Cakephp Model Assosiation Joins - cakephp

Question

well, in my cakephp project, i have 6 models, they are {User,Property,Category,Status,Comments,Attachable}
Property Model : $belongsTo = {User,Category,Status} . AND $hasMany = {Comment,Attachable} ..
Properties Controller Index Method ..
public function index() {
$this->Property->recursive = 0;
$this->set('properties', $this->paginate());
$properties= $this->paginate();
//pr($properties);
//exit;
}
which outputs :
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[Property] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[user_id] => 1
[category_id] => 1
)
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => zals
[username] => admin
[userLevel] => 1
)
[Category] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => villa
[property_count] => 0
)
[Status] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => New
[property_count] => 0
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[Property] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[user_id] => 1
[phone] => 78666
)
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => zals
[username] => admin
)
[Category] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => villa
[description] => villas are iby a wealthy person.
[property_count] => 0
)
[Status] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => New
[description] => New Property
[property_count] => 0
)
)
[2] => Array
(
[Property] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[user_id] => 1
[category_id] => 1
)
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => zals
[username] => admin
[email] => admin#realty.com
[userLevel] => 1
)
[Category] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => villa
[property_count] => 0
)
[Status] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => New
[property_count] => 0
)
)
)
Well the above method retrieves data only from the models in $belongsTo variable. What I want is to combine the related Comments and Attachable Models with the same
query. This can be manually queried with LEFT JOIN to comments and attachable MODEL.
this is what the query looks like
function index() {
$properties = $this->Property->query("SELECT `Property`.`id`, `Property`.`user_id`, `Property`.`category_id`, `Property`.`status_id`, `Property`.`state_id`, `User`.`id`, `User`.`name`, `User`.`username`,`Category`.`id`, `Category`.`name`, `Category`.`description`, `Status`.`name`, `Status`.`description``Comment`.`id`,`Comment`.`name`,`Comment`.`comment`,`Attachment`.`id`,`Attachment`.`AttachmentName` FROM `properties` AS `Property`
LEFT JOIN `users` AS `User` ON (`Property`.`user_id` = `User`.`id`)
LEFT JOIN `categories` AS `Category` ON (`Property`.`category_id` = `Category`.`id`)
LEFT JOIN `statuses` AS `Status` ON (`Property`.`status_id` = `Status`.`id`)
LEFT JOIN `cities` AS `City` ON (`Property`.`city_id` = `City`.`id`)
LEFT JOIN `comments` AS `Comment` ON (`Property`.`id` = `Comment`.`id`)
LEFT JOIN `attachments` AS `Attachment` ON (`Property`.`id` = `Attachment`.`id`) WHERE 1 = 1 LIMIT 20");
//pr($properties);
//exit;
$this->set('properties',$properties);
}
which outputs :
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[Property] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[user_id] => 1
[category_id] => 1
[status_id] => 1
)
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => za
[username] => admin
)
[Category] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => villa
[description] => villa by a wealthy person.
)
[Status] => Array
(
[name] => New
)
[Comment] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => A
[comment] => hello
)
[Attachment] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[AttachmentName] => 1342009083_4c2380.jpg
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[Property] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[user_id] => 1
[category_id] => 1
[status_id] => 1
)
[User] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => zals
[username] => admin
)
[Category] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => villa
[description] => villas a
)
[Status] => Array
(
[name] => New
)
[Comment] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[name] => asdasd
[comment] => asdasdas
)
[Attachment] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[AttachmentName] => 92f2e3c067d731a3823762.jpg
)
)
)
I am sure the latter way is not the right way to do it. Or
Suppose I used the cakephp's default index method in controller, And in VIEW i can do nested foreach loops inside the main foreach loop .. i .e
<?php foreach ($properties as $property) { ?>
$id = $property['Property']['id'];
$comments = ..... //here to query for the associated comments passing the id value ..
?>
can this be sorted out this way ? or how ? please guide .. thanks ..

Answer 1

Two things:
You can probably solve your problem by using the Containable behaviour. It's very flexible and can be used with pagination.
Doing an inner join on one-to-many relation is probably not a good idea.