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jan

hi, I'm looking for a code example for following situation, maybe somebody could help me out: i'd like to build orm model relations for two tables, connected through a third n:m connection table. how do i use the $_many_many and $_many_through properties for this? does somebody have a quick usage example?
thanks in advance & best wishes: jan.

Jelmer Schreuder

You need to create an in between table, by default this would be named the plural of both in alfabetical order. For instance many-many with Model_User & Model_Group would need a table named 'groups_users' (you can change this by setting a 'table_through' property for the many-many relationship). That table needs 2 columns, each named as a normal foreign key (Model_User gets user_id and Model_Group gets group_id) and for speed you should make both primary key. Both models need to be related to eachother after that:

// in Model_User
protected static $_many_many = array('group');

// in Model_Group
protected static $_many_many = array('user');

And that's pretty much it. Many-Through relationships need a model in between but I wouldn't use that if you don't need it, partially because saving/deleting those isn't possible directly (yet, it's planned for 1.0 final or 1.1).

jan

ok, thank you! and how would i have to set the properties for fields and tables if my naming convention differs from the fuel default?

Jelmer Schreuder

Full config with default values:

// in Model_User
protected static $_many_many = array(
    'groups' => array(
        'key_from' => 'id',
        'key_through_from' => 'user_id',
        'model_to' => 'Model_Group',
        'key_to' => 'id',
        'key_through_to' => 'group_id',
        'table_through' => 'groups_users',
    )
);

// in Model_Group
protected static $_many_many = array(
    'users' => array(
        'key_from' => 'id',
        'key_through_from' => 'group_id',
        'model_to' => 'Model_User',
        'key_to' => 'id',
        'key_through_to' => 'user_id',
        'table_through' => 'groups_users',
    )
);

jan

ok, thanks a lot, this should be solving my problem..

PaulboCo

// Model_Product
protected static $_many_many = array('category');

// Model_Category
protected static $_many_many = array('product');

// pivot table categories_products
// product_id
// category_id

Once I have the product model with its related category models, how do I add a
new category to the product model and save?

Jelmer Schreuder

$product = Model_Product::find(1, array('related' => array('categories')));
$category = Model_Category::find(5);

$product->categories[] = $category;
$product->save();

// after fetching and after saving you can be sure that the categories are indexed by their primary key
// thus removing the just added category is easy:
unset($product->categories[5]);
$product->save();

PaulboCo

Thanks Jelmer, you make it look so easy.

snsmurf

Apologies for bumping such an old thread, but seemed more relevant to post here then to create my own about. Using the code example above, is it possible to automate this anymore?
I've got my categories / products setup similar with a many to many relationship and I've got the forms for adding a product setup and adding the product with the following code:

try
{
 $item = Model_Product::forge(Input::post('data'));
 if($item->save())
 {
 // success message
 }
}
catch (Orm\ValidationFailed $e) {
// caught exception - error message 
}

Part of my form has a multi select for selecting which categories the product appears in. Is there a way (i.e. naming convention / style) to make it work out using the code above that in then needs to insert the category id numbers into my categories_products table? Or would I have to do it as described above and copy the categories, unset and then save separately?

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