Question

I currently have two models: Product and Service. Both share the same table structure and the same methods. However, when I update one method, I’ll have to do the same with the other model. And it gets messy, not to mention I’m causing redundancy and it’s not the best practice available.

I know the models can be linked to the same table, so I’ll just have to add a $useTable = 'stuff' in the model and I could add a type field. However, I can’t figure out how to create a “parent” model since each model extends the AppModel.

To be fair, I know almost next to nothing about OOP, so I could be missing something very obvious and simple.

What I would do without knowing how to extend two children (Product and Service) to a parent (Stuff) would be something like:

$this->Stuff->type = 'product';
$products = $this->Stuff->findAvailable();

But I bet there’s a much simpler, cleaner approach.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Use a Behavior. As stated in the cookbook:

Model behaviors are a way to organize some of the functionality defined in CakePHP models. They allow us to separate logic that may not be directly related to a model, but needs to be there. By providing a simple yet powerful way to extend models, behaviors allow us to attach functionality to models by defining a simple class variable. That’s how behaviors allow models to get rid of all the extra weight that might not be part of the business contract they are modeling, or that is also needed in different models and can then be extrapolated.

http://book.cakephp.org/view/1071/Behaviors

The link should give you a pretty good idea of where to start.