Cakephp Self referring Model Not working - php

Question

I have a table
Medias:
ID,
PARENT_ID
PATH
TITLE
Items:
ID
medias
Title
description
Models
class ImageGallery extends AppModel {
public $name = 'ImageGallery';
public $useTable = "medias";
var $belongsTo = array(
'Parent' =>
array('className' => 'ImageGallery',
'foreignKey' => 'parent_id',
'dependent' => false,
),
);
var $hasMany = array(
'Children' =>
array('className' => 'ImageGallery',
'foreignKey' => 'parent_id',
'dependent' => false,
),
);
}
class Item extends AppModel {
public $useTable = "items";
public $validate = array(
'title' => array(
'rule' => 'notEmpty'
),
);
public $belongsTo = array(
'Gallery' => array(
'className' => 'ImageGallery',
'foreignKey' => 'medias'),
);
public $hasMany = array(
'ItemMeta' => array( 'className' => 'ItemMeta'),
);
}
The media table contains gallery information. Images are stored in parent_id relation.
When I request Item->find('all'); I am getting only one entry from Media table, but I want to get all its children too. :(
I can get its children by using $this->ImageGallery->findById(10);, but I want to get them with the Item Model.

Answer 1

Use the containable behavior to specify which associated models you want the query to get. http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/behaviors/containable.html
$this->Item->find('all', array('contain' => array('ImageGallery' => array('Children'))));
If you're looking to go deeper than just the child level, like if you want to get the rest of the tree, then you'll need to either write something to recursively fetch the children, the children's children, etc., or perhaps you can alter your code and models to make use of CakePHP's Tree Behavior. See http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/behaviors/tree.html and http://www.dereuromark.de/2013/02/17/cakephp-and-tree-structures/