cakephp 3.x Saving Nested (deep) Association - cakephp

Question

I have product data coming from a 3rd party service call that I then create an object from and save to my MySQL DB. My models are as follows:
'products' hasMany>> 'product_skus' hasMany>> 'product_sku_attributes'
table relationships
In my ProductsTable.php initialize() method I have:
$this->hasMany('ProductSkus', [
'foreignKey' => 'product_no',
'dependent' => true,
]);
In my ProductSkusTable.php initialize() method I have:
$this->hasMany('ProductSkuAttributes', [
'foreignKey' => 'product_sku_id',
'bindingKey' => 'id',
'propertyName' => 'product_sku_attributes',
'dependent' => true,
]);
My controller:
$products = TableRegistry::get('Products');
$entity = $products->newEntity($product_data[0]);
$products->save($entity, [
'associated' => [
'ProductSkus',
'ProductSkus.ProductSkuAttributes',
]
]);
Here's is the relevant snippet from my entity debug:
'product_skus' => [
(int) 0 => object(App\Model\Entity\ProductSkus) {
'sku' => 'BDS1401H',
'sku_price' => (float) 366.76,
'sku_weight' => (float) 38.1,
'sku_img_main' => '',
'sku_img_large' => '',
'sku_img_default' => false,
'is_default' => true,
'product_sku_attributes' => [
(int) 0 => [
'product_no' => (int) 23200,
'sku' => 'BDS1401H',
'attribute_name' => 'Front Sway Bar Links',
'option_name' => 'Stock'
],
(int) 1 => [
'product_no' => (int) 23200,
'sku' => 'BDS1401H',
'attribute_name' => 'Shock Options',
'option_name' => 'NX2 Series'
],
(int) 2 => [
'product_no' => (int) 23200,
'sku' => 'BDS1401H',
'attribute_name' => 'Steering Stabilizer Options',
'option_name' => 'Stock'
]
],
'[new]' => true,
'[accessible]' => [
'*' => true,
'id' => true
],
'[dirty]' => [
'sku' => true,
'sku_price' => true,
'sku_weight' => true,
'sku_img_main' => true,
'sku_img_large' => true,
'sku_img_default' => true,
'is_default' => true,
'product_sku_attributes' => true
],
'[original]' => [],
'[virtual]' => [],
'[errors]' => [],
'[invalid]' => [],
'[repository]' => 'ProductSkus'
},
(int) 1 => object(App\Model\Entity\ProductSkus) { ...
I doubled checked, and all my fields are set as accessible in my table entity classes. Also, at this point I'm only trying to save one product record for simplicity, hence $products->newEntity().
My data is saving to 'products' and 'product_skus' tables without problem, but not to 'product_sku_products'. Can anyone see what the problem is? Is it because I'm not using the same foreignKey?
Please let me know what else I can provide for clarity.

Answer 1

The product_sku_attributes data is not being marshalled, it's still an array of arrays, and not an array of entities, hence it's not being saved.
Just like when saving entities, creating/patching them with associated data by default only works for first level associations. Deeper nested associations require to specify them via the associated option, ie:
$entity = $products->newEntity($product_data[0], [
'associated' => [
'ProductSkus.ProductSkuAttributes'
]
]);
$products->save($entity, [
'associated' => [
'ProductSkus.ProductSkuAttributes'
]
]);
See also
Cookbook > Database Access & ORM > Saving Data > Converting Request Data into Entities
Cookbook > Database Access & ORM > Saving Data > Saving Associations