How to save multiple images with a hasMany relationship in CakePHP? - cakephp

Question

How can I save multiple images in the secondary table?
My first table is Car, which has the fields:
id
title
featured_image and
My secondary table is Gallery, which has the fields:
id
car_id
gallery_images
Model Car.php
class Car extends AppModel
{
var $name='Car';
var $hasOne = array(
'Gallery' => array('className' => 'Gallery',
'foreignKey' => 'car_id'
));
}
Model Gallery.php
class Gallery extends AppModel
{
var $name='Gallery';
var $belongsTo = array(
'Car' => array('className' => 'Car',
'foreignKey' => 'car_id',
)
);
}
CarController.php
$this->Car->saveAll($this->data)

Answer 1

To save multiple images associated to a car, first you have to modify your Car model to:
class Car extends AppModel
{
var $hasMany = array(
'Gallery' => array(
'className' => 'Gallery',
'foreignKey' => 'car_id'
));
}
or just
class Car extends AppModel
{
var $hasMany = array('Gallery'); //simplified version, as fields follow convention
}
Then you have to structure you data as follows:
$data = array(
'Car' => array('title' => 'Volvo'),
'Gallery' => array(
array('gallery_images' => '/path/image1'),
array('gallery_images' => '/path/image1'),
array('gallery_images' => '/path/image3'),
),
);
In your view, the form should have the following structure:
echo $this->Form->create('Car', array('action' => 'add'));
echo $this->Form->input('Car.title');
echo $this->Form->input('Gallery.0.gallery_images');
echo $this->Form->input('Gallery.1.gallery_images');
echo $this->Form->input('Gallery.2.gallery_images');
echo $this->Form->end();
In your CarControllers::add() you can save all four records (one car and three images) with:
$this->Car->saveAll($this->request->data);
Please consider renaming your fields to represent better your data. For example, gallery_images should be renamed to something like image_filename, and model Gallery to Image of Photo.
As per Car.featured_image, it can hold a foreign key for galleries, or you can move this field on to the galleries/images table and make it a field named type (holding 'featured, normal, etc'), or perhaps a boolean named is_featured.