Changing the order items are retrieved from the DB in CakePHP? - php

Question

I've made a forum using CakePHP while following a tutorial and would like to expand it.
Currently, in a post it allows me to comment, but they are displayed as newest -> oldest, so it doesn't make as much sense and I would like to reverse this.
This is the current association I have, I'm pretty new to PHP/Cake so I'm not sure where to go from here, any help is very appreciated!
public $hasMany = array(
'Post' => array(
'className' => 'Post',
'foreignKey' => 'forum_id',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
For those asking this is the function in my controller:
public function add($topicId=null) {
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$this->request->data['Post']['user_id'] = $this->Auth->user('id');
if ($this->Post->save($this->request->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('Post has been created'));
$this->redirect(array('controller'=>'topics','action'=>'view',$this->request->data['Post']['topic_id']));
}
} else {
if (!$this->Post->Topic->exists($topicId)) {
throw new NotFoundException(__('Invalid topic'));
}
$this->Post->Topic->recursive = -1;
$topic = $this->Post->Topic->read(null,$topicId);
$this->Post->Forum->recursive = -1;
$forum = $this->Post->Forum->read(null,$topic['Topic']['forum_id']);
$this->set('topic',$topic);
$this->set('forum',$forum);
}
}

Answer 1

Something like this should do it:
public $hasMany = array(
'Post' => array(
'className' => 'Post',
'foreignKey' => 'forum_id',
'dependent' => false,
'order' => 'Post.created ASC' //order the Posts in ascending order based on whe they were created
)
Assuming you have a created column in your database table.
Edit:
You can find more info in the CakePHP documentation http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/associations-linking-models-together.html

Answer 2

Avoid using read(), it is better to use find('first'). So you could rewrite your queries like:-
$this->Post->Topic->find('first', array(
'contain' => array(
'Post' => array(
'order' => array(
'Post.created' => 'asc',
'Post.id' => 'asc'
)
)
)
));
Passing an array instead of a string for order allows you to sort by multiple conditions. The above example would create the following ORDER SQL:-
ORDER BY Post.created ASC, Post.id ASC
You can also define a default ordering on the model itself which can be very useful:-
class Post extends AppModel {
public $order = array('Post.created' => 'asc', 'Post.id' => 'asc');
}