how to combine two HABTM saves in one form in CakePHP? - cakephp

Question

I have two models Business and User. They are related by a HABTM relationship.
Everything is working with the baked controllers, models and views.
Now I'm trying to combine the two models in one form so the user can enter a business name with is user info.
Here's the form :
Form->create('User'); ?>
Form->input('Business.name', array('label' => __('Business name')));
echo $this->Form->input('User.email');
echo $this->Form->input('User.firstname');
echo $this->Form->input('User.lastname');
echo $this->Form->input('User.password');
echo $this->Form->input('User.phone_cell', array('type' => 'text'));
echo $this->Form->input('User.phone_home', array('type' => 'text'));
echo $this->Form->input('User.phone_work', array('type' => 'text'));
?>
Form->end(__('Submit')); ?>
The only way I was able to make it work was to save the User first and then get the user id and save the business after by adding the user array with the new id.
if ($this->User->save($this->request->data)) {
$this->request->data['User'] = array('User' => array(0 => $this->User->id));
if ($this->User->Business->save($this->request->data)) {
// User saved
} else {
// User not saved
}
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash(__('The user could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
}
I tried the saveAll method without success. Is is possible to optimize this the CakePHP way for a single save ?
Thanks

Answer 1

I was able to get it to work myself with a couple models named User and Group. Here's some snips from my code to show how I did it:
UsersController.php
public function edit($id = null)
{
$this->User->id = $id;
if ($this->request->is('get')) {
//On page load load the user data
$this->request->data = $this->User->read();
} else {
//Saving
if ($this->User->save($this->data)) {
//....snipped...
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash('Unable to update the user.');
}
}
//Build $groups array for form
// Only admins can assign admin rights
if ($this->isMember('Admin')) {
$this->set('groups',$this->User->Group->find('list'));
} else {
$this->set('groups',$this->User->Group->find('list',array(
'conditions' => array(
'Group.name !=' => 'Admin'
)
)));
}
//...more snipping...
}
edit.ctp (View)
echo $this->Form->create('User', array('action' => 'edit'));
echo $this->Form->input('User.username');
echo $this->Form->input('Group',array(
'type' => 'select',
'multiple' => true,
'label' => "Group (Select multiple entries with CTRL)",
'size' => count($groups)
)
);
//More snipping
With that example to work from, how are you validating that the Business.name entered is valid and can be matched to the HABTM relation? Mine forces a selection list in this case. My Model is extremely simple so I didn't include that.
What are your outputs to debug($this->data); vs. debug($this->request->data)?