CakePHP does not save to the database - php

Question

So I have three tables, the users, groups and users_groups which is a join table.
--
-- Table structure for table `groups`
--
CREATE TABLE `groups` (
`id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`description` text NOT NULL,
`all_versions_available` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
`created` datetime NOT NULL,
`modified` datetime NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `name` (`name`,`created`,`modified`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=12 ;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `users`
--
CREATE TABLE `users` (
`id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`username` varchar(40) NOT NULL,
`email` varchar(80) NOT NULL,
`password` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`role` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
`created` datetime NOT NULL,
`modified` datetime NOT NULL,
`fullname` varchar(80) NOT NULL,
`password_token` varchar(40) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `nickname` (`username`,`email`,`password`),
KEY `role` (`role`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=6 ;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `users_groups`
--
CREATE TABLE `users_groups` (
`user_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
`group_id` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
KEY `user_id` (`user_id`,`group_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
Before I have implemented the HABTM in my Group and User models, the code I have below worked fine, now, I am getting all the data I need but I am unable to save.
So, my Group Model looks like this:
<?php
class Group extends AppModel {
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'Application' => array(
'className' => 'Application',
'joinTable' => 'applications_groups',
'foreignKey' => 'group_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'application_id',
'unique' => 'keepExisting',
),
'User' => array(
'className' => 'User',
'joinTable' => 'users_groups',
'foreignKey' => 'group_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'user_id',
'unique' => 'keepExisting',
)
);
public $validate = array(
'name' => array(
'required' => array(
'rule' => array('notEmpty'),
'message' => 'Group name is required'
)
)
);
public function saveGroup($id, $name, $description) {
$id = (int)$id;
if ($id) {
$this->id = $id;
}
else {
$this->create();
}
$this->set('name', $name);
$this->set('description', $description);
$this->save();
return $this;
}
public function getAll() {
$options = array('order' => array('Group.name' => 'ASC'));
$data = $this->find('all', $options);
return $data;
}
public function getOne($id) {
$id = (int)$id;
return $this->find('first', array('conditions' => array('Group.id' => $id)));
}
}
My User model looks like this:
<?php
class User extends AppModel {
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'Group' => array(
'className' => 'Group',
'joinTable' => 'users_groups',
'foreignKey' => 'group_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'user_id',
'unique' => 'keepExisting',
)
);
public function getOne($id) {
$this->id = $id;
$data = $this->read(null, $id);
unset($data['User']['password']);
unset($data['User']['password_token']);
if (isset($data['User'])) $data['User']['gravatar_url'] = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/'.md5($data['User']['email']).'.jpg';
return $data;
}
private function addGravatars($data) {
foreach ($data as $key=>$user) {
$data[$key]['User']['gravatar_url'] = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/'.md5($user['User']['email']).'.jpg';
}
return $data;
}
public function getAll() {
$data = $this->find('all', array('order' => array('User.fullname' => 'ASC')));
$data = $this->addGravatars($data);
return $data;
}
public function countAll() {
return $this->find('count');
}
}
I have been using model for the join table:
<?php
class UsersGroup extends AppModel {
public function deleteAllWithGroup($groupId) {
$id = (int)$groupId;
return $this->deleteAll(array('UsersGroup.group_id' => $id), false);
}
public function saveUsersForGroup($users, $groupId=0) {
$this->deleteAllWithGroup($groupId);
$data = array();
foreach ($users as $id=>$user) {
$data[] = array('user_id'=>(int)$id, 'group_id'=>$groupId);
}
$this->saveMany($data);
}
}
And this is my Groups controller:
<?php
class GroupsController extends AppController {
var $uses = array('Group', 'User', 'UsersGroup');
public function index() {
$this->set('groups', $this->Group->getAllWithInfo());
}
public function edit($id=0) {
$this->set('group', $this->Group->getOne($id));
$this->set('usersList', $this->User->getAllWithGroupInfo($id));
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$group = $this->Group->saveGroup($this->request->data['id'], $this->request->data['name'], $this->request->data['description']);
// Saving users
if (!isset($this->request->data['user']) || empty($this->request->data['user'])) {
$this->UsersGroup->deleteAllWithGroup($group->id);
}
else $this->UsersGroup->saveUsersForGroup($this->request->data['user'], $group->id);
}
}
public function view($id) {
App::uses('Platforms', 'Lib/Platform');
$this->setPageIcon('group');
$this->set('group', $this->Group->getOne($id));
}
public function delete($id) {
$this->Group->delete((int)$id);
return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
}
}
There is a couple of issues, the system above works if I remove the HABTM configs, second, I don't, for some very specific reasons not using the forms helper to generate the form and unfortunately for the complexity of the code (this is just a little bit) I can't so I have to name everything manually myself (that's where I see the biggest potential for failure) and lastly when I fire this code now I get:
Database Error
Error: SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'deleteAllWithGroup' at line 1
SQL Query: deleteAllWithGroup
Notice: If you want to customize this error message, create app/View/Errors/pdo_error.ctp
So the UsersGroup model is not being registered, nothing changes when I even delete the file, it is trying to use the name of the method I have previously used to delete the old join data as an SQL command. I have tried all the possible suggestions for naming and structure of the data I have found on Stack but failed, furthest I got was when I got only one of the join items to save, always the last one in the array ...
Anyone can help with this one?
Cheers,
O.

