How do I use Model in Helper - CakePHP 2.x - cakephp

Question

I recently upgraded my app from cake 1.3.x to cake 2.x. Now I have a helper which uses model in some function. Initially syntax for loading model was (working for 1.3.x)
App::import('Model', $modelName);
$modelObject = &ClassRegistry::getObject($modelName);
$modelObject->find()
Now I changed it to following
App::uses($modelName,'Model');
$modelObject = &ClassRegistry::getObject($modelName);
$modelObject->find()
Problem is, this conversion is not working. Can anybody tell me where am I doing wrong. Thanking in advance.
PS:
Error message is:
Call to a member function find() on a non-object

Answer 1

working code should be
//let $modelName be User
App::import("Model", "User");
$model = new User();
$model->find("list");
I hope this will help some needy fellow

Answer 2

You can also load model in helper, add following method in helper class:
Step1:
public function loadModel($modelClass = null, $id = null) {
if ($modelClass === null) {
$modelClass = $this->modelClass;
}
$this->uses = ($this->uses) ? (array) $this->uses : array();
if (!in_array($modelClass, $this->uses, true)) {
$this->uses[] = $modelClass;
}
list($plugin, $modelClass) = pluginSplit($modelClass, true);
$this->{$modelClass} = ClassRegistry::init(array(
'class' => $plugin . $modelClass, 'alias' => $modelClass, 'id' => $id
));
if (!$this->{$modelClass}) {
throw new MissingModelException($modelClass);
}
return true;
}
Step2: call above method as you do in controller like this:
$this->loadModel(ModelName);
I hope this would resolve problem

Answer 3

I wanna go through helper to view data In the form of foreach
public function display()
{
$links = TableRegistry::getTableLocator()->get('category');
$category = $links->find('all')
->where(['status' => 1, 'position' => 0])
->select([
"category" => 'parent', 'name'
])
->toArray();
return $category['category'];
}