CakePHP model fails to grab table association - php

Question

I'm working with CakePHP to develop a web application that has a few tables and some relationships between them. In this instance I have a series of meetings which reference a calendar year, a department and the relevant school however the model fails to grab the associated table information when data is returned from the controller to the view.
There is already existing $belongsTo relationships between staff and the department and school they belong to and I also managed to grab the associated meeting when the calendar array is returned on the calendar index but ideally I want to be able to list all the meetings with the names of calendars, departments and schools rather than the id field stored in the meetings table.
Here are my tables:
dbo.meetings
id (int) *primary key*
calendar_id (int)
department_id (int)
school_id (int)
created (datetime2(7))
modified (datetime2(7))
dbo.calendar
id (int) *primary key*
name (nvarchar(50))
startdate (datetime2(7))
enddate (datetime2(7))
created (datetime2(7))
modified (datetime2(7))
dbo.schools
id (int) *primary key*
name (nvarchar(255))
(other fields)
dbo.departments
id (int) *primary key*
name (nvarchar(255))
(other fields)
Here is the controller for Meetings:
<?php
App::uses('AppController','Controller');
class MeetingsController extends AppController {
public $helpers = array('Form');
public function beforeFilter() {
parent::beforeFilter();
}
public function index() {
$this->set('meetings', $this->Meeting->find('all'));
}
}
?>
Here is the model for Meeting:
<?php
App::uses('AppModel','Model');
class Meeting extends AppModel {
public $primaryKey = 'id';
public $recursive = -1;
public $belongsTo = array(
'Calendar' => array(
'className' => 'Calendar',
'foreignKey' => 'calendar_id'
),
'School' => array(
'className' => 'School',
'foreignKey' => 'school_id'
),
'Department' => array(
'className' => 'Department',
'foreignKey' => 'department_id'
)
);
}
?>
Currently the index.ctp file in /View/Meetings just contains <?php echo var_dump($meetings); ?> which is printing out the array until I can get the association working and then I will restyle it as required.
Here is what the array looks like atm:
array(1) {
[0]=>
array(1) {
["Meeting"]=>
array(6) {
["id"] => string(1) "1"
["calendar_id"] => string(1) "1"
["department_id"] => string(2) "33"
["school_id"] => string(1) "1"
["created"] => NULL
["modified"] => NULL
}
}
}
For some reason it just won't fetch the calendar, department and school details that it should and I want it to. Can anyone help?
Edit: Model for School
<?php
App::uses('AppModel','Model');
class School extends AppModel {
public $validate = array(
'name' => array(
'required' => array(
'rule' => 'notBlank',
'message' => 'A school name is required.'
)
)
);
}
?>

Answer 1

Make sure that you are enabling the Containable behaviour for your model's using public $actsAs = ['Containable'];:-
App::uses('AppModel','Model');
class Meeting extends AppModel {
public $recursive = -1;
public $actsAs = array('Containable');
public $belongsTo = array(
'Calendar',
'School',
'Department'
);
}
To apply Containable to all models set it in AppModel so that each model inherits the behaviour. Also, as long as you stick to CakePHP naming conventions you don't need to specify the className and foreignKey of your associations.
Now $this->Meeting->find('all') in your MeetingsController should return all the associated data along with the meeting. If you only want it to return some of the associated data you can pass the contain option to the find. For example:-
$this->Meeting->find(
'all',
array(
'contain' => array(
'School',
'Department'
)
)
);