Question

I have three tables. Two use a foreign key that pulls in data and one that displays the data.

My tables are like this:

department:
id: 1  name: illustration
id: 2  name  photography
etc...

type:
id: 1  name: ink
id: 2  name: charcoal
etc...

user:
id: 1 firstname: Fred    lastname: Flintstone
id: 2 firstname: Barney  lastname: Rubble
etc....

So I want to display the data in an order according to department with the type and user data in the row.

For instance:

Illustration
ink       Fred Flintstone
charcoal  Fred Flintstone
painting  Fred Flintstone

Photography
ink      Barney Rubble
painting Barney Rubble

What I have so far works, but I think it can be executed much better. This is whatI have that works:

apps/frontend/modules/foo/actions/actions.class.php

public function executeIndex(sfWebRequest $request)
  {
    $this->illustration = Doctrine_Core::getTable('User')
      ->createQuery('a')
      ->where('a.department_id = 1')
      ->execute();

    $this->photography = Doctrine_Core::getTable('User')
      ->createQuery('a')
      ->where('a.department_id = 2')
      ->execute();
 }

And in the index
apps/frontend/modules/foo/templates/indexSuccess.php

<?php foreach ($illustration as $user): ?>
      <tr>
        <td class="displayDept" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getDepartment() ?></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <?php foreach ($illustration as $user): ?>
    <tr>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getType() ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getUrl() ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo simple_format_text($user->getDescription()) ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getDateTimeObject('created_at')->format('m/d/Y') ?></td>
    </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>

   <?php endforeach; ?>
     <tr>
    <?php foreach ($photography as $me): ?>
    <tr>
        <td class="displayDept" valign="top"><?php echo $me->getDepartment() ?></td>
    </tr>
    <?php foreach ($photography as $me): ?>
    <tr>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $me->getType() ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $me->getUrl() ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo simple_format_text($me->getDescription()) ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $me->getDateTimeObject('created_at')->format('m/d/Y') ?></td>
    </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
     <?php endforeach; ?>

Now, this works, but what if the department list gets really long. That means I have to make a new database query in the actions and use the foreach option in the indexSuccess.php file.

Is there a way to pull all of the department data with a WHERE option on the subsequent data in the row?

UPDATE

Here is the schema, which I think is pretty close to what @ManseUK suggested:

Department:
 actAs: { Timestampable: ~ }
 columns:
  id: { type: integer(4), primary: true, autoincrement: true }
  name: { type: string(255), notnull: true, unique: true }

Type:
 actAs: { Timestampable: ~ }
 columns:
  id: { type: integer(4), primary: true, autoincrement: true }
  name: { type: string(255), notnull: true, unique: true }
  user_id: { type: integer(4) }

User:
 actAs: { Timestampable: ~ }
 columns:
  id: { type: integer(4), primary: true, autoincrement: true }
  firstname: { type: string(255), notnull: true }
  lastname: { type: string(255), notnull: true }
  email: { type: string(255), notnull: true, unique: true }
  department_id: { type: integer(4), notnull: true }
  type_id: { type: integer(4), notnull: true }
  url: { type: string(255), notnull:true }
  description: { type: string(4000) }
 relations:
  Department: { class: Department, local: department_id, foreign: id }
  Type: { class: Type, local: type_id, foreign: id, foreignAlias: Users }

Answer 1

Without seeing your schema.yml its difficult to say – but if you have setup the aliases within the schema correctly then you should be able to do something like :

actions.php

public function executeIndex(sfWebRequest $request)
{
    $this->departments = Doctrine_Core::getTable('departments')
      ->findAll(); 
    // returns all departments or you could change this to just select departments by name / id
}

indexSuccess.php

<?php foreach ($departments as $dept): ?>
      <tr>
        <td class="displayDept" valign="top"><?php echo $dept->getName() ?></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <?php foreach ($dept->getUsers() as $user): ?>
    <tr>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getType() ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getUrl() ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo simple_format_text($user->getDescription()) ?></td>
      <td class="displayInfo" valign="top"><?php echo $user->getDateTimeObject('created_at')->format('m/d/Y') ?></td>
    </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
   <?php endforeach; ?>

schema.yml

Department:
  columns:
    id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
      autoincrement: true
    name: String(25)
Type:
  columns:
    id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
      autoincrement: true
    name: String(25)
User:
  columns:
    id:
      type: integer
      primary: true
      autoincrement: true
    firstname: string(25)
    lastname: string(25)
    department: integer
    type: integer
    relations:
      Department:
        class: Department
        local: department
        foreign: id
        foreignAlias: Users
      Type:
        class: Type
        local: type
        foreign: id
        foreignAlias: Users

The foreignAlias param is the key here – it specifics the relationship name between tables – allowing you to call $dept->getUsers() – which returns all users for a specific department