add a column called status_id or similar, and store another foreign key to a new statuses table, with an ID column and name column, and the following sample data:

id name
== ====
1  Draft
2  Sent

And any other statuses you may need.