CakePHP controller method not writing to the DB - php

Question

I am calling one controller method from another controller's method. I can confirm that the method is being called because when I do a print_r on the passed data, I see everything I expect. My problem is that when I call $this->Log->save($this->data) nothing is written to the DB. I am a .NET developer, hence I know preciously little about cakePHP, but I know that this is the way one is supposed to save stuff to the DB, hence I am majorly stumped.
<?php
//The calling controller
App::import('Controller', 'Logs');
class othAuthComponent extends Object //I noticed this inherits from Object,
//but it doesn't seem to be a problem
{
function SomeFunction()
{
//create instance of our Logs controller as per example
$Logger = new LogsController;
$Logger->constructClasses();
$Logger->cms_addlog($user['User']['name'].' Logged in', $user['User']['id']);
}
}
?>
And the offender:
<?php
//the called controller
class LogsController extends AppController
{
function cms_addlog($note,$ba_id)
{
$this->Log->create();
$curDateTime = getdate();
$this->data['LogTime'] = $curDateTime;
$this->data['Note'] = $note;
$this->data['brandactivatorid'] = $ba_id;
//print_r($this->data);
//die();
$this->Log->save($this->data);
}
}
?>

Answer 1

The correct way to do this is to make the cms_addlog function part of the Log model.
Then call
$this->Log->cms_addlog($user['User']['name'].' Logged in', $user['User']['id']);

Answer 2

You're not supposed to call Controller actions/methods from anywhere in your code. Controller actions are meant to be directly accessed from the browser.
The clean way is to implement a addLog method in your model and call that one either from the controller, or from the component.
Please read http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/getting-started/cakephp-structure.html and http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/cakephp-overview/understanding-model-view-controller.html for further reference.