Group By on Containable models using cake php - cakephp

Question

Hi i have model logo with the following associations
var $belongsTo = array(
'Attachment' => array(
'className'=>'Attachment',
'foreignKey'=>'attachment_id'
),
'Employee' => array(
'className'=>'Employee',
'foreignKey'=>'employee_id'
)
);
var $hasMany = array(
'Voting' => array(
'className'=>'Voting',
'foreignKey'=>'program_id'
)
);
i wrote a query in the following way it throws error
$PrgCond['contain'] = array(
'Attachment',
'Voting' => array(
'fields' => array(
'logo_program_id',
'COUNT(employee_id) as noOfEmps'
),
'group' => array('LogoVoting.logo_program_id')
),
'Employee' => array(
'fields' => array('id', 'employee_number', 'first_name', 'last_name')
)
);
$logoPrgDatas = $this->Program->find('all',$PrgCond);
Thrown Error is
SQL Error: 1054: Unknown column 'LogoVoting.logo_program_id' in 'field list'

Answer 1

This is an old question but still comes up in Google results..
I had a similar issue and found out that you cannot use group in the Model find options when you have associations or either use containable behavior(which uses associations) in cakephp 1.* or 2.*.
However, this issue is fixed in cakephp 3.* by using query builder! :)

Answer 2

It's a good idea to reference the model in your fields. For example, when you are using a column in a condition or a fields array, you should call it Model.column_name.
Having said that, the problem you are having is most likely related to the group:
'group' => array('LogoVoting.logo_program_id')
There is no LogoVoting in your model. It should be:
'group' => array('Voting.logo_program_id')
So I would update the query to be:
$PrgCond['contain'] = array(
'Attachment',
'Voting' => array(
'fields' => array(
'Voting.logo_program_id',
'COUNT(Voting.employee_id) as noOfEmps',
),
'group' => array('Voting.logo_program_id'),
),
'Employee' => array(
'fields' => array(
'Employee.id',
'Employee.employee_number',
'Employee.first_name',
'Employee.last_name',
),
),
);