cakephp 2.2 Using contain with Auth not working - cakephp

Question

I have a working example of Auth set up with Users & Groups, based on the cookbook tutorial. I have an additional Locations table, which is associated with my Groups.
Location hasMany Group. Group belongsTo Locations. In 2.2 I think I should be able to get location data back for a User, but am not able to.
// App controller
public function beforeFilter() {
$this->Auth->authenticate = array(
'all' => array (
'scope' => array('User.status' => 1)
),
'Form' => array(
'contain' => array('Group', 'Location'),
'fields' => array('Location.name')
)
);
The above code only works if I create a direct association between User and Location. Is it possible to use contain here with a Group to Location association?

Answer 1

Problem of BaseAuthenticate is how it returns user info: return $result[$model];.
So when I need contains I'm using alternative component placed in app/Controller/Auth:
App::uses('FormAuthenticate', 'Controller/Component/Auth');
class FormAndContainableAuthenticate extends FormAuthenticate {
protected function _findUser($username, $password) {
if (empty($this->settings['contain'])) { //< deafult
$userData = parent::_findUser($username, $password);
} else { //< with contains
$userModel = $this->settings['userModel'];
list($plugin, $model) = pluginSplit($userModel);
$fields = $this->settings['fields'];
$conditions = array(
$model . '.' . $fields['username'] => $username,
$model . '.' . $fields['password'] => $this->_password($password),
);
if (!empty($this->settings['scope'])) {
$conditions = array_merge($conditions, $this->settings['scope']);
}
$modelObj = ClassRegistry::init($userModel);
$modelObj->contain($this->settings['contain']);
$result = $modelObj->find('first', array(
'conditions' => $conditions
));
if (empty($result) || empty($result[$model])) {
return false;
}
foreach($result as $modelName => $modelData) {
if ($modelName !== $model) {
$result[$model][$modelName] = $modelData;
}
}
$userData = $result[$model];
}
// remove dangerous fields like password
unset($userData[$this->settings['fields']['password']]);
if (!empty($this->settings['exclude'])) {
foreach ($this->settings['exclude'] as $fieldName) {
unset($userData[$fieldName]);
}
}
return $userData;
}
}
As you can see - it uses parent Component when no contains provided.
Also some bonus: you can provide a set of fields to remove from resulting array. Just pass field names via 'exclude' key
How to use Component:
public $components = array(
'Auth' => array(
'authenticate' => array(
'FormAndContainable' => array(
'fields' => array(
'username' => 'username',
'password' => 'password',
),
'userModel' => 'Staff',
'contain' => array('StaffPermission'),
'exclude' => array('plain_password')
)
),
),
);

Answer 2

If User is not linked to Location, but Group is, you should try this:
'contain' => array('Group' => array('Location')),