Question

I have two issues with my CakePHP application (its my first one in CakePHP). I am trying to convert an old php website to cake.

1.Issue

I have my controller that accepts a parameter $id, but the data is comming from joined tables so in the cookbook it had something like this

MY Controller
dish_categories_controller.php

class DishCategoriesController extends AppController {


    var $uses = array("DishCategory");
    var $hasOne ='';
    function get_categories($id)
    {

       $this->set('dishes',$this->DishCategory->find());
       $this->layout = 'master_layout';
    }   
  }

model

dish_category.php

class DishCategory extends AppModel{

    var $name = 'DishCategory';

    var $hasOne = array(
            'Dish' => array(
              'className' => 'Dish',
              'conditions' => array('Dish.id' => '1'),
              'dependent' => true
                   )
           );
 }

As you can see the Dish.id=> ‘1’ is hard coded, how can make it dynamic there so that I pass a value and make it something like Dish.if =>$id ?.

So that was my first issue.

The second issue is related to the view

That model returns only one record, how can I make it so that it returns all and also how would I be able to loop through that, below the code in the view currently and the array format.

This is in my view

 <?php
         echo $dishes['DishCategory']['category_info'];
         echo $dishes['DishCategory']['category_title'];
         echo $dishes['Dish']['dish_name'];
         echo $dishes['Dish']['dish_image'];        
         echo $this->Html->image($dishes['Dish']['dish_image'], array('alt' => 'CakePHP'))


    ?>

Array Format

Array ( [DishCategory] => Array 
       ( [id] => 1 [category_name] => Appetizers 
         [category_keywords] => appetizer, appetizers 
         [category_title] => Our Side Dishes 
         [category_info] => Test Test

[dish_id] => 1 ) 
      [Dish] => Array ( [id] => 1 
                        [dish_name] => Rice 
                        [dish_disc] => The Best flavor ever 
                        [dish_price] => 2.90 [dish_image] => /img/rice_chicken.jpeg [dish_category_id] => 1 
[dish_price_label] => Delicious Arepa ) ) 

I would appreciate your help to help me understand how to better do this. Thank you.

Answer 1

Firstly, you DishCategoriesController has model properties, you can remove them. In your controller, you will set up the conditions for the find like so:

class DishCategoriesController extends AppController {

  function get_categories($id)
  { 
    // find category with a dish of $id
    $this->set('dishes', $this->DishCategory->find('all', array(
      'conditions' => array(
        'Dish.id' => $id
      )
    )));

    // set master layout
    $this->layout = 'master_layout';
  }   

}

Your DishCategory model will look very basic, you don’t need to hard code the relationship condition:

class DishCategory extends AppModel {

  /**
   * hasOne associations
   *
   * @var array
   */
    public $hasOne = array(
        'Dish' => array(
            'className' => 'Dish',
            'foreignKey' => 'dish_category_id'
        )
    )
}

At this point it is worth noting that since the DishCategory hasOne Dish, using the above find query, it will only ever return a single result. But, it you were returning multiple results, you could loop through them in your view like so:

<?php foreach ($dishes as $key => $dish): ?>
  <?php var_dump($dish) ?>
<?php endforeach ?>