CakePHP multi-model view - cakephp

Question

I am creating a website in CakePHP and I am kind of new on it. I couldn't find good resources on this matter, so there you go:
I have a three table structure for registering users: Users, Addresses and Contacts. I have to build a view with info of all three tables like:
Full Name: [ ] (from Users)
Shipping Address: [ ] (from Address)
Mobile Phone: [ ] (from Contact)
e-Mail Address: [ ] (from Contact)
What is the best way to deal with this situation. Specially for saving. Creating a new Model to represent this, that will have a save() method itself (Maybe a sql view in the database) Create a Controller to deal with this View that binds or unbinds info
I wonder still how I will handle both contacts as they will be 2 different INSERT's
Any hint or resources I can dig of I will be glad.

Answer 1

If your using the latest 1.2 code, check out Model::saveAll in the api
eg. Your view might look something like this:
echo $form->create('User', array('action' => 'add');
echo $form->input('User.name');
echo $form->input('Address.line_1');
echo $form->input('Contact.tel');
echo $form->end('Save');
Then in your Users controller add method you'd have something like:
...
if($this->User->saveAll($this->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash('Save Successful');
$this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash('Please review the form for errors');
}
...
In your User model you will need something like:
var $hasOne = array('Address', 'Contact');
Hope that helps!
http://api.cakephp.org/class_model.html#49f295217028004b5a723caf086a86b1

Answer 2

CakePHP allows you to easily maintains link between your models using relationship, see http://book.cakephp.org/view/78/Associations-Linking-Models-Together for the complete detail. Then retreiving the right User, you'll also get "for free", its address and contact informations.

Answer 3

3 models : User, Address, Contact
User hasOne Address, Contact
Address belongsTo User
Contact belongsTo User
in your model you define this like this :
class User extends AppModel {
var $name = 'User';
var $hasOne = array('Address','Contact');
..
To make this view, you need user_id field ind addresses, and contacts tables
To use this in a view, you simply call a find on the User model with a recursive of one (and btw, the users controller only uses User model).
$this->User->recursive = 1;
$this->set('user', $this->User->find('first', array('conditions'=>array('id'=>666)));
This will result in this array for your view :
array(
'Use' => array(
'id' => 666,
'name' => 'Alexander'
),
'Address' => array(
'id' => 123,
'zip' => 555
),
'Contact' => array(
'id' => 432,
'phone' => '555-1515'
));