CakePHP: $this->paginate() and server hangs - php

So, I have this piece of code:
class ProductsController extends AppController {
var $name = 'Products';
var $paginate = array('limit' => 5); // sets the number of entries per page
function index() {
$this->Product->recursive = 0;
// works up to here fine
$this->set('products', $this->paginate()); // makes the browser hangs
}
}
When I go to ../products/index the browser just kind of hangs. It tries to load for minutes without giving any error messages, and I'm forced to restart Apache (XAMPP) or wait out a 60 seconds. The problem seems to be with $this->paginate() and all of the associations with Product controller. It has 2 belongsTo (belongs to smaller tables) and 1 hasOne (has one large table, 20K+ rows).
I added a hasOne relationship to the product model, and this seems to be causing the hanging. When I remove this relationship, the URL works and displays all items. However, this hasOne relationship does not cause any errors when I do for example, ../products/view/1.
Any idea on how to make this manageable?

There are a few things you can look at to start debugging. The first is your logs. Check both SQL and PHP logs for slow queries and timeout errors respectively.
If your Product model has a lot of associations, I suggest using ContainableBehavior. Actually, I suggest always setting $recurisve = -1; on the model and using Containable to fetch associations. It will speed up your app dramatically. Why pull data you don't use in your views?
In your app_model, add the behavior:
class AppModel extends Model {
var $recursive = -1;
var $actsAs = array('Containable');
}
Then modify your find queries to grab the associated data that you want:
$this->Product->find('all', array(
'contain' => array
'Category',
'Type'
)
));
Where Category and Type are associated with Product. This will tell Cake to just pull that associated data.
Then look at your queries. Use DebugKit to help you analyze timing and slow queries.
These are some basic methods for speeding up your finds. There's a ton of information out there for optimizing your CakePHP app, which is what sounds like may be the problem.

Related

Advanced Laravel merged data/models - can it be done at model level?

