Create multiple models at once in cakephp - php

Question

What I'm trying to reach is to register a User and a Firm at once. So I would need to insert into 3 tables: users, firms, and firms_users. CakePHP should do this automatically, because I've set the $hasAndBelongsToMany associtation in the models. But during the registration, only the users table gets written. Am I missing something?
registration form
<div class="users form">
<?php echo $this->Form->create('User'); ?>
<fieldset>
<legend><?php echo __('Add User'); ?></legend>
<?php
echo $this->Form->input('User.email', array('type' => 'email')); //standard HTML5 email validation
echo $this->Form->input('User.password');
echo $this->Form->input('Firm.0.name');
echo $this->Form->input('Firm.0.zipcode');
?>
</fieldset>
<?php echo $this->Form->end(__('Submit')); ?>
</div>
the relevant part of User model
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'Firm' => array(
'className' => 'Firm',
'joinTable' => 'firms_users',
'foreignKey' => 'user_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'firm_id',
'unique' => 'keepExisting',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
),
and the relevant part of Firm model
class Firm extends AppModel {
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array('User'=>array('className'=>'User'));
finally the UsersController / show_reg_form action
public function show_reg_form(){
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$this->loadModel('Firm');
$this->User->create();
$this->Firm->create();
if ($this->User->saveAll($this->request->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The user has been saved'));
return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'loggedin','loggedin'));
}
$this->Session->setFlash(
__('The user could not be saved. Please, try again.')
);
}
}

Answer 1

I think this code will work
public function show_reg_form(){
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$this->User->create();
if ($this->User->save($this->request->data)) {
$this->Firm->create();
if($this->Firm->save($this->request->data))
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The user has been saved'));
return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'loggedin','loggedin'));
}
else{
$this->Session->setFlash(
__('The user could not be saved. Please, try again.')
);
}
}
}

Answer 2

It should be
echo $this->Form->input('Firm.name');
echo $this->Form->input('Firm.zipcode');

Answer 3

In order to save with hasAndBelongsToMany association you should have the array like this to save the records
Array
(
[User] => Array
(
[field_1] => 1
[field_2] => 2
[field_3] => 3
[field_4] => 4
)
[Firm] => Array
(
[0] => 5
[1] => 8
[2] => 4
)
)
where 5, 8, 4 are the record ids of firm table
I think This is not the case you're looking for,
I would suggest you to go through the
hasMany association if User has many firms public $hasMany = array('Firm');
hasOne association if User has only one firm public $hasOne = array('Firm');
so that it will add a Firm when a user is created

Answer 4

You can not save data in all three tables using only one saveAll.
First you need to save firm record then assign the new generated firm id as hidden field in $this->data and save user model data with saveAll. Then data will enter in third table named firms_users.
You can check the below link for more information
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/saving-your-data.html#saving-related-model-data-habtm