CakePHP nested associations, empty records errors - cakephp

I have few tables which are connected (hasMany) like a tree: 1 -> 2 -> 3.
There are few records in table 1, table 2 and 3.
I'm using CakePHP to fetch all data from table 1 with connected table 2, which is connected with table 3.
However few records in table 1 don't have any connected records in table 2. The same is in table 2, some records don't have connected records in table 3.
For the second situation scripts work fine. I get something like this:
1 -> 2 -> empty. But in the first situation, when data looks similar to: 1-> empty -> empty I get errors that table 3 doesn't exist.
Is there any solution to skip this errors and get pretty formatted association table as return to my query?
$options = array(
'conditions' => array(
'Table1.id' => $table1_ids
),
'contain' => array(
'Table2' => array(
'conditions' => array(
'id' => $table2_ids
),
'Table3' => array(
'conditions' => array(
'date_end >' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s')
),
'fields' => array('id'),
),
'fields' => array()
),
),
'fields' => array('id', 'name')
);
$this->Table1->recursive = -1;
$table1 = $this->Table1->find('all', $options);

It's not really cakephp to blame here but your lack of understanding what contain does.
What you're looking for are left joins, which is actually hinted in the documentation of contain.

Related

CakePHP find() group and order by date complex conditions

I am trying to get messages with their corresponding users, in order to display a chat list of profiles with their last message in chronological order.
array(
0 => array(
'Recepient' => array(
'id' => ...
'name' => ...
...
),
'Message' => array(
'content' => ...
'created' => ...
...
)
),
1 => ...
)
and in order to retrieve the results, I've written this find() method:
$msgs = $this->Message->find('all', array(
'group' => array('Recepient.id'),
'order'=>'Message.created DESC',
'conditions'=>
array(
'OR'=> array(
array('recepient_id'=>$pid),
array('sender_id' => $pid)
)
)
));
What I have:
message with corresponding "Recepient",
in chronological order
The problem:
the query DOES NOT retrieve the most recent message from $recepient_id/$sender_id combination.
So instead of list of users with the last message, I have a list of users with a message. What's wrong with my query? Thanks for help!
METHOD 2 results
I've created "chat_id" field in the database which is basically recepient_id+sender_id sorted alphabetically (because if user1 send user2 a message user1 is sender, later when user2 responds, he becomes the sender, so sorting will ensure two users will always have the same chat_id).
Than I added DISTINCT to the query:
$this->Message->recursive = 0;
$msgs = $this->Message->find('all', array(
'fields' => array('DISTINCT Message.chat_id','Message.*','Recepient.*'),
'order'=>'Message.created DESC',
'conditions'=>
array(
'OR'=> array(
array('recepient_id'=>$pid),
array('sender_id' => $pid)
)
)
));
and it does NOT work! I am now getting multiple messages for the same conversation.
If I remove Message fields and Recipient fields from the query, I get correct amount of "chats".
'fields' => array('DISTINCT Message.chat_id'),
but that's not the solution.
CakePHP version 2.7.0
MySQL DB
METHOD 3 results
$msgs = $this->Message->find('all', array(
'order'=>'Message.created DESC',
'fields' => 'recepient_id, content, max(Message.created) as max_created',
'group'=>'recepient_id',
// 'contain' => array('Recepient'),
'conditions'=>array( 'chat_id' => $chats )
));
I gave up on single-find method to resolve this, so now 1.I am getting list of chats, 2.I want to find the last message from each chat.
Acording to http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/12/07/how-to-select-the-firstleastmax-row-per-group-in-sql/ my find query should work. What happens is
(int) 0 => array(
'Message' => array(
'recepient_id' => '55e6d764-1444-4aad-a909-9042f07f76da',
'content' => '1st msg',
'created' => '2015-09-20 18:24:17',
'created_nice' => '2 hours ago'
),
(int) 0 => array(
'max_created' => '2015-09-20 18:24:28'
)
),
the field max(Message.created) is indeed showing the latest message from conversation but the 0=>Message array is for different message! As you can see $results[0]['Message']['created'] time and $results[0][0]['max_created'] are different!
Finally! Working solution:
$db = $this->Message->getDataSource();
$chats = $db->fetchAll(
'select id from (select * from messages order by created desc) Message
where recepient_id = "'.$pid.'" or sender_id = "'.$pid.'"
group by `chat_id`'
);
Above code will retrieve all messages, following the requirements. You can
a) SINGLE QUERY add mysql JOIN to include associated model (we keep the code single-query neat)
b) TWO QUERIES BUT SMARTER easier method, to select just "ids" of the messages and create another query that will have cake's build in containable behaviour. This might be better also because Behaviours will be applied.
You will have array tree as a result, to dig out the actual ids for next query use following:
$chats = Set::extract("/Message/id",$chats);
c) translate the solution to CakePHP query builder... :) up for a challenge?