We have a COMMON database and then tenant databases for each organization that uses our application. We have base values in the COMMON database for some tables e.g.
COMMON.widgets. Then in the tenant databases, IF a table called modified_widgets exists and has values, they are merged with the COMMON.widgets table.
Right now we are doing this in controllers along the lines of:
public function index(Request $request)
{
$widgets = Widget::where('active', '1')->orderBy('name')->get();
if(Schema::connection('tenant')->hasTable('modified_widgets')) {
$modified = ModifiedWidget::where('active', '1')->get();
$merged = $widgets->merge($modified);
$merged = array_values(array_sort($merged, function ($value) {
return $value['name'];
}));
return $merged;
}
return $countries;
}
As you can see, we have model for each table and this works OK. We get the expected results for GET requests like this from controllers, but we'd like to merge at the Laravel MODEL level if possible. That way id's are linked to the correct tables and such when populating forms with these values. The merge means the same id can exist in BOTH tables. We ALWAYS want to act on the merged data if any exists. So it seems like model level is the place for this, but we'll try any suggestions that help meet the need. Hope that all makes sense.
Can anyone help with this or does anyone have any ideas to try? We've played with overriding model constructors and such, but haven't quite been able to figure this out yet. Any thoughts are appreciated and TIA!
If you put this functionality in Widget model you will get 2x times of queries. You need to think about Widget as an instance, what I am trying to say is that current approach does 2 queries minimum and +1 if tenant has modified_widgets table. Now imagine you do this inside a model, each Widget instance will pull in, in a best case scenario its equivalent from different database, so for bunch of Widgets you will do 1 (->all())+n (n = number of ModifiedWidgets) queries - because each Widget instance will pull its own mirror if it exists, no eager load is possible.
You can improve your code with following:
$widgets = Widget::where('active', '1')->orderBy('name')->get();
if(Schema::connection('tenant')->hasTable('modified_widgets')) {
$modified = ModifiedWidget::where('active', '1')->whereIn('id', $widgets->pluck('id'))->get(); // remove whereIn if thats not the case
return $widgets->merge($modified)->unique()->sortBy('name');
}
return $widgets;
OK, here is what we came up with.
We now use a single model and the table names MUST be the same in both databases (setTable does not seem to work even though in exists in the Database/Eloquent/Model base source code - that may be why it's not documented). Anyway = just use a regular model and make sure the tables are identical (or at least the fields you are using are):
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Widget extends Model
{
}
Then we have a generic 'merge controller' where the model and optional sort are passed in the request (we hard coded the 'where' and key here, but they could be made dynamic too). NOTE THIS WILL NOT WORK WITH STATIC METHODS THAT CREATE NEW INSTANCES such as $model::all() so you need to use $model->get() in that case:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Config;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class MergeController extends Controller
{
public function index(Request $request)
{
//TODO: add some validations to ensure model is provided
$model = app("App\\Models\\{$request['model']}");
$sort = $request['sort'] ? $request['sort'] : 'id';
$src_collection = $model->where('active', '1')->orderBy('name')->get();
// we setup the tenants connection elsewhere, but use it here
if(Schema::connection('tenant')->hasTable($model->getTable())) {
$model->setConnection('tenant');
$tenant_collection = $model->get()->where('active', '1');
$src_collection = $src_collection->keyBy('id')->merge($tenant_collection->keyBy('id'))->sortBy('name');
}
return $src_collection;
}
}
If you dd($src_collection); before returning it it, you will see the connection is correct for each row (depending on data in the tables). If you update a row:
$test = $src_collection->find(2); // this is a row from the tenant db in our data
$test->name = 'Test';
$test->save();
$test2 = $src_collection->find(1); // this is a row from the tenant db in our data
$test2->name = 'Test2'; // this is a row from the COMMON db in our data
$test2->save();
dd($src_collection);
You will see the correct data is updated no matter which table the row(s) came from.
This results in each tenant being able to optionally override and/or add to base table data without effecting the base table data itself or other tenants while minimizing data duplication thus easing maintenance (obviously the table data and population is managed elsewhere just like any other table). If the tenant has no overrides then the base table data is returned. The merge and custom collection stuff have minimal documentation, so this took some time to figure out. Hope this helps someone else some day!

Eager load model using with but giving it another name - Laravel 5.2

Is it possible to use eager loading using the with method but giving it another name? Something like:
->with('documents as product', 'documents.documents as categories')
I have a documents table that can be product or categories, eager loading is working but not that friendly to retrieve the documents by just the document name instead of what it really is.
This feature is currently not supported in any Laravel version. Your best bet is to duplicate your relations and name them according to your needs. E.g.:
class Post extends Model
public function documents() {
return $this->hasMany(Document::class);
}
public function products() {
return $this->hasMany(Document::class)
->where('type', 'product'); // Scope the query, if necessary
}
public function categories() {
return $this->hasMany(Document::class)
->where('type', 'category'); // Would a Document really be of type 'category', though? Looks like a code smell.
}
}
$postsWithAllDocs = Post::with('documents')->get();
$postsWithProductsOnly = Post::with('products')->get(); // Only eager load Documents of type 'product'
On a side note, you mention that a Document can be a product or category, which logically doesn't seem to make much sense. Part of the issue could probably be resolved by rethinking the structure of your database and relations.
Eager loading tells "load also this relationship data", so next you can access subject->relation without further queries
if you want to rename the relationship maybe you should do it renaming the relationshp in the model, not in the eager loading
you can also bypass this by adding virtual attributes:
function getProductAttribute(){
return $this->document;
}
leaving eager loading on original document
resulting in product attribute that is the same as document:
$subject->product === $subject->document
I asked myself the same question, and since I didn't find a satisfying answer online, here is what I did.
I had:
$o->load('X');
but I wanted the $o object to have attribute Y with the value of X relation. Since I already had the Y relation defined for $o, I couldn't rename X to Y and finish the job. So I did
$o['Y'] = $o->X();
I know this is not the best solution, but it works for my case :)
Note: load and with produce exactly the same number of sql queries - you need to choose the one which is more appropriate for your situation.

