CakePHP save empty model - php

Question

I have 2 types of users: employees and customers and I need to distinguish between them so I have created 2 separate tables for them. Then I chose CakePHP as my framework and then I wanted to follow Simple Authentication tutorial where is one table for Users. So I have decided to create tables like this:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users` (
`id` int(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`username` varchar(36) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`password` varchar(36) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`role` varchar(30) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(30) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`surname` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`phone` varchar(16) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`email` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
`employee_id` int(20) DEFAULT NULL,
`customer_id` int(20) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `EMAIL` (`email`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_czech_ci AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `employee` (
`id` int(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `customer` (
`id` int(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
My models:
Employee
public $hasOne = array(
'User' => array(
'className' => 'User',
'foreignKey' => 'employee_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
)
);
User:
public $belongsTo = array(
'Employee' => array(
'className' => 'Employee',
'foreignKey' => 'employee_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
);
Add User function:
public function add() {
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$this->User->create();
$roles = array('admin', 'employee');
if (in_array($this->request->data['User']['role'], $roles)) {
if ($this->User->Employee->save($this->request->data))
$this->request->data['User']['employee_id'] = $this->User->Employee->getLastInsertId();
else {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('Employee could not be saved.'));
return;
}
}
else {
$this->User->Customer->save($this->request->data);
$this->request->data['User']['customer_id'] = $this->User->Customer->getLastInsertId();
$this->User->Customer->create();
}
if (!$this->User->save($this->request->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The user could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
}
else {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The user has been saved.'));
}
//return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
}
$employees = $this->User->Employee->find('list');
$customers = $this->User->Customer->find('list');
$this->set(compact('employees', 'customers'));
}
I have a feeling that this conceptual model is not right because Employee and Customer tables contain only primary keys.
Also ($this->User->Employee->save($this->request->data) returns false. Is there a problem that CakePHP is not able to save empty model?
Or do you have any better idea how to model these tables?
Thanks.

Answer 1

If you intend to have information specific to an employee type user and a customer type user, the direction you're going in is fine, and you'd add those future fields to the customer and employee tables. If all you need to do is distinguish between an employee type user and a customer type user, then all you need is a field in your user table to distinguish type, such as
is_employee tinyint(1) default 0,