how to define two foreign keys in cakePHP - cakephp

Question

I got a table with a few columns.
The table has a primary key (replyid), and two foreigne keys (userid and postid).
Here is the structure of the table:
{replyid, content, userid, postid}
The Reply table got two foreigne keys.
I am not sure if this is a correct to set the foreign keys like this:
class Post extends AppModel{
var $name = 'Post';
var $useTable = 'post';
var $primaryKey = 'postid';
var $belongsTo = 'User';
var $hasMany = array(
'Reply' => array(
'className' => 'Reply',
'foreignKey' => 'postid',
'foreignKey' => 'userid'
)
);
}
?>
Could you helpplease?

Answer 1

Two foreign keys are fine,but you should define the relationshions in right models.
In your post model,
var $hasMany = array(
'Reply' => array(
'className' => 'Reply',
'foreignKey' => 'postid',
//'foreignKey' => 'userid'
)
);
In your user model,
var $hasMany = array(
'Reply' => array(
'className' => 'Reply',
//'foreignKey' => 'postid',
'foreignKey' => 'userid'
)
);

Answer 2

Unfortunately CakePHP does not support composite keys or partial primary keys. As recommended by the CakePHP manual, you can either use direct query calls such as:
CREATE TABLE posts_tags (
id INT(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
post_id INT(10) NOT NULL,
tag_id INT(10) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id));
...Or, you can create a surrogate key, perhaps an auto-increment value. Rather than using an auto-increment key as the primary key, you may also use char(36). CakePHP will then use a unique 36 character uuid (String::uuid) whenever you save a new record using the Model::save method. (From CakePHP Manual)

Answer 3

Build your tables in the database and use cake bake to build the models - this way you'll see how Cake handles it natively. I recommend that you name your db columns like foreign_id. It'll make life a lot easier.