Save data in a cakephp hasmany and belongsto association at once

Question

I know this question is asked here a many times but I also tried to follow the solutions provided at my best. As I am learning a cakephp some solutions seemed difficult to implement in a code. I am using cakephp 2.5.

What I am trying to do is creating a problem report with attached one or more uploads. Here is some of what I have implemented so far:-

I have following models:

• Candidate
• CandidatesProblemReport
• CandidatesProblemReportsUpload

There associations are as follows:

• CandidatesProblemReport hasMany CandidatesProblemReportsUpload

• Candidate hasMany CandidatesProblemReport

• CandidatesProblemReport belongsTo Candidate

• CandidatesProblemReportsUpload belongsTo CandidatesProblemReport

Candidate.php

    <?php

    class Candidate extends AppModel {

        public $name = 'Candidate';
        public $hasMany = array(

            'CandidatesProblemReport' => array(
                'className' => 'CandidatesProblemReport',
                'foreignKey' => 'candidate_id'
            )

        );
    }

CandidatesProblemReport.php

    <?php

    class CandidatesProblemReport extends AppModel {

        public $name = "CandidatesProblemReport";
        public $belongsTo = array(
            'Candidate' => array(
                'className' => 'Candidate'
            )
        );
        public $hasMany = array(
            'Uploads' => array(
                'className' => 'CandidatesProblemReportsUpload'
            ),
            'Replies' => array(
                'className' => 'CandidatesProblemReportsReply'
            )
        );    
    }

CandidatesProblemReportsController.php

    class CandidatesProblemReportsController extends AppController {

        public $name = "CandidatesProblemReports";

        // ############# Report a Problem #############
        // ********************************************
        public function create() {
            $userid = $this->Auth->user('id'); // Grabs the current user id
            $this->set('userId', $userid); // Sends the current user id to the form

            if ($this->request->is('post') && !empty($this->request->data)):

                $this->CandidatesProblemReport->create();

                $report = $this->CandidatesProblemReport->save($this->request->data);
                if (!empty($report)):         
                    $this->request->data['CandidatesProblemReportsUpload']['candidates_problem_report_id'] = $this->CandidatesProblemReport->id;
                endif;

                if ($this->CandidatesProblemReport->saveAssociated($this->request->data)):

                    $this->Session->setFlash('Your report has been submitted '
                            . 'successfully. Thank you!');

                    $this->redirect(array(
                        'action' => 'viewall')
                    );
                else:
                    $this->Session->setFlash('Your report could not be submitted, '
                            . 'please try again');
                endif;

            endif;
        }
    }

create.ctp

<h1>Create a report</h1>
<?php
echo $this->Form->create('CandidatesProblemReport', array('type' => 'file'));

echo $this->Form->input('CandidatesProblemReport.report_subject');

echo $this->Form->input('CandidatesProblemReport.report_handle_department', array(
    'options' => array(
        'Technical' => 'Technical',
        'Sales' => 'Sales',
        'Support' => 'Support',
        'Other' => 'Other'
    )
));
echo $this->Form->input('CandidatesProblemReport.report_description');

echo $this->Form->input('CandidatesProblemReport.report_date', array(
    'type' => 'hidden',
    'value' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s'))
);

echo $this->Form->input('CandidatesProblemReport.candidate_id', array(
    'type' => 'hidden',
    'value' => $userId)
);
?>

<div>
    <p><strong>Upload Screenshot/Files</strong></p>
    <hr>
</div>
<?php
echo $this->Form->input('CandidatesProblemReportsUpload.0.report_upload', array(
    'type' => 'file'
));
?>
<button class="add-new-upload" type="button">Add more</button>
<?php
echo $this->Form->end('submit');

echo $this->Html->script('jquery-2.1.1.min.js');
?>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var i = 1;
    $('.add-new-upload').click(function () {
        $('.file').append('<input type="file" name="data[CandidatesProblemReportsUpload]['
                + i +
                '][report_upload]" id="CandidatesProblemReportsUpload'
                + i +
                'ReportUpload">');
        i++;
    });
</script>

Now what is happening is I am able to save the main model data i.e. CandidatesProblemReports but when I saveAssociated data it again saves the main model creating second duplicate entry but the uploads are not getting saved.

Answer 1

Saving data with associations

That's the expected behavior, saveAssociated() is not ment to save only the associated records, it will save the main record as well, so you should use saveAssociated() only, no need to manually set the foreign key, etc, CakePHP will do that automatically.

Controller

public function create() {
    // ...

    if ($this->request->is('post') && !empty($this->request->data)):

        $this->CandidatesProblemReport->create();

        if ($this->CandidatesProblemReport->saveAssociated($this->request->data)):
            // ...
        endif;

    endif;
}

Mind your aliases

The reason for your upload records not being created, is that you are not using the proper alias in your form/data, you've set the alias to be Uploads, but in your form you are using CandidatesProblemReportsUpload, and so CakePHP will ignore this data.

Form

echo $this->Form->input('Uploads.0.report_upload', array(
    'type' => 'file'
));

<script type="text/javascript">
    var i = 1;
    $('.add-new-upload').click(function () {
        $('.file').append('<input type="file" name="data[Uploads]['
                + i +
                '][report_upload]" id="Uploads'
                + i +
                'ReportUpload">');
        i++;
    });
</script>

Storing file data

As mentioned in the comments, CakePHP doesn't handle file upload data out of the box, you'll have to prepare it in beforehand so that it is for example being stored on disk, and the model stores the path to the file.

While the above code should generally work, it will most likely trigger an error as it will try to store the file upload array in the database instead of flat data.

There are plugins out there that can handle file uploads, check them out, also search here on stackoverflow and check the docs for examples on how to modify data before it is being saved.

For starters:

• http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/callback-methods.html#beforesave
• http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/callback-methods.html#beforevalidate
• https://github.com/josegonzalez/cakephp-upload

Answer 2

You can user $this->CandidatesProblemReport->saveAssociated($this->request->data) code to save associate data in multiple tables using one query.