Single Pagination on multiple models in cakephp - php

Question

My requirement is to search on 2 different tables : Vets and Clinics. There might be relation between them i.e result should fetch clinics have 'a' in name and vets having 'a' in them. Vets might be related to clinics or might not. Currently I'm doing the following. Is there any method to avoid running 2 queries which can also help me use the cakephp pagination helper?
$this->paginate = array(
'Vet' => array(
'conditions' => $conditions,
'fields' => array('Vet.id', 'Vet.name', 'Vet.professionnal_address', 'phone_number', 'Vet.email', 'Vet.type', 'Vet.latitude', 'Vet.longitude','Vet.city','Vet.clinic_id','Vet.zipcode'),
'joins' => array(
array(
'table' => 'vet_appointment_types',
'alias' => 'VetAppointmentType',
'type' => 'LEFT',
'conditions' => array(
'Vet.id = VetAppointmentType.vet_id',
)
)
),
'limit' => $limit,
'group' => array(
'Vet.id'
),
'order' => array(
'Vet.name' => 'ASC'
)
),
'Clinic' => array(
'conditions' => $conditions1,
'fields' => array('Clinic.*'),
'limit' => $limit,
'order' => array(
'Clinic.name' => 'ASC'
)
)
);
$results = $this->paginate('Vet');
$results2 = $this->paginate('Clinic');
I tried by extending the default pagination component in a non database model and using union but the database structure in a bit complex so can't use union. Also, i think implementing a temporary table based model would be an option, but since it'll be used for searching, so how exactly to go about implementing it, I'm unable to think. Any help would be +1'd ;)

Answer 1

As per the suggestion, I accomplished it by using database views. Below is the code. Any improvement suggestions is highly appreciated.
// \app\Model\Search.php
App::uses('ConnectionManager', 'Model');
App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');
App::uses('CakeLog', 'Log');
class Search extends AppModel {
public function __construct() {
parent::__construct();
$connection = ConnectionManager::getDataSource('default');
$return = $connection->execute("CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW `search` AS
SELECT Vet.id, (CONCAT( `Vet`.`fname` , ' ', `Vet`.`lname` )) AS name, 'vet' AS TYPE , Vet.latitude, Vet.longitude, Vet.zipcode, Vet.speciality FROM `db`.`vets` AS `Vet`
UNION
SELECT Clinic.id, Clinic.name, 'clinic' AS TYPE , Clinic.lat, Clinic.long, Clinic.zipcode, Clinic.address FROM `db`.`clinics` AS `Clinic`");
$return = ($return == true)?'Search View created successfully on '.date('Y-m-d H:i:s'):$return;
CakeLog::write('search', $return);
}
public $useTable = 'search';// This model does not use a database table
public $primaryKey = 'id'; // Define primary key
public $useDbConfig = 'default'; // Define db
}
This is the model.Everytime user searches anything, when the model is loaded in controller, view is created/replaced so that updated values can be fetched. It can be used as any other model in cakephp. It also supports virtualFields as well. To build your query for the database view you can also use the query builder which i used as follows.
$joins = array(
array(
'table' => 'vet_appointment_types',
'alias' => 'VetAppointmentType',
'type' => 'LEFT',
'conditions' => array(
'Vet.id = VetAppointmentType.vet_id',
)
)
);
$dbo = $this->Vet->getDataSource();
$subQuery = $dbo->buildStatement(
array(
'fields' => array('Vet.id', 'Vet.name'),
'table' => $dbo->fullTableName($this->Vet),
'alias' => 'Vet',
'limit' => $limit,
'group' => array(
'Vet.id'
),
'order' => array(
'Vet.name' => 'ASC'
),
'offset' => null,
'joins' => $joins,
'conditions' => $conditions
),
$this->Vet
);
$query = $subQuery;
$query .= ' UNION ';
$dbo = $this->Clinic->getDataSource();
$subQuery = $dbo->buildStatement(
array(
'fields' => array('Clinic.id', 'Clinic.name'),
'table' => $dbo->fullTableName($this->Clinic),
'alias' => 'Clinic',
'limit' => $limit,
'conditions' => $conditions1,
'limit' => $limit,
'order' => array(
'Clinic.name' => 'ASC'
),
'offset' => null
),
$this->Clinic
);
$query .= $subQuery;
print_r($query);