How to find in joining tables Cakephp?

Well this is the problem. I have a table 'Store' that is join to a table 'Product', so each Store (for example Wal-Mart) has a series of products: (coffee, milk, ketchup, etc.) I need to do a find that retrieves only 2 random Stores, with a condition that those Stores must have at least one product.
I am doing the Find like this:
$this->Store->find('all', array( 'conditions' => ...... , 'order' => 'rand()','limit' => 2));
But this find can retrieve a Store with no products.
I can't do the find in the table Product, because multiples products have the same Store and the random can result in the same Store twice.
Do the find in the Products table like you mentioned, and then filter to only get DISTINCT store_id's. This will filter out getting the same store twice. Something similar to:
$this->Store->Product->find('all', array(
'order' => 'rand()',
'limit' => 2,
'fields' => array('DISTINCT(Store.id)')
));
Or just Group By Store.id:
$this->Store->Product->find('all', array(
'order' => 'rand()',
'limit' => 2,
'group' => 'Store.id'
));

Containable behavior doesn't return deeper model association and selecting fields

I want to limit the fields returned by a deeper association using containable.
My associations:
Game hasMany Review
The paginate and containable code:
$this->paginate = array(
'conditions' => $conditions,
'fields' => array(
'Game.id', 'Game.name',
'Publisher.id', 'Publisher.name'
),
'contain' => array(
'Game' => array(
'Review' => array(
'fields' => array('Review.id', 'ROUND(AVG(Review.score),1)')
)
),
)
);
$games = $this->paginate('Game');
Currently, all of the fields in the Review table are returned. 'ROUND(AVG(Review.score),1)' is never returned. How can I specify what fields I want returned from the Review association?
SQL dumps for two search results using #theJetzah's answer. The first is a search with one game as a result and the second is a search returning three games.
SELECT `Review`.`id`, `Review`.`review_text`, `Review`.`score`, `Review`.`user_id`, `Review`.`game_id`, `Review`.`created`, `Review`.`platform_id`, (ROUND(AVG(`Review`.`score`),1)) AS `Review__average_score` FROM `videogamedb`.`reviews` AS `Review` WHERE `Review`.`game_id` = (55)
SELECT `Review`.`id`, `Review`.`review_text`, `Review`.`score`, `Review`.`user_id`, `Review`.`game_id`, `Review`.`created`, `Review`.`platform_id`, (ROUND(AVG(`Review`.`score`),1)) AS `Review__average_score` FROM `videogamedb`.`reviews` AS `Review` WHERE `Review`.`game_id` IN (55, 56, 57)
Not a full answer, but an attempt to get it working :)
Approach1 (UPDATE: Containable doesn't support 'group by')
First of all, try to add the 'Game' model to the $uses array of your Controller, if it is not included yet, and re-organise the pagination array (as previously suggested by Sam), so that you'll be pagination the Game model itself.
Then, It may help to create a virtual field for the calculated score, but the results of 'Review' need to be grouped, otherwise you'll not be able to calculate the average score.
I'm not able to test this, but it may worth trying
something like this;
public $uses = array(
'Game',
// other models
);
public function myfunction()
{
$this->Game->Review->virtualFields['average_score'] = 'ROUND(AVG(Review.score),1)';
$this->paginate = array(
'Game' => array(
'fields' => array(
'Game.id',
'Game.name',
'Publisher.id',
'Publisher.name'
),
'contain' => array(
'Review' => array(
'fields' => array(
'Review.game_id,
'Review.average_score',
),
'group' => array(
'Review.game_id,
),
)
)
)
);
// Conditions can be passed to paginate,
// that way you can specify 'paginate' at
// one place and don't have to modify it
// to include the conditions
$games = $this->paginate('Game', $conditions);
}
Alternative approach: Using joins and a database-view
Apparently, the Containable behavior doesn't like group-by clauses; See this ticket for more information: Containable behavior does not implement 'group' option
CakePHP allows you to manually specify a join: Joining Tables
To simplify things and to prevent having to add a 'group by' for all fields, create a simple database-view in your database;
CREATE VIEW review_scores AS
SELECT
game_id,
ROUND(AVG(score),1) AS average_score,
COUNT(id) AS total_reviews
FROM
reviews
GROUP BY
game_id;
If you're unfamiliar with this; a database 'view' is basically a 'stored query', which can be accessed as if it was a regular table. See Create View
Then, use a 'manual' join, using the newly created database-view as the source-table. In your case, this will look something like this;
$this->paginate = array(
'Game' => array(
'fields' => array(
'Game.id',
'Game.name',
'Publisher.id',
'Publisher.name',
'ReviewScore.average_score',
'ReviewScore.total_reviews',
),
'joins' => array(
array(
'table' => 'review_scores',
'alias' => 'ReviewScore',
'type' => 'LEFT',
'conditions' => array(
'ReviewScores.game_id = Game.id',
)
)
)
)
);
Hope this helps
I think your array is a configured a little wrong, try:
$this->paginate = array(
'Game' => array(
'conditions' => $conditions,
'fields' => array(
'Game.id', 'Game.name',
'Publisher.id', 'Publisher.name'
),
'contain' => array(
'Review' => array(
'fields' => array('Review.id', 'ROUND(AVG(Review.score),1)')
)
)
)
);
$games = $this->paginate('Game');
As an aside, from personal experience, specifying the fields in a query doesn't always speed it up (certainly for small number of fields), assuming this is the motive for doing so. It does reduce memory occupancy but this is only relative to original size of the record and the number of records returned.