Answer 1

Be conventional
The main problems here seem to be caused by being unconventional
Table names
The docs describe the following:
This new join table’s name needs to include the names of both models involved, in alphabetical order, and separated with an underscore ( _ )
As such by default CakePHP will expect the join table for such a relationship to be called groups_users.
Model names
Given the above the join model for the relationship will be GroupsUser. Defining the hasAndBelongsToMany relationship as follows:
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'Group' => array(
'className' => 'Group',
'joinTable' => 'users_groups',
'foreignKey' => 'group_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'user_id',
'unique' => 'keepExisting',
)
);
Means that CakePHP will still try and user a model named GroupsUser giving it the table name users_groups. To forcibly user a different join model it's necessary to define which model to use - with with:
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'Group' => array(
'className' => 'Group',
'joinTable' => 'users_groups',
'foreignKey' => 'group_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'user_id',
'unique' => 'keepExisting',
'with' => 'UsersGroup'
)
);
Though it would be better to rename the join table and the join model, therefore the config could be reduced to the following, as everything else would be the defaults:
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'Group' => array(
'unique' => 'keepExisting'
)
);
Calls to a model function that don't exist becomes sql queries
Error: SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'deleteAllWithGroup' at line 1
SQL Query: deleteAllWithGroup
All this demonstrates, is that a query was made on a class which did not implement the called function. This can be verified by checking the class of the object:
debug($this->UsersGroup);
// Most likely "AppModel"
Note that the join model itself does not have any associations defined, as such doing this:
$this->UsersGroup->unbind(...);
Will have no effect - the associations are defined on the models User and Group in the question, even if the class UsersGroup were to be loaded - it does not have any associations defined, much less a habtm relationship to something else (which would require a total of 5 tables!)
Finally, and probably most importantly: this function isn't necessary:
HABTM data is treated like a complete set, each time a new data association is added the complete set of associated rows in database is dropped and created again
It won't cause problems to fix the code so the method is called except that the join table records are deleted whether the save succeeds or not with the code in the question; whereas CakePHP's logic will only delete the join table records upon success.
Be wary of creating thin wrapper functions
While there's nothing wrong with creating methods on your models to encapsulate logic - if that logic is very easily expressed using the existing model api all that does is make the code harder for others to read/debug. Code like this:
public function getOne($id) {
$this->id = $id;
$data = $this->read(null, $id);
unset($data['User']['password']);
unset($data['User']['password_token']);
if (isset($data['User'])) $data['User']['gravatar_url'] = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/'.md5($data['User']['email']).'.jpg';
return $data;
}
Can easily be replaced with a find('first') call and adding a afterFind filter to the User model to add gravatar_url keys to returned results. This leads to less and simpler code.