Question

Using CakePHP 1.3 I’m trying to save some data to a MySQL database. The data doesn’t come from a form, but to imitate it I put the data in the $this -> data array like this:

$this -> data = Array (
                         'User' => Array (
                                            'last_login' => date ('Y-m-d H:i:s')
                                         )
                      );

This creates an array that looks exactly like the default Cake data array. So far so good.

Next, I call the following function:

if ($this -> User -> save ($this -> data))
{
   echo $this -> User -> id;
}
else
{
   echo 'Save failed';
}

It always comes up with ‘Save failed’, showing the data wasn’t saved correctly. I tried to debug this in a variety of ways:

I checked whether a beforeSave or beforeValidate function existed in my User model or AppModel and whether these return true. (They did.)

I echoed $this -> Session -> flash () in default.ctp. It doesn’t say anything.

I echoed $this -> element ('sql_dump') in default.ctp. I don’t see any sign of the query I expect, confirming my expectation of the query not executing instead of just failing.

From my controller I echoed $this -> validationErrors. It’s empty so validation seems to be ok.

I tried to provide the correct index in my $this -> data array for the save, like this:

$this -> User -> save ($this -> data['User']);

I checked whether I loaded my User model via $this -> loadModel ('User') (I did).

Note that I try to do this in my AppController (that’s why I loaded the model manually). More specifically: it’s in the beforeFilter () function in the AppController. This function is called in the beforeFilter () function in every other Controller my application has (I checked this).

At the moment, I don’t know what could cause this. Does anyone have an idea about this?

Answer 1

You’re not specifying the User id before you save, so CakePHP has no idea what row to save the date to. In effect, you’re asking CakePHP to just save a date, without specifying where. I am away from my webdev box right now, but I believe this is what you’re looking for.

if( ! isset( $this->User->id ) ) {
    $this->User->create();
}
$this->User->saveField('last_login', date(DATE_ATOM));

See this page for more information. BTW, if you want to do it the way you were originally doing it, I think this is the way:

if( ! isset( $this->User->id ) ) {
        $this->User->create();
        $myId = $this->User->getLastInsertID();
} else {
  $myId = $this->User->id;
}

$this -> data = Array (
      'User' => Array (
      'id' => $myId
      'last_login' => date ('Y-m-d H:i:s')
   )
);

if ($this -> User -> save ($this -> data))
{
   echo $this -> User -> id;
}
else
{
   echo 'Save failed';
}