Question

Perhaps an example would best describe my problem:

Schema:

Referral:
  actAs:                            { timestampable: ~ }
  columns:
    id:                             { type: integer, primary: true, notnull: true, autoincrement: true, unique: true }  
    other_stuff:                    { type: string }  
    reasonCode:                     { type: integer }    
  relations:   
    ReasonCode:                     { local: reasonCode, foreign: id, foreignAlias: ReasonCodes }  

ReasonCode:
  columns:
    id:                             { type: integer, primary: true, notnull: true, autoincrement: true, unique: true }
    description:                    { type: string }

Query (referralTable.class.php):

    public function getObjectByReferralId($id){
        $q = Doctrine_Query::create()
            ->select('*')
            ->from('referral_submissions')
            ->where('referral_id=?', $id)
            ->fetchOne();
        return $q;   
    }

Call in template:

<?php 
$id = <source of id>;
echo Doctrine_Core::getTable('referral')->getObjectByReferralId($id)->getReasonCode();
 ?>

The above call in the template to get the reasoncode returns the “description” stored in the ReasonCode table, not the stored id in the Referral table. I need the actual id, not the joined description. What am I missing?

Answer 1

It’s confusing because you named your foreign key with the name of your relation. So when you think you are getting the key, you fetch the relation. And I guess Doctrine do not retrieve the primary key since there is only one field in your ReasonCode table, so it returns the description field.

Try with :

Doctrine_Core::getTable('referral')
  ->getObjectByReferralId($id)
  ->get('reasonCode');

By the way, you also can retrieve the id using the relation:

Doctrine_Core::getTable('referral')
  ->getObjectByReferralId($id)
  ->getReasonCode()
  ->getId();

I think you should define your foreign key like : reason_code_id instead of reason_code. Then your schema will become:

Referral:
  actAs:                            { timestampable: ~ }
  columns:
    id:                             { type: integer, primary: true, notnull: true, autoincrement: true, unique: true }  
    other_stuff:                    { type: string }  
    reasonCode_id:                  { type: integer }    
  relations:   
    ReasonCode:                     { local: reasonCode_id, foreign: id, foreignAlias: ReasonCodes } 

And you will be able to retrieve the id using:

Doctrine_Core::getTable('referral')
  ->getObjectByReferralId($id)
  ->getReasonCodeId();