Best way to load models in CakePHP 2.0

Question

I'm not sure of the best way to load models in CakePHP 2.0 now.

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Question 1

I have a model where more than one database field is related to another model.

customers table has the fields country_origin, country_residence and country_study and all of those fields contain an ID from the table countries.

So in my Customer model, how am I supposed to load the Country model?

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Question 2

Has Controller::loadModel() been deprecated or is it bad practice to use this? How am I supposed to load a model in the controller?

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Question 3

When or why do you have to use App::uses() in a controller or model? I don't understand the point when the models will load anyway if you use the normal methods like loadModel(), hasOne, hasMany, belongsTo, etc.

Answer 1

This should be simple to understand. If you are using a controller and you need to load another model, you can call:

$this->loadModel('SomeModel'); 

Then you can make calls to the model like you normally would:

$this->SomeModel->read(null, '1'); 

App::uses is for lazy loading of classes. So you can still load a model using uses:

App::uses('MyModel', 'Model'); 

But then you will need to call it differently:

$MyModel = new MyModel(); $MyModel->read(null, '1'); 

or

MyModel::read(null, '1'); 

It just depends on where and how you want to use it.

Answer 2

The preferred way is

$this->load('MyModel'); 

However, you can also use

public $uses = array('DefaultModel', 'MyModel'); . . $this->MyModel->field(...); 

Cake supports both and you are free to use anyone you like.