CakePHP - find conditions with associations

I have an issue with a cakePHP find conditions. I have a Club model, a User model and a Post model :
Club hasMany Post
Club HABTM User
Basically, my clubs_users table also contains additional fields such as let's say 'limit' and 'diff' that respectively indicate the maximum number of posts a user want to display and how old those posts are allowed to be. I'd like to select the appropriate posts for every club related to a given user. I'm doing someting like this
$clubs = $this->Club->User->find('first', array(
'conditions' => array('User.id' => $id),
'contain' => array(
'Club' => array(
'fields' => array(
'id',
'name'
),
'Post' => array(
'fields' => array(
'id',
'title',
'description',
'created',
),
'order' => array('Post.created' => 'DESC'),
'conditions' => array(
'DATEDIFF(NOW(), `Post.created`) <= /* 1 */',
),
'limit' => '/* 2 */'
)
)
)
));
What should i put instead of 1 and 2 for this to work ? I tried ClubsUser.diff and ClubsUser.limit but i got an error stating that those fields were unknown in the where clause.
Any help would be welcome.
Thanks for reading.
edit
After bancer's comment, i looked deeper into the MySQL doc and it appeared that LIMIT expects only numeric arguments. So I now just want to return the posts that are not too old. My new find is (with the actual fields name)
$overview = $this->Club->Follower->find('first', array(
'conditions' => array('Follower.id' => $this->Auth->user('id')),
'contain' => array(
'Club' => array(
'fields' => array(
'id',
'name'
),
'Post' => array(
'fields' => array(
'id',
'title',
'description',
'created',
),
'order' => array('Post.created' => 'DESC'),
'conditions' => array(
'DATEDIFF(NOW(), `Post.created`) <= ClubsUser.max_time_posts',
),
'limit' => 10
)
)
)
));
It generates the three following SQL queries (i replaced the fields name by * for clarity reasons) :
SELECT * FROM `users` AS `Follower`
WHERE `Follower`.`id` = 1
LIMIT 1
SELECT * FROM `clubs` AS `Club`
JOIN `clubs_users` AS `ClubsUser`
ON (`ClubsUser`.`user_id` = 1 AND `ClubsUser`.`club_id` = `Club`.`id`)
ORDER BY `ClubsUser`.`role_id` DESC
SELECT * FROM `posts` AS `Post`
WHERE DATEDIFF(NOW(), `Post`.`created`) <= `ClubsUser`.`max_time_posts` AND `Post`.`club_id` = (1)
ORDER BY `Post`.`created` DESC
LIMIT 10
The last query returns the error : field 'ClubsUser.max_time_posts' unknown in where clause
Ideally, i would like to get a query close to the one below instead of the last two queries above :
SELECT * FROM `clubs` AS `Club`
JOIN `clubs_users` AS `ClubsUser`
ON (`ClubsUser`.`user_id` = 1 AND `ClubsUser`.`club_id` = `Club`.`id`)
LEFT JOIN `posts` AS `Post`
ON (`Post`.`club_id` = `Club`.`id` AND DATEDIFF(NOW(), `Post`.`created`) <= `ClubsUser`.`max_time_posts`)
ORDER BY `ClubsUser`.`role_id` DESC, `Post`.`created` DESC
LIMIT 10
Any ideas ?
You should not use HABTM if you have extra fields in the join table, because Cake actually deletes and recreates those joins. You should use a "hasMany through" association:
Club hasMany ClubUser
User hasMany ClubUser
ClubUser belongsTo Club
ClubUser belongsTo User
When you do your find on User, you just contain ClubUser then contain Club.
$this->User->find('all', array(
'contain' => array(
'ClubUser' => array(
'fields' => array(
'diff',
'limit'),
'Club'))));
More details here:
http://book.cakephp.org/1.3/view/1650/hasMany-through-The-Join-Model
and here:
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/associations-linking-models-together.html#hasmany-through

