Cakephp - saving multiple checkboxes to a join table - php

Question

I need help with saving multiple checkboxes to a join table.
There are 3 tables:
Customers (id,name, address)
Products (id,product_name,desc) all products are entered.
Customers_Products (id,product_id,customer_id) <-(join table)
Step 1:
Customer selects the desired products (apples,oranges,cherries in checkbox)
and click <Next> button
Step 2:
Fills out the form about themselves (name, address and etc).
and click <Submit> button
Step 3:
I am saving personal info from Step 2 to Customers table and selected products id(s) from Step 1 to Customers_Products table.
It does save the personal info and product id to designated tables, but when customer selects more than one products, it does not save the products id.
it adds row but the products id field is empty.
Here is my view:
<?php echo $this->Form->checkbox('CustomerProduct.product.', array('value' => '1', 'style' => 'float: left; display: inline')); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->checkbox('CustomerProduct.product.', array('value' => '2', 'style' => 'float: left; display: inline')); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->checkbox('CustomerProduct.product.', array('value' => '3', 'style' => 'float: left; display: inline')); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->input('Customers.name', array('value'=>'Jon Toshmatov')); ?>
Controller:
$this->Prospect->saveAll($this->request->data);
Model:
public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
'CustomerProduct' => array(
'className' => 'CustomerProduct',
'joinTable' => 'customers_products',
'foreignKey' => 'customer_id',
'associationForeignKey' => 'product_id',
'unique' => 'false',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
Desired result:
I want save the data in the following order:
Customers table:
id name
1 Jon T
Customers_Products *(join table)*
id product_id customer_id
1 4 1
2 3 1
3 5 1

Answer 1

The problem is that each checkbox will also add a 'hidden' input if created via the CakePHP formhelper. This hidden input is added to make sure that checkboxes always send a value (0 or 1) even if they are not checked.
However, in your example, you're creating 3 checkboxes with the same 'name', therefore each checkbox will overwrite the previous value.
The best way is to create a 'multiple' checkbox with the CakePHP formhelper;
echo $this->Form->input('Product', array('multiple' => 'checkbox'));
For this to work properly, there should be a $products viewVar, containing product-ids and labels;
Inside your controller:
public function some_action()
{
// your code here
$this->set('products', $this->Customer->Product->find('list'));
}
More on saving HABTM data here;
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/saving-your-data.html#saving-related-model-data-habtm
Note
unless you're using non-standard names for your models, it seems your hasAndBelongsToMany is incorrect;
I suspect your relation is Customer hasAndBelongsTo Product, not CustomerProduct?
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/associations-linking-models-together.html#hasandbelongstomany-habtm