Softdelete with Yii and relations

I have a simple DB with multiple tables and relationships, ie:
Article - Category
User - Group
etc...
I have implemented SoftDelete behavior where there is a Active column and if set to 0, it is considered deleted.
My question is simple.
How to i specify in as few places as possible that i only want load Articles that belong to Active categories.
I have specified relationships and default scopes (with Active = 1) condition.
However, when i do findAll(), it returns those Articles that have Active = 1, even if the category it belongs to is Active = 0....
Thank you
Implementation so far:
In base class
public function defaultScope()
{
return array('condition' => 'Active = 1');
}
in model:
'category' => array(self::BELONGS_TO, 'Category', 'CategoryID'),
'query':
$data = Article::model()->findAll();
MY SOLUTION
So i decided, that doing it in framework is:
inneficient
too much work
not good as it moves business logic away from database - this is fairly important to save work later on when working on interfaces/webservices and other customizations that should be part of the product.
Overall lesson: Try to keep all business logic as close to database as possible to prevent disrepancies.
First, i was thinking using triggers that would propagate soft delete down the hierarchy. However after thinking a bit more i decided not to do this. The reason is, that this way if I (or an interface or something) decided to reactivate the parent records, there would be no way to say which child record was chain-deleted and which one was deleted before:
CASE:
Lets say Category and Article.
First, one article is deleted.
Then the whole category is deleted.
Then you realize this was a mistake and you want to undelete the Category. How do you know which article was deleted by deleting category and which one should stay deleted? Yes there are solutions, ie timestamps but ...... too complex, too easy to break
So my solution in the end are:
VIEWS. I think i will move away from yii ORM to using views for anything more complex then basic things.
There are two advantages to this for me:
1) as a DBA i can do better SQL faster
2) logic stays in database, in case the application changes/another one is added, there is no need to implement the logic in more then one places
You need to specify condition when you are using findAll method. So You should use CDbCriteria for this purpose:
$criteria=new CDbCriteria;
$criteria->with = "category";
$criteria->condition = "category.Active = 1"; //OR $criteria->compare('category.active', 1 true);
$data = Article::model()->findAll($criteria);
You should also have a defaultScope in your Article model, condition there should add category.Active = 1 or whatever your relation is named.
public function defaultScope()
{
return array('condition' => 't.Active = 1 AND category.Active = 1');
}
I don't remember by now but it might be you have to specify the relation:
return array(
'with' => array("category" => array(
'condition'=> "t.Active = 1 AND category.Active = 1",
)
);

Best way to filter access to controller actions according to a specific client id

