Manage multiple tables relationed in CakePHP - php

Question

So, i have three tables
Table: Users
_________________
| id | user |
-------------------
| 1 | Roy |
| 2 | Ben |
|________|________|
Table: Hability_lists // Where i set the list with all habilities available
___________________________________
| id | category | subcategory |
------------------------------------
| 1 | Programmer | PHP |
| 2 | Programmer | ASP |
|________|____________|_____________|
Table: Habilities // Where i set the habilities from all users
________________________________________
| id | user_id | hability_list_id |
-----------------------------------------
| 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 |
|________|____________|__________________|
By this, we can see that:
Roy are a ASP Programmer and Ben are a PHP Programmer
But, how to set relative models like this using CakePHP?
I know how by using two models but not using three models.
There is some way to do this? Or maybe a better way to do?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

When working with an MVC framework it's highly recommended to follow its conventions. So a few changes may be beneficial for you.
What you are looking for its the HABTM (Has And Belongs To Many) association between the "users" table and the "habilities" table *. I'm guessing, by the design of your table, that a user can have multiple habilities, otherwise you should check the hasMany association.
It should be something like this:
Table habilities:
select * from habilities;
+----+------------+----------------------+----------+
| id | category | subcategoy | created | modified |
+----+------------+------------+---------+----------+
| 1 | Programmer | ASP | | |
| 2 | Programmer | PHP | | |
| 3 | Musician | Classical | | |
+----+------------+------------+---------+----------+
Table users:
select * from users;
+----+-------+---------------------+---------------------+
| id | name | created | modified | **
+----+-------+---------------------+---------------------+
| 1 | Roy | 2012-08-15 02:52:18 | 2013-01-17 03:25:28 |
| 2 | Ben | 2012-11-10 03:36:12 | 2012-11-10 03:36:12 |
+----+-------+---------------------+---------------------+
Relational table for HABTM:
select * from habilities_users;
+----+-------------+-------------------+----------+
| id | hability_id | user_id | created | modified |
+----+-------------+---------+---------+----------+
| 1 | 1 | 2 | | |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | | |
+----+-------------+---------+---------+----------+
Look the reference columns in habilities_users, they're singular with a _id suffix to work with CakePHP.
Defining the models classes it's also important, since it's where you define all their associations.
app/Model/User.php
<?php
class User extends AppModel {
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array('Hability');
}
app/Model/Hability.php
<?php
class Hability extends AppModel {
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array('User');
}
The table habilities_users doesn't need a model file, its behaviours and properties are implicit in the declaration of its associated models.
* using those names it's also the CakePHP way. [link]
** adding "created" and "modified" in each table will store those events for each record automatically.

Answer 2

You'll want to use HasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM).
This allows you to have two models - User and Hability that are joined by a "tweener" table.