Question

I’ve run through the Cakephp documentation on linking models together (creating associations), and I can get a single select dropdown in the scaffolded add and edit views by defining a $hasOne member one model and a corresponding $belongsTo in the other. Now, for a $hasMany relationship, I’m trying to get some kind of form input (either a multi-select dropdown, or checkboxes … preferably checkboxes) in my scaffolded add and edit views that lets the user choose the associated advertisements for a given rental. But with the below code I get no mention of Advertisements in the Rental add and edit views :'( Am I missing something? Is this even possible? I’ve seen this done in RoR and Grails but can’t get it working with CakePHP. Thanks for any help!

Rental model (app/Model/Rental.php)

<?php
class Rental extends AppModel {
    var $name = 'Rental';             
    var $belongsTo = array(
        'Agent' => array(
            'className'    => 'User',
            'foreignKey'    => 'agent_id'
        ),
        'Bedroom',
        'Landlord' => array(
            'className'    => 'Landlord',
            'foreignKey'    => 'landlord_id'
        )
    );  
    var $hasMany = array(
        'Advertisement' => array(
            'className'     => 'Advertisement',
            'foreignKey'    => 'rental_id',
            //'conditions'    => array('Comment.status' => '1'),
            'order'    => 'Advertisement.created DESC',
            'limit'        => '5',
            'dependent'=> false
        )
    );

    public $validate = array(
        'title' => array(
            'rule' => 'notEmpty'
        ),
        'description' => array(
            'rule' => 'notEmpty'
        )
    );

    public function isOwnedBy($rental, $user) {
        return $this->field('id', array('id' => $rental, 'user_id' => $user)) === $rental;
    }
}

Rentals Controller (app/Controller/RentalsController.php)

<?php
class RentalsController extends AppController {
    public $scaffold;
}

Advertisement model (app/Model/Advertisement.php)

<?php
class Advertisement extends AppModel {
    var $name = 'Advertisement';                   
    var $belongsTo = array(
        'Rental' => array(
            'className'    => 'Rental',
            'foreignKey'    => 'rental_id'
        ),
        'Author' => array(
            'className'    => 'User',
            'foreignKey'    => 'author_id'
        )
    ); 
}

Advertisements Controller (app/Controller/AdvertiesementsController.php)

<?php
class AdvertisementsController extends AppController {
    public $scaffold;
}

Answer 1

Cake’s scaffold views don’t show anything from the hasMany side of the relationship. They assume you want to pick it from the model that has the belongsTo.

Frankly, doing it as a multi-select is a little odd for this relationship, IMHO. Multi-selects are normally used for hasAndBelongsToMany relationships. If you want to do it, you’ll need to do the work yourself, and not use Cake’s scaffolding.