CakePhp Association Example

CakePhp provides a very powerfull mechanism to handle relation between models ( i.e foreign key relationship between database tables ) by itself with the call of just one function.

The four association types in CakePHP are:
hasOne, hasMany, belongsTo, and hasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM).

Here I am giving expamle for hasOne association in CakePhp.

There will be two models : –

Seller – This model refer the basic seller info. and link with sellers table in database and have onetone relationship with the SellerProperyInfo.
SellerProperyInfo – This model refer the seller property info and link with Seller model via foriegn key relationship and all these associations are defined in the model classes.

Linking Model Classes : –

 class Seller extends AppModel
  {
       public $hasOne =
       array( 
            'SellerPropertyInfo' =>array( 
            'className' => 'SellerPropertyInfo', 
            'foreignKey' => 'user_id', 
            'dependent' => true
            ) 
       );
  }

  class SellerPropertyInfo extends AppModel
  {
       public $belongsTo = 
       array(
             'Seller'=> array(
             'className'    => 'Seller',
             'foreignKey'   => 'user_id',
	     'dependent'    => true
	    )
       );
  }

We are done with the linking model classes with hasOne relation now we have to build a form so that user can enter both seller and seller property info.

After making form we just have to make a single function call and it will save the data in both the tables according to the relation defined in model classes. Below is the function call in the controller.

.
.
$this->Seller->saveAssociated($this->request->data);
.
.

For more information go to Cake Docs