Pagination with recursion while using loadModel - cakephp

Question

In my "Reports" controller, which is just a dummy controller without any actual database, I'm trying to generate a paginated view of other models. For example, to generate paginated view of "Transactions" model I'm doing the following:
$this->loadModel('Transactions');
$this->Transactions->bindModel(array('belongsTo'=>array('Item'=>array('className'=>'Item'),'Member'=>array('className'=>'Member'))));
$results = $this->paginate('Transactions',null,array('recursive'=>1));
But this is not giving me associated data from Items and Members. If I do a
$this->Transactions->find('all',array('recursive'=>1))
I get the associated data, but not paginated. How will I get paginated view which includes the associated data too?

Answer 1

Two things: First, even when plural model names can work for some odd reason, the convention is that model names are singular, like $this->loadModel('Transaction');. See the manual on naming conventions.
Second, forget about recursive and go for the Containable behavior. Frankly, it's so useful that I wonder why it isn't the default process (perhaps because Containable got created when the framework was very mature). Matt has a good book explaining why Containable is good (download it, really, it's almost mandatory :D ). But to help even more, I'm going to tell you exactly how you solve your issue with containable:
1) Define the associations in the models, like:
In Transaction model:
var $belongsTo = array(
'Item' => array(
'className' => 'Item',
'foreignKey' => 'item_id',
)
);
In Item model:
var $hasMany = array(
'Transaction' => array(
'className' => 'Transaction',
'foreignKey' => 'item_id',
'dependent' => true,
'exclusive' => true,
)
);
Do the same for the Member model.
2) Create an app_model.php file in /app/ with this code:
(The $actsAs variable here within the AppModel class tells all models to use Containable)
<?php
class AppModel extends Model {
var $recursive = -1;
var $actsAs = array('Containable');
}
?>
3) In the Reports Controller, change the code to something like this:
(The contain parameter is an array of all the associated models that you want to include. You can include only one assoc. model, or all, or whatever you want).
$this->loadModel('Transaction');
$this->paginate = array('Transaction' => array('contain' => array('Item', 'Member')));
$results = $this->paginate('Transaction');
And that's it!