Question

I have the following relationships set up:

Teacher:

    var $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
    'Classroom' => array(
        'className' => 'Classroom',
        'joinTable' => 'classrooms_teachers',
        'foreignKey' => 'teacher_id',
        'associationForeignKey' => 'classroom_id',
        'unique' => true,
    )
);

Classroom:

    var $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
    'Teacher' => array(
        'className' => 'Teacher',
        'joinTable' => 'classrooms_teachers',
        'foreignKey' => 'classroom_id',
        'associationForeignKey' => 'teacher_id',
        'unique' => true,
    )
);  

var $hasMany = array(
'Student' => array(
        'className' => 'Student',
        'foreignKey' => 'classroom_id',
        'dependent' => false,
    ),
);

Student:

    var $belongsTo = array(
    'Classroom' => array(
        'className' => 'Classroom',
        'foreignKey' => 'classroom_id',
    ),
  );

I am trying to create a dashboard for the teachers, where all students associated with the teacher through the classroom are displayed.

I am using the following find operation:

    $students = $this->Teacher->Classroom->find('all', array(
                                        'conditions' => array('Classroom.teacher_id' => $this->Access->getTeacherId()),
    ));

However, I am getting an error: Unknown column 'Classroom.teacher_id' in 'where clause'

I must be doing something wrong because cake is not doing the associations.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

That’s not the best way. Just use containable and find(‘first’), you don’t need find all:

$students = $this->Teacher->find('first', array(
       'conditions' => array('Teacher.id' => $this->Access->getTeacherId()),
       'contain' => array('Classroom'=>array('Student'))
));

That will get you all the classrooms associated with the teacher, and all students in those classrooms.