Stuck with HasMany through saving and error array_merge() - cakephp

Question

I'm trying to set up a pretty simple website to create and edit recipes ('Recettes' in french).
I'm an experienced frontend developer with a good knowledge (not advanced) of php, and I have been working on CakePhp with a team of developers in the past. I'm kind of learning the bases of starting a project from scratch and it is really not that easy.
I've set up a project, database (Ingredients, Recette and IngredientRecette) and used Bake to generate most of the code.
I have a working CRUD workflow for my 3 models and the only thing left to do is to be able to add ingredients from the Recette/add page but i'm stuck. I followed the instructions on the cake php website (http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/associations-linking-models-together.html#hasmany-through-the-join-model) and other website (cause the help on cakephp's doc is really not that helpful) and I beleive I have setup a correct Hasmany Through relationship.
But the saveAll function doesn't save anything in the join model (IngredientRecette) and I've came accross a particular error (see below) after I've successfully solved another one that took me a couple of hours to work out !
So I have the feeling that I've checked, and double checked, and triple checked everything in my code and I've read every questions and answers on forums etc...
And I am stuck with this problem, maybe there is something obvious I didn't figured, or maybe and definitely don't understand how Cakephp really wordk :(
Anyway, thanks in advance for those who will be able to bring there advices or help on this :
Here is the error I get after I submitted /recettes/add (I added some form elements to add an ingredient and a quantity to my Recette) :
Warning (2): array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array [CORE\Cake\Model\Model.php, line 2250]
Here is the array I'm passing to the saveAll() method in the controller (output from debug()):
array(
'Recette' => array(
'auteur' => '7',
'nom' => 'Nouvelle Recette',
'cout' => 'Pas cher',
'niveau' => '5',
'tps_realisation' => '30 min',
'nb_personnes' => '6',
'description' => 'Description data',
'remarque' => ''
),
'AssociatedIngredient' => array(
'id_ingredient' => '6',
'quantite' => '70 cl',
'id_recette' => '7654'
)
)
Here is my controller code :
<?php
App::uses('AppController', 'Controller');
/**
* Recettes Controller
*
* #property Recette $Recette
*/
class RecettesController extends AppController {
/**
* index method
*
* #return void
*/
public function index() {
$this->Recette->recursive = 0;
$this->set('recettes', $this->paginate());
}
/**
* view method
*
* #param string $id
* #return void
*/
public function view($id = null) {
$this->Recette->id = $id;
if (!$this->Recette->exists()) {
throw new NotFoundException(__('Invalid recette'));
}
$this->set('recette', $this->Recette->read(null, $id));
}
/**
* add method
*
* #return void
*/
public function add() {
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
debug($this->request->data);
$this->Recette->create();
if ($this->Recette->saveAll($this->request->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The recette has been saved'));
//$this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The recette could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
}
}
$this->loadModel('Ingredient');
$liste_ingr = $this->Ingredient->find('all');
$this->set('liste_ingr', $liste_ingr);
}
The IngredientRecette model
<?php
App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');
/**
* Recette Model
*
* #property IngredientRecette $ingredient
*/
class Recette extends AppModel {
/**
* Use database config
*
* #var string
*/
public $useDbConfig = 'default';
/**
* Use table
*
* #var mixed False or table name
*/
public $useTable = 'recette';
/**
* Primary key field
*
* #var string
*/
public $primaryKey = 'id_recette';
/**
* Display field
*
* #var string
*/
public $displayField = 'nom';
public $recursive = 2;
/**
* Validation rules
*
* #var array
*/
public $validate = array(
'id_recette' => array(
'numeric' => array(
'rule' => array('numeric'),
),
),
'auteur' => array(
'numeric' => array(
'rule' => array('numeric'),
),
),
'nom' => array(
'notempty' => array(
'rule' => array('notempty'),
),
),
'niveau' => array(
'numeric' => array(
'rule' => array('numeric'),
),
),
'nb_personnes' => array(
'numeric' => array(
'rule' => array('numeric'),
),
),
);
//The Associations below have been created with all possible keys, those that are not needed can be removed
/**
* hasMany associations
*
* #var array
*/
public $hasMany = array(
'AssociatedIngredient' => array(
'className' => 'IngredientRecette',
'foreignKey' => 'id_recette',
'dependent' => false,
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => '',
'limit' => '',
'offset' => '',
'exclusive' => '',
'finderQuery' => '',
'counterQuery' => ''
)
);
}
And IngredientRecette model (the join model)
<?php
App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');
/**
* IngredientRecette Model
*
* #property ingredient $ingredient
* #property recette $recette
*/
class IngredientRecette extends AppModel {
/**
* Use database config
*
* #var string
*/
public $useDbConfig = 'default';
/**
* Use table
*
* #var mixed False or table name
*/
public $useTable = 'ingredient_recette';
/**
* Primary key field
*
* #var string
*/
public $primaryKey = 'id_ingredient_recette';
public $recursive = 2;
//The Associations below have been created with all possible keys, those that are not needed can be removed
/**
* belongsTo associations
*
* #var array
*/
public $belongsTo = array(
'IngredientLiaison' => array(
'className' => 'Ingredient',
'foreignKey' => 'id_ingredient',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
),
'RecetteLiaison' => array(
'className' => 'Recette',
'foreignKey' => 'id_recette',
'conditions' => '',
'fields' => '',
'order' => ''
)
);
}
So nothing is saved in the join model and I have this warning...
Any help appreciated and of course please let me know if anything is unclear !
thanks a lot !!

Answer 1

I think your data is not formatted correctly. How about trying this instead (notice the extra array I put inside Associated Ingredient). Since recipe hasMany associated ingredient, the data for Associated Ingredient should be a series of arrays.
array(
'Recette' => array(
'auteur' => '7',
'nom' => 'Nouvelle Recette',
'cout' => 'Pas cher',
'niveau' => '5',
'tps_realisation' => '30 min',
'nb_personnes' => '6',
'description' => 'Description data',
'remarque' => ''
),
'AssociatedIngredient' => array(
array(
'id_ingredient' => '6',
'quantite' => '70 cl',
'id_recette' => '7654'
),
array( /*ingredient 2 data*/ ),
)
);