CakePHP 3-level-deep model associations

Question

I am relatively new to CakePHP, I am doing fine with the documentation, but I've been trying to find a way out to this problem for weeks and I don't seem to find the solution, I am sure it is easy and maybe even automagically doable, but I just don't know how to find it (maybe I don't know the jargon for these kind of things)

My model structure is like this:

<?php
    class Trip extends AppModel {
          var $belongsTo = array(
            'User' => array(
                'className' => 'User',
                'foreignKey' => 'user_id'
            ),
            'Start' => array(
                'className' => 'Place',
                'foreignKey' => 'start_id'
            ),
            'End' => array(
                'className' => 'Place',
                'foreignKey' => 'end_id'
            ),
            'Transport' => array(
                'className' => 'Transport',
                'foreignKey' => 'transport_id'
            )
        );

     }
?>

<?php
class Place extends AppModel {

    var $belongsTo = array(
        'User' => array(
            'className' => 'User',
            'foreignKey' => 'user_id'
        ),
        'Country' => array(
            'className' => 'Country',
            'foreignKey' => 'country_id'
        ),
        'State' => array(
            'className' => 'State',
            'foreignKey' => 'state_id'
        ),
        'City' => array(
            'className' => 'City',
            'foreignKey' => 'city_id'
        )
    );
    var $hasMany = array(
        'PlaceStart' => array(
            'className' => 'trip',
            'foreignKey' => 'start_id',
            'dependent' => false
        ),
        'PlaceEnd' => array(
            'className' => 'trip',
            'foreignKey' => 'end_id',
            'dependent' => false
        )
    );

}
?>

<?php
class State extends AppModel {

    var $belongsTo = array(
        'Country' => array(
            'className' => 'Country',
            'foreignKey' => 'country_id',
            'conditions' => '',
            'fields' => '',
            'order' => ''
        )
    );

    var $hasMany = array(
        'City' => array(
            'className' => 'City',
            'foreignKey' => 'city_id',
            'dependent' => false
        )
    );

}
?>

... and so forth with User, City, Country, and Transport Models.

What I am trying to achieve is to get all the information of the whole tree when I search for a Trip.

<?php
class TripController extends AppController {
    function index() {
        debug($this->Trip->find('first'));
    }
}

Outputs

Array
(
    [Trip] => Array
        (
            [id] => 6
            [created] => 2010-05-04 00:23:59
            [user_id] => 4
            [start_id] => 2
            [end_id] => 1
            [title] => My trip
            [transport_id] => 1
        )

    [User] => Array
        (
            [id] => 4
            [name] => John Doe
            [email] => [email protected]
        )

    [Start] => Array
        (
            [id] => 2
            [user_id] => 4
            [country_id] => 1
            [state_id] => 1
            [city_id] => 1
            [direccion] => Lincoln Street
        )

    [End] => Array
        (
            [id] => 1
            [user_id] => 4
            [country_id] => 1
            [state_id] => 1
            [city_id] => 4
            [address] => Fifth Avenue
        )

    [Transport] => Array
        (
            [id] => 1
            [name] => car
        )
)

Here is the question: How do I get in one query all the information down the tree?

I would like to have something like

Array
(
    [Trip] => Array
        (
            [id] => 6
            [created] => 2010-05-04 00:23:59
            [User] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 4
                    [name] => John Doe
                    [email] => [email protected]
                )
            [Start] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 2
                    [user_id] => 4
                    [Country] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 1
                            [name] = Spain
                        )
                    [State] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 1
                            [name] = Barcelona
                        )
                    [City] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 1
                            [name] = La Floresta
                        )
                    [address] => Lincoln Street
                )
            [End] => (same as Start)
            [title] => My trip
            [Transport] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 1
                    [name] => car
                )
        )
)

Can CakePHP create this kind of data? Not only for $this->Model->find() but also for $this->paginate() as for example:

    // filter by start
    if(isset($this->passedArgs['start'])) {
        //debug('isset '.$this->passedArgs['start']);
        $start = $this->passedArgs['start'];
        $this->paginate['conditions'][] = array(
            'OR' => array(
                'Start.address LIKE' => "%$start%",
                'Start.State.name LIKE' => "%$start%",
                'Start.City.name LIKE' => "%$start%",
                'Start.Country.name LIKE' => "%$start%"
            )
        );
        $this->data['Search']['start'] = $start;
    }

It seems like a rough question but I am sure this is extensively done and documented, I'd really appreciate any help.

Answer 1

You seem to have everything setup OK. All you should have to do is set the recursive to 2 and that should give you an extra level to your data (assuming that you have set up all the relations correctly)

var $recursive =2;

Answer 2

An alternative, more surgical, solution that's particularly useful if you need to go deeper than 2 levels or if you have a lot of 2nd level associations that you don't need for this particular problem is the Containable Behavior. This is the 1.2.x documentation. If you're using v1.3.x, you'll find it here.