CakePHP adding to multiple tables from one view - cakephp

Question

can someone provide an explanation for me?
I've got a database where I'm trying to update 4 tables from one page, Organizations, OrganizationsDetails, Account, AccountRoles. The add view itself would contain fields for the Account and the Organization. When I call the OrganizationsController add function, I want to then call add on AccountController, AccountRolesController (set Account as an administrator role), and OrganizationDetailsController (set that Account as the administrator for that specific Organization).
Should I be using components for this? When I call add() on the Organizations, I always intend to perform these steps - never solely create the Organizations entry below. Should I be doing this directly in that function or some other method?
Let me know if I need to explain more, thanks!
EDIT: Added the four models below:
Organization
class Organization extends AppModel {
public $hasMany = array(
'Account' => array(
'className' => 'Account',
'foreignKey' => 'organization_id',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
);
public $hasOne = array(
'OrganizationDetail' => array(
'className' => 'OrganizationDetail',
'foreignKey' => 'organization_id',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
);
OrganizationDetail
class OrganizationDetail extends AppModel {
public $belongsTo = array(
'Organization' => array(
'className' => 'Organization',
'foreignKey' => 'organization_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
),
'Account' => array(
'className' => 'Account',
'foreignKey' => 'account_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
)
);
AccountRole
class AccountRole extends AppModel {
public $belongsTo = array(
'Account' => array(
'className' => 'Account',
'foreignKey' => 'account_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
),
'Role' => array(
'className' => 'Role',
'foreignKey' => 'role_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
)
);
Account
class Account extends AppModel {
public $belongsTo = array(
'Organization' => array(
'className' => 'Organization',
'foreignKey' => 'organization_id',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
)
);
public $hasOne = array(
'OrganizationDetail' => array(
'className' => 'OrganizationDetail',
'foreignKey' => 'account_id',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
);
public $hasMany = array(
'AccountRole' => array(
'className' => 'AccountRole',
'foreignKey' => 'account_id',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
);

Answer 1

You've got wrong the whole MVC idea. Controllers should not call methods in other controllers (or at least not in this scenario).
The right approach would be to set up OrganizationsController->add() so that it saves all the data by independent calls to each Model->save($data), or by using
Organization->saveAssociated($data,array('deep' => true))
Your form fields need to be named properly for this to work. For example:
echo $this->Form->create('Organization', array('action' => 'add'));
echo $this->Form->input('Organization.name'));
echo $this->Form->input('Account.0.name', array('label' => 'Account name'));
echo $this->Form->input('OrganizationDetail.details', array('label' => 'Org. Details'));
echo $this->Form->input('Account.0.AccountRole.id', array('label' => 'Account Role'));
echo $this->Form->end('Add');
However, you may get into trouble if you try to go too many levels deep. If you find yourself in this situation, it's probably because you data model is flawed.
This is what your data model currently looks like:
This is what I believe it should look like:
It is critical to have your data model right before you start coding. It can save you many headaches!