Question

I have the following tables:

• administrators
• properties
• administrators_properties

Controller files are titled:

• administrators_controller.php
• properties_controller.php
• administrators_properties_controller.php

Model files are titled:

• administrator.php
• property.php
• administrators_property.php

I’m having trouble understanding the singular/plural naming convention for the joined model name. (Or could the problem be with the controller? Maybe administrator_properties_controller.php?)

Any obvious issue come to mind?

Answer 1

If you have troubles understanding how to pluralize or singularize words, use inflector:
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-utility-libraries/inflector.html

If you are using CakePHP 2.X, your naming is wrong. You should read about CakePHP naming conventions on the cookbook:
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/getting-started/cakephp-conventions.html

Tables:

Table names corresponding to CakePHP models are plural and underscored.

Join tables:

Join tables, used in hasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM) relationships between models should be named after the model tables they will join in alphabetical order (apples_zebras rather than zebras_apples).

Controllers:

Controller classnames are plural, CamelCased, and end in Controller. PeopleController and LatestArticlesController are both examples of conventional controller names.

Models:

Model classnames are singular and CamelCased. Person, BigPerson, and ReallyBigPerson are all examples of conventional model names.

In your case your tables are ok. About the rest:

Controllers should be: AdministratorsController.php, PropertiesController.php, AdministratorsPropertiesController.php

Models should be: Administrator.php, Property.php, AdministratorsProperty.php