Complex find query for hasMany relationship in cakePHP 1.3

I have been busy with the cakePHP framework for a couple of months now and I really love it. At the moment I'm working on a very new project and it does the job like it should (I think ...) but I feel uncomfortable with some code I wrote. In fact I should optimize my paginate conditions query so I get immediately the right results (right now I manipulate the result set by a bunch of Set::extract method calls.
I'll sketch the relevant aspects of the application. I have a model 'Site' who has a hasMany relationship with the model 'SiteMeta'. This last table looks as follow: id, site_id, key, value, created.
In this last model I record several values of the site at various periods. The name of the key I want to store (e.g. alexarank, google pagerank, ...), and off course also the value. At a given interval I let my app update this database so I can track evolution of this values.
Now my problem is this.
On the overview page of the various websites (controller => Sites, action => index) I'd like to show the CURRENT pagerank of the website. Thus I need one exact SiteMeta record where the 'created' field is the highest and the value in 'key' should be matching the word 'pagerank'. I've tried several things I read on the net but got none of them working (containable, bindmodel, etc.). Probably I'm doing something wrong.
Right now I get results like this when I do a $this->paginate
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[Site] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[parent_id] => 0
[title] => test
[url] => http://www.test.com
[slug] => www_test_com
[keywords] => cpc,seo
[language_id] => 1
)
[SiteMeta] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[site_id] => 1
[key] => pagerank
[value] => 5
[created] => 2010-08-03 00:00:00
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[site_id] => 1
[key] => pagerank
[value] => 2
[created] => 2010-08-17 00:00:00
)
[2] => Array
(
[id] => 5
[site_id] => 1
[key] => alexa
[value] => 1900000
[created] => 2010-08-10 17:39:06
)
)
)
To get the pagerank I just loop through all the sites and manipulate this array I get. Next I filter the results with Set::extract. But this doens't feel quite right :)
$sitesToCheck = $this->paginate($this->_searchConditions($this->params));
foreach($sitesToCheck as $site) {
$pagerank = $this->_getPageRank($site['Site']);
$alexa = $this->_getAlexa($site['Site']);
$site['Site']['pagerank'] = $pagerank;
$sites[] = $site;
}
if (isset($this->params['named']['gpr']) && $this->params['named']['gpr']) {
$rank = explode('-', $this->params['named']['gpr']);
$min = $rank[0];$max = $rank[1];
$sites = Set::extract('/Site[pagerank<=' . $max . '][pagerank>=' . $min .']', $sites);
}
$this->set(compact('sites', 'direction'));
Could you guys please help me to think about a solution for this? Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the contributions. I tried these options (also something with bindmodel but not working also) but still can't get this to work like it should be. If I define this
$this->paginate = array(
'joins'=> array(
array(
'table'=>'site_metas',
'alias'=>'SiteMeta',
'type' =>'inner',
'conditions' =>array('Site.id = SiteMeta.site_id')
)
),
);
I get duplicate results
I have a site with 3 different SiteMeta records and a site with 2 different record.
The paginate method returns me 5 records in total. There's probably an easy solution for this, but I can't figure it out :)
Also I tried to write a sql query myself, but seems I can't use the pagination magic in that case. Query I'd like to imitate with pagination options and conditions is the following. The query returns exactly as I would like to get.
