CakePHP Model Query Return Data Formating - php

Question

I'm looking for a way to make it so cake returns all database data in the same format/structure... Currently it returns two different types of format depending on the relationship.
If a model 'B' is associated with the current model 'A' being queried it will then place model associations for 'B' underneath it as you can see in [User] below. I want it so that all queries use that structure.
example:
$this->find('all', ....
returns:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[UserGroup] => Array
(
[id] => 53
[user_id] => 100003332014851
[media_id] =>
[name] => john
[description] => qwasdfad
)
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 100003332014851
[session_id] => ssm2qbrotmm13ho1ipm8ii2492
[username] =>
[password] => -1
[Planner] => Array
(
)
[Purchase] => Array
(
)
[Listing] => Array
(
)
)
)
I want this to look like:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[UserGroup] => Array
(
[id] => 53
[user_id] => 100003332014851
[media_id] =>
[name] => john
[description] => qwasdfad
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 100003332014851
[session_id] => ssm2qbrotmm13ho1ipm8ii2492
[username] =>
[password] => -1
[Planner] => Array
(
)
[Purchase] => Array
(
)
[Listing] => Array
(
)
)
)
)
)

Answer 1

In CakePHP, the find() method return data like your first format. But If you want to format like second one then you have to process it by hand (try to avoid this if possible)
$data = $this->find('all');
$assocs = Set::extract('/User', $data); // extracting all `User` array
foreach($assocs as $key => $assoc) {
unset($data[$key]['User']); // removing the associate `User` from `$data`
$data[$key]['UserGroup']['User'] = $assoc['User']; // adding associate under `UserGroup`
}

Answer 2

ended up doing this... it changes the output to what we need. The top level item does not have a header which is fine I just adjusted our scripts for that... maybe this will help somebody else if they need a custom idea
also no guarantee this covers all possible results but so far it works with all the queries we have.
class AppModel extends Model {
function afterFind($results, $primary) {
//if this is a primary, structure like a secondary so entire site is same format
if ($primary) {
$class = get_class($this);
//simple fix for primary
foreach ($results as $key => $result) {
$result = $this->formatData($result, $class);
$results[$key] = $result;
}
}
return $results;
}
function formatData($result, $class) {
$array = array();
if (isset($result[$class])) {
$array = $result[$class];
unset($result[$class]);
}
$array += $result;
return $array;
}

Answer 3

You can also use contain in this case along with find as UserGroup.User for your desired result