Question

So, for some reason, anything I do to data in the beforeSave callback, though it works on single records, does not work when using saveMany.

What gives? If I do the following:

public function beforeSave() {
    $this->data['foo'] = 'bar'
    die($this->data);
}

I can see that in fact $this->data does DOES get changed, but saveMany just ignores it and saves the original data instead.

Answer 1

Make sure you include the model name when manipulating $this->data, e.g. $this->data[‘Event’][‘foo’] = bar. Be sure the method returns true as well or the save will fail.

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Edit

I whipped up a quick example and it seems to be working for me, see the code below. My suspicion is that maybe you are calling saveMany incorrectly and passing it the whole $this->request->data object but it’s hard to guess without seeing your call as well.

View

<?php echo $this->Form->create('ParentTable'); ?>
    Record 1: <br />
    <?php echo $this->Form->input('ParentTable.0.name'); ?>

    Record 2: <br />
    <?php echo $this->Form->input('ParentTable.1.name'); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->end('Submit'); ?>

Controller

public function index() {
    if ($this->request->data) {
        $this->ParentTable->saveMany($this->request->data['ParentTable']);
    }
}

Model

public function beforeSave() {
    $this->data['ParentTable']['name'] .= ' modified';
    return true;
}