cakephp find associated models of associated model - cakephp

Question

I am calling a find on a model called Book which is associated with a model Page(book_id)
However Page is associated with a model called Asset(page_id). I would like to get the array with all three models
Book
Page1
Asset1
Asset2
Asset3
Page2
Asset1
Asset2
Asset3
The code I have at the moment only get me Book and Page
$options = array(
'conditions' => array('Book.' . $this->Book->primaryKey => $id),
'contain' => 'Page'
);
$books = $this->Book->find('first', $options);
Book hasMany Pages
Page hasMany Assets

Answer 1

You can contain deeper associations, like it says in the docs
Example from the docs
$this->User->find('all', array(
'contain' => array(
'Profile',
'Account' => array(
'AccountSummary'
),
'Post' => array(
'PostAttachment' => array(
'fields' => array('id', 'name'),
'PostAttachmentHistory' => array(
'HistoryNotes' => array(
'fields' => array('id', 'note')
)
)
),
'Tag' => array(
'conditions' => array('Tag.name LIKE' => '%happy%')
)
)
)
));
Same thing with your models...
$options = array(
'conditions' => array('Book.' . $this->Book->primaryKey => $id),
'contain' => array('Page' => array('Asset')))
);
$books = $this->Book->find('first', $options);
Should work if your associations are set correctly (and if all models implement containable behavior).
EDIT
(to address the confusion the OP had)
The nested contain options works for the model expanding the array. For example, if models are associated like this
Model-A -> Model-B -> Model-C & Model-D
-> Model-E -> Model-C
you could get the entire array with data like
Model-A
Model-B1
Model-C1
Model-C2
Model-D2
Model-B2
Model-C (null)
Model-D3
Model-E1
Model-C1
Model-C3
using something like
$this->ModelA->find('all'), array(
'contain' => array(
'Model-B' => array('Model-C', 'Model-D'),
'Model-E' => array('Model-C')
)
);
Also, you can add options to the containable array, including the ones used for searching, like 'conditions' (though be careful with this, it means that if the model doesn't match the condition it will return a null array, it does not mean the the whole "Model-A" will not be in the returned data since one of the nested conditions was not fulfilled).