Cakephp 3.x Insert data into two tables - cakephp

Question

I've two tables: -
sales
CREATE TABLE `sales` (
`id` int(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`title` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
`description` text,
`quantity` int(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`price` decimal(18,2) DEFAULT NULL,
`payment_method_id` int(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`user_id` int(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`created` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
`modified` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
sale_details
CREATE TABLE `sale_details` (
`id` int(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`sale_id` int(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`product_id` int(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`quantity` int(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`price` decimal(18,2) DEFAULT NULL,
`total_price` decimal(18,2) DEFAULT NULL,
`created` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
`modified` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
I need to insert data into these tables accordingly using ajax. First of all, I structured my array data into the following.
Here is my data,
[
'quantity' => 3,
'price' => 63,
'payment_method_id' => 1,
'user_id' => 1,
'sale_details' => [
0 => [
'product_id' => 1,
'quantity' => 2,
'price' => 24,
'total_price' => 48
],
1 => [
'product_id' => 49,
'quantity' => 1,
'price' => 15,
'total_price' => 15
]
]
]
SalesController.php
if ($this->request->is('ajax')) {
$sales = $this->Sales->newEntity(
$this->request->data(),
[
'validate' => 'create',
'associated' => [
'SaleDetails' => ['validate' => 'create']
]
]
);
if ($this->Sales->save($sales)) {
//code
}
}
I manage to insert data into those tables but primary key of both tables keep increasing with addition number of 2. I inserted the data for 3 times. Here is how the data recorded: -
sales
id title description quantity price payment_method_id user_id created modified
------ ------ ----------- -------- ------ ----------------- ------- ------------------- ---------------------
1 (NULL) (NULL) 3 63.00 1 1 2017-03-03 11:37:11 2017-03-03 11:37:11
sale_details
id sale_id product_id quantity price total_price created modified
------ ------- ---------- -------- ------ ----------- ------------------- ---------------------
1 1 1 2 24.00 48.00 2017-03-03 11:37:11 2017-03-03 11:37:11
2 1 49 1 15.00 15.00 2017-03-03 11:37:11 2017-03-03 11:37:11
As you can notice from the tables, sales table id increasing with the addition of 2 and it happened to sale_details table as well.
My questions are as following: -
1) I'm kinda new to cakephp 3, so is this the right method to save data into multiple tables? I removed the following lines and I'm still able to save data into those tables. What to do with 'associated' here?
SalesController.php
if ($this->request->is('ajax')) {
$sales = $this->Sales->newEntity(
$this->request->data(),
[
'validate' => 'create',
/*'associated' => [
'SaleDetails' => ['validate' => 'create']
]*/ // removed
]
);
if ($this->Sales->save($sales)) {
//code
}
}
2) I can't figure out why those id increasing with the addition of 2. I'm pretty sure I've set auto_increment = 1 for both table.
System variable auto_increment_increment has been set to 2. Not sure how could this happen though.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Yes, that is the correct way to save associations.
Your associations are still being converted (and consequently saved) even without specifying them via the associated option, because first level associations are allowed by default, ie when removing the option, all first level associations can be converted, and when specifying it as shown in your example, only SaleDetails associations can be converted.
Quotes from the docs:
By default all the associations on this table will be hydrated. You can limit which associations are built, or include deeper associations using the options parameter
API > \Cake\ORM\Table::newEntity()
When you are saving an entity, you can also elect to save some or all of the associated entities. By default all first level entities will be saved.
Cookbook > Datbase Access & ORM > Saving Data > Saving Associations
See also
Cookbook > Datbase Access & ORM > Saving Data > Converting Request Data into Entities