CakePHP HABTM relationship saving new associations

Question

Im having some problems with saving my HABTM relationship for some code I'm working with. I have Podcasts and Categories in a HABTM relationship. Code and problem explanation below

Model/Podcast.php

class Podcast extends AppModel{
    public $hasMany = 'Episode';
    public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
        'Category' =>
            array(
                'className' => 'Category',
                'joinTable' => 'categories_podcasts',
                'foreignKey' => 'podcast_id',
                'associationForeignKey' => 'category_id',
                'unique' => false
            )
        );
}

Model/Category.php

class Category extends AppModel{
    public $hasAndBelongsToMany = array(
        'Podcast' =>
            array(
                'className' => 'Podcast',
                'joinTable' => 'categories_podcasts',
                'foreignKey' => 'category_id',
                'associationForeignKey' => 'podcast_id',
                'unique' => false
            )
        );
}

This is what the array I'm passing into saveAll() looks like

Array
(
    [Podcast] => Array
        (
            [name] => Mohr Stories - FakeMustache.com
            [description] => Join your host Jay Mohr and a rotating cast of his hilarious friends as they regale you with tales and conversation covering every topic imaginable. You haven't heard the half of it until you've heard... Mohr Stories.
            [website] => http://www.FakeMustache.com
        )

    [Category] => Array
    (
        [0] => 1
        [1] => 2
    )

)

Which works fine - the podcast is added and the join table is updated, but I was under the impression that my Category array could look like the following:

 [Category] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Test
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Test2
                )

        )

Which would save the new categories "Test" and "Test2" and then update the join table with their newly added ids. Is this not possible, or I am missing some of the picture here?

Based on [this section](http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/saving-your-data.html#saving-related-model-data-habtm) of the Saving Your Data page of the docs. Their example array there and the description _"Passing the above array to saveAll() will create the contained tags, each associated with their respective recipes."_ — Bizarro181, Jul 08 '13 at 14:07

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 14 '14 at 10:19

You do are able to do that, but with another data format in which each record contains the associated data as on the following code that allows to save 2 records :

array{
    array{
        'Podcast' => array {
             'id' => 25
         },
         'Category' => array {
             'name' => 'Test'
         }
    }
    array{
         'Podcast' => array {
             'id' => 25
         },
         'Category' => array {
             'name' => 'Test2'
         }
    }
}

Pass this array to the saveAll method on one of your Podcast/Category Models.

$this->Podcast->saveAll($myData);

But take care, as you don't provide any id for the categories, they will be created, even if there are existing Category with the same name.

And if a Podcast with the id 25 doesn't exists, it will be created.

CakePHP HABTM relationship saving new associations

1 Answers1