Using CakePHP 2.2, I am building an application in which each client has it's own "realm" of data and none of the other data is visible to them. For example, a client has his set of users, courses, contractors and jobs. Groups are shared among clients, but they cannot perform actions on groups. All clients can do with groups is assign them to users. So, an administrator (using ACL) can only manage data from the same client id.
All my objects (except groups, of course) have the client_id key.
Now, I know one way to get this done and actually having it working well, but it seems a bit dirty and I'm wondering if there is a better way. Being early in the project and new to CakePHP, I'm eager to get it right.
This is how I'm doing it now :
1- A user logs in. His client_id is written to session according to the data from the user's table.
$user = $this->User->read(null, $this->Auth->user('id'));
$this->Session->write('User.client_id', $user['User']['client_id']);
2- In AppController, I have a protected function that compares that session id to a given parameter.
protected function clientCheck($client_id) {
if ($this->Session->read('User.client_id') == $client_id) {
return true;
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('Invalid object or view.'));
$this->redirect(array('controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'home'));
}
}
3- Im my different index actions (each index, each relevant controller), I check the client_id using a paginate condition.
public function index() {
$this->User->recursive = 0;
$this->paginate = array(
'conditions' => array('User.client_id' => $this->Session->read('User.client_id'))
);
$this->set('users', $this->paginate());
}
4- In other actions, I check the client_id before checking the HTTP request type this way.
$user = $this->User->read(null, $id);
$this->clientCheck($user['User']['client_id']);
$this->set('user', $user);
The concept is good - it's not 'dirty', and it's pretty much exactly the same as how I've handled situations like that.
You've just got a couple of lines of redundant code. First:
$this->Auth->user('id')
That method can actually get any field for the logged in user, so you can do:
$this->Auth->user('client_id')
So your two lines:
$user = $this->User->read(null, $this->Auth->user('id'));
$this->Session->write('User.client_id', $user['User']['client_id']);
Aren't needed. You don't need to re-read the User, or write anything to the session - just grab the client_id directly from Auth any time you need it.
In fact, if you read http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/components/authentication.html#accessing-the-logged-in-user it even says you can get it from outside the context of a controller, using the static method like:
AuthComponent::user('client_id')
Though it doesn't seem you'll be needing that.
You could also apply the client_id condition to all finds for a Model by placing something in the beforeFind function in the Model.
For example, in your User model, you could do something like this:
function beforeFind( $queryData ) {
// Automatically filter all finds by client_id of logged in user
$queryData['conditions'][$this->alias . '.client_id'] = AuthComponent::user('client_id');
return $queryData;
}
Not sure if AuthComponent::user('client_id') works in the Model, but you get the idea. This will automatically apply this condition to every find in the model.
You could also use the beforeSave in the model to automatically set that client_id for you in new records.
My answer may be database engine specific as I use PostgreSQL. In my project I used different schema for every client in mysql terms that would be separate database for every client.
In public schema (common database) I store all data that needs to be shared between all clients (objects that do not have client_id in your case), for example, variable constants, profile settings and so on.
In company specific models I define
public $useDbConfig = 'company_data';
In Controller/AppController.php beforeFilter() method I have this code to set schema according to the logged in user.
if ($this->Session->check('User.Company.id')) {
App::uses('ConnectionManager', 'Model');
$dataSource = ConnectionManager::getDataSource('company_data');
$dataSource->config['schema'] =
'company_'.$this->Session->read('User.Company.id');
}
As you see I update dataSource on the fly according to used company. This does exclude any involvement of company_id in any query as only company relevant data is stored in that schema (database). Also this adds ability to scale the project.
Downside of this approach is that it creates pain in the ass to synchronize all database structures on structure change, but it can be done using exporting data, dropping all databases, recreating them with new layout and importing data back again. Just need to be sure to export data with full inserts including column names.

CakePHP: controller uses another model instead of its own

The situations looks like this: I have two models with controllers and everything, WrittenTest and WrittenTestAnswer. The problem is that whenever I try to access model WrittenTestAnswer, both from WrittenTestsController (using $this->loadModel() before) and from its own WrittenTestAnswersController, it somehow accesses WrittenTest instead. I noticed it when data wasn't saved to WrittenTestAnswer, $this->WrittenTestAnswer->find() also returned data from written_tests table. I have no idea what's going on. I checked names and stuff so many times already. I am using CakePHP 1.3. Thanks for any help.
EDIT:
code from WrittenTestAnswer model:
class WrittenTestAnswer extends AppModel {
public $name = 'WrittenTestAnswer';
public $displayField = 'written_test_answer';
public $belongsTo = array(
'WrittenTest' => array(
'className' => 'WrittenTest',
'foreignKey' => 'written_test_id',
),
);
}
EDIT so for example this (in WrittenTestAnswersController)
debug($this->WrittenTestAnswer->name);
outputs WrittenTest. And
$this->WrittenTestAnswer->find('first');
returns first row from written_tests. Any idea what's going on?
How are you accessing the model? If the relationships are setup correctly, you shouldn't need to use $this->loadModel() at all. You can just access the related model through its parent like so:
$this->WrittenTest->WrittenTestAnswer->find('all');
This might not be the cause of your problems but we cannot tell until you actually post the code that's not working.

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