Question

I will be blunt, I need the model list to be built from this special select:

SELECT * FROM posts p WHERE p.user_id IN
    (SELECT u.id FROM users u, following f
        WHERE u.id = f.followee_id AND f.follower_id = $id)
    ORDERED BY p.created
    LIMIT $limit;

Is it possible to put this as a function into the model? I am quite new to CakePHP, I must admit.

I can’t use the find functions here because then the posts wouldn’t be properly “mixed”.

Answer 1

Yes, you can add your own method to the Model class that will execute the query you write.
But don’t forget to sanitize your input (it is not done automatically when you write your own queries) and to add table prefixes.

App::import('Sanitize');    

class YourModel extends AppModel {

  public function specialSelect($id, $limit) {
    $id = Sanitize::paranoid($id); // or use (int) to convert it to integer
    $limit = Sanitize::paranoid($limit);

    return $this->query(
      'SELECT * FROM '.$this->tablePrefix.'posts p WHERE p.user_id IN '.
      '(SELECT u.id FROM '.$this->tablePrefix.'.users u, '.$this->tablePrefix.'.following f '.
         'WHERE u.id = f.followee_id AND f.follower_id = '.$id.') '.
      'ORDER BY p.created LIMIT '.$limit
    );
  }

}