Saving associated models in Cakephp 3 - cakephp

Question

I have a form that collects data about an Article, and I want to save that data, as well as for a model called Abstract, where an Article hasMany Abstracts. My models look like this:
namespace App\Model\Table;
use Cake\ORM\Table;
use Cake\Validation\Validator;
class AbstractsTable extends Table
{
public function initialize(array $config)
{
$this->belongsTo('Articles');
}
public function validationDefault(Validator $validator)
{
$validator
->notEmpty('body');
return $validator;
}
}
And
namespace App\Model\Table;
use Cake\ORM\Table;
use Cake\Validation\Validator;
class ArticlesTable extends Table
{
public function initialize(array $config)
{
$this->addBehavior('Timestamp');
$this->hasMany('Abstracts');
}
public function validationDefault(Validator $validator)
{
$validator ->notEmpty('category')
return $validator;
}
}
My input form has a field named 'abstracts.body', and in my ArticlesController I have this function:
public function add()
{
$data = $this->request->data;
$article = $this->Articles->newEntity($data, [
'associated' => ['Abstracts']
]);
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$article->user_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
$data['abstracts']['user_id'] = $article->user_id;
$data['abstracts']['approved'] = 0;
$article = $this->Articles->patchEntity($article, $data, [
'associated' => ['Abstracts']
]);
if ($this->Articles->save($article, [ 'validate' => false,
'associated' => ['Abstracts']
]) )
{
$this->Flash->success(__('Your article has been saved.'));
return $this->redirect(['action' => 'index']);
}
$this->Flash->error(__('Unable to add your article.'));
}
$this->set('article', $article);
}
My Abstracts table is pretty straightforward:
CREATE TABLE 'abstracts' ('id' INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL, 'article_id' INTEGER , 'user_id' INTEGER , 'body' TEXT, 'approved' BOOLEAN )
From debugging I can see that I have the correct 'abstracts' array within my $data (in add()), but it doesn't appear to ever try to save it to the database. Can someone please point out my error? Thanks!

Answer 1

Got it.
I started going wrong here:
My input form has a field named 'abstracts.body'
Because it's a hasMany relationship, I need to have that input be 'abstracts.0.body'
Then the rest of LeWestopher's answer will work-- adding an index to the fields I want to fill in from the Controller, so $data[abstracts][0]['user_id'] => ... and so on. Thanks!

Answer 2

You're post processing your $data['abstracts'] array incorrectly resulting in the association not saving. $data['abstracts'] is expected to be an array of Abstracts. Your issue lies here:
$data['abstracts']['user_id'] = $article->user_id;
$data['abstracts']['approved'] = 0;
You should be able to fix this pretty easily by changing this to:
foreach($data['abstracts'] as $index => $abstract) {
$abstract['user_id'] = $article->user_id;
$abstract['approved'] = 0;
$data['abstracts'][$index] = $abstract;
}
This should correctly iterate over your array of abstracts, set the user_id and approved keys appropriately and then it should save correctly.
CakePHP 3.x Documentation on Saving Associations
EDIT: Very interesting issue indeed. Try it without using patchEntity, and use newEntity by itself instead:
public function add()
{
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$data = $this->request->data;
// Post process abstracts objects
foreach($data['abstracts'] as $index => $abstract) {
$abstract['user_id'] = $article->user_id;
$abstract['approved'] = 0;
$data['abstracts'][$index] = $abstract;
}
// Build newEntity
$article = $this->Articles->newEntity($data, [
'associated' => ['Abstracts']
]);
// Save our entity with associations
if ($this->Articles->save($article, [
'validate' => false,
'associated' => ['Abstracts']
])) {
$this->Flash->success(__('Your article has been saved.'));
return $this->redirect(['action' => 'index']);
}
// On save fail
$this->Flash->error(__('Unable to add your article.'));
$this->set('article', $article);
}
}
EDIT 2: Your issue looks like it's definitely in your form helper. Your current form helper input creates an $data array that looks like this:
$data = [
'abstracts' => [
'body' => 'example text'
],
'category' => 'Science'
];
Which SHOULD look like:
$data = [
'abstracts' => [
['body' => 'example text'],
['body' => 'Im your second abstract'],
['body' => 'Abstract three!']
],
'category' => 'Science'
];
The issue lies in:
abstracts.body
Which should read as (in array dot notation):
// abstracts.0.body
echo $this->Form->input('abstracts.0.body', [
'label' => 'summary of article',
'maxlength' =>'440',
'rows' => '7'
]);
I believe that should be the last issue you run into.