$sites = $this->Site->query('SELECT * FROM sites Site, site_metas SiteMeta WHERE SiteMeta.id = (select SiteMeta.id from site_metas SiteMeta WHERE Site.id = SiteMeta.site_id AND SiteMeta.key = \'pagerank\' order by created desc limit 0,1 )');
As you are trying to retrieve data in a hasMany relationship, cakephp doesn't join the tables by default. If you go for joins you can do something like:
$this->paginate = array(
'joins'=>array(
array(
'table'=>'accounts',
'alias'=>'Account',
'type' =>'inner',
'conditions' =>array('User.id = Account.user_id')
)
),
'conditions'=> array('OR' =>
array(
'Account.name'=>$this->params['named']['nickname'],
'User.id' => 5)
)
);
$users = $this->paginate();
$this->set('users',$users);
debug($users);
$this->render('/users/index');
You have to fit this according to your needs of course. More on joins, like already mentioned in another answer.
Edit 1: This is because you are missing the second 'conditions'. See my code snippet. The first 'conditions' just states where the join happens, whereas the second 'conditions' makes the actual selection.
Edit 2: Here some info on how to write conditions in order to select needed data. You may want to use the max function of your rdbms on column created in your refined condition.
Edit 3: Containable and joins should not be used together. Quoted from the manual: Using joins with Containable behavior could lead to some SQL errors (duplicate tables), so you need to use the joins method as an alternative for Containable if your main goal is to perform searches based on related data. Containable is best suited to restricting the amount of related data brought by a find statement. You have not tried my edit 2 yet, I think.
Edit 4: One possible solution could be to add a field last_updated to the table Sites. This field can then be used in the second conditions statement to compare with the SiteMeta.created value.
Try something like this:
$this->paginate = array(
'fields'=>array(
'Site.*',
'SiteMeta.*',
'MAX(SiteMeta.created) as last_date'
),
'group' => 'SiteMeta.key'
'conditions' => array(
'SiteMeta.key' => 'pagerank'
)
);
$data = $this->paginate('Site');
Or this:
$conditions = array(
'recursive' => 1,
'fields'=>array(
'Site.*',
'SiteMeta.*',
'MAX(SiteMeta.created) as last_date'
),
'group' => 'SiteMeta.key'
'conditions' => array(
'SiteMeta.key' => 'pagerank'
)
);
$data = $this->Site->find('all', $conditions);
If that does not work check this and this. I am 100% sure that it is possible to get the result you want with a single query.
Try something like this (with containable set up on your models):
$this->Site->recursive = -1;
$this->paginate = array(
'conditions' => array(
'Site.title' => 'title') //or whatever conditions you want... if any
'contain' => array(
'SiteMeta' => array(
'conditions' => array(
'SiteMeta.key' => 'pagerank'),
'limit' => 1,
'order' => 'SiteMeta.created DESC')));
I use containable so much that I actually have this in my app_model file so it applies to all models:
var $actsAs = array('Containable');
Many thinks to all who managed to help me through this :)
I got it fixed after all hehe.
Eventually this has been the trick for me
$this->paginate = array(
'joins'=> array(
array(
'table'=>'site_metas',
'alias'=>'SiteMeta',
'type' =>'inner',
'conditions' => array('Site.id = SiteMeta.site_id'))
),
'group' => 'Site.id',
'contain' => array(
'SiteMeta' => array(
'conditions' => array(
'SiteMeta.key' => 'pagerank'),
'limit' => 1,
'order' => SiteMeta.created DESC',
)));
$sites = $this->paginate();

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