How to configure a tree in a good way using Cakephp3? - database

Question

I'm working on a project which needs a tree to structure categories.
The problem is i can't find how to join the tables like it should be between my models, or maybe it's related to the controller itself.
When i fill the form and post it, only the table Categories is written, nothing happens in Categorylangs.
I'm pretty sure it's a little mistake or something simple i misunderstood here.. thanks
public function add()
{
$category = $this->Categories->newEntity();
$category->categorylangs = $this->Categories->Categorylangs->newEntity();
if ($this->request->is(['patch', 'post', 'put'])) {
$category = $this->Categories->patchEntity($category, $this->request->getData());
debug($category);
die();
if ($this->Categories->save($category)) {
$this->Flash->success(__('The category has been saved.'));
return $this->redirect(['action' => 'index']);
}
$this->Flash->error(__('The category could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
}
$this->set(compact('category'));
}
class CategoriesTable extends Table
$this->setTable('categories');
$this->setDisplayField('id');
$this->setPrimaryKey('id');
$this->addBehavior('Tree');
$this->hasMany('ChildCategories', [
'className' => 'Categories',
'foreignKey' => 'parent_id'
]);
$this->hasMany('Categorylangs', [
'foreignKey' => 'category_id'
]);
// $this->hasMany('Privatequestions', [
// 'foreignKey' => 'category_id'
// ]);
// $this->hasMany('Publicquestions', [
// 'foreignKey' => 'category_id'
// ]);
// $this->hasMany('Userpros', [
// 'foreignKey' => 'category_id'
// ]);
}
/**
* Default validation rules.
*
* #param \Cake\Validation\Validator $validator Validator instance.
* #return \Cake\Validation\Validator
*/
public function validationDefault(Validator $validator)
{
$validator
->nonNegativeInteger('id')
->allowEmptyString('id', 'create');
$validator
->boolean('active')
->requirePresence('active', 'create')
->allowEmptyString('active', false);
return $validator;
}
/**
* Returns a rules checker object that will be used for validating
* application integrity.
*
* #param \Cake\ORM\RulesChecker $rules The rules object to be modified.
* #return \Cake\ORM\RulesChecker
*/
public function buildRules(RulesChecker $rules)
{
return $rules;
}
}
class CategorylangsTable extends Table
{
{
parent::initialize($config);
$this->setTable('categorylangs');
$this->setDisplayField('id');
$this->setPrimaryKey('id');
$this->belongsTo('Categories', [
'foreignKey' => 'category_id',
'joinType' => 'INNER'
]);
$this->belongsTo('Languages', [
'foreignKey' => 'language_id',
'joinType' => 'INNER'
]);
}
/**
* Default validation rules.
*
* #param \Cake\Validation\Validator $validator Validator instance.
* #return \Cake\Validation\Validator
*/
public function validationDefault(Validator $validator)
{
$validator
->nonNegativeInteger('id')
->allowEmptyString('id', 'create');
$validator
->scalar('label')
->maxLength('label', 350)
->requirePresence('label', 'create')
->allowEmptyString('label', false);
$validator
->scalar('slug')
->maxLength('slug', 450)
->requirePresence('slug', 'create')
->allowEmptyString('slug', false);
$validator
->scalar('description')
->requirePresence('description', 'create')
->allowEmptyString('description', false);
return $validator;
}
/**
* Returns a rules checker object that will be used for validating
* application integrity.
*
* #param \Cake\ORM\RulesChecker $rules The rules object to be modified.
* #return \Cake\ORM\RulesChecker
*/
public function buildRules(RulesChecker $rules)
{
$rules->add($rules->existsIn(['category_id'], 'Categories'));
$rules->add($rules->existsIn(['language_id'], 'Languages'));
return $rules;
}
}
The view with the form to fill the 2 tables:
<nav class="large-3 medium-4 columns" id="actions-sidebar">
<ul class="side-nav">
<li class="heading"><?= __('Actions') ?></li>
<li><?= $this->Html->link(__('List Categories'), ['action' => 'index']) ?></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<div class="categories form large-9 medium-8 columns content">
<?= $this->Form->create($category) ?>
<fieldset>
<legend><?= __('Add Category') ?></legend>
<?php
echo $this->Form->control('parent_id', ['options' => $parentCategories, 'empty' => __('root')]);
echo $this->Form->control('categorylangs.label');
echo $this->Form->control('categorylangs.description');
echo $this->Form->control('categorylangs.language_id');
echo $this->Form->control('active');
?>
</fieldset>
<?= $this->Form->button(__('Submit')) ?>
<?= $this->Form->end() ?>
</div>
Here is a debug from Categoriescontroller.php, showing the data are not transmitted like they should be but i cant figure how to fix it...
/src/Controller/Admin/CategoriesController.php (line 60)
object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {
'categorylangs' => [],
'active' => false,
'[new]' => true,
'[accessible]' => [
'parent_id' => true,
'lft' => true,
'rght' => true,
'active' => true,
'parent_category' => true,
'child_categories' => true,
'categorylangs' => true,
'privatequestions' => true,
'publicquestions' => true,
'userpros' => true
],
'[dirty]' => [
'categorylangs' => true,
'active' => true
],
'[original]' => [
'categorylangs' => object(App\Model\Entity\Categorylang) {
'[new]' => true,
'[accessible]' => [
'label' => true,
'slug' => true,
'description' => true,
'category_id' => true,
'language_id' => true,
'category' => true,
'language' => true
],
'[dirty]' => [],
'[original]' => [],
'[virtual]' => [],
'[hasErrors]' => false,
'[errors]' => [],
'[invalid]' => [],
'[repository]' => 'Categorylangs'
}
],
'[virtual]' => [],
'[hasErrors]' => false,
'[errors]' => [],
'[invalid]' => [],
'[repository]' => 'Categories'
}

Answer 1

Categorylangs is a hasMany relation, not hasOne, so your field names should be like categorylangs.0.label, not categorylangs.label. You need for it to generate an array of entities, even if the array has only a single entity in it.
And $category->categorylangs = $this->Categories->Categorylangs->newEntity(); is meaningless here, the value of categorylangs will be overwritten by the patchEntity call.