Re: What is the "CakePHP way" to use data returned from the model?

Thanks, that is extremely helpful, and makes a lot of sense!

>Querying "pictures AS
> Picture" will take you one step towards what is returned from Cake's
> find-methods

That helps a lot. I guess I had assumed that since I was using $this-
>Picture->query, Cake was aware that the model should be Picture - but
on second thought, it has no way of knowing that the query will
actually return a Picture.

Thank you for the helpful answer, it clears up a lot of things for me.

Alex

On Sep 26, 10:15 am, "martin.westin...@gmail.com"
<martin.westin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Model is quite a bit different in CakePHP compared to Rails.
> Since all data is returned as an array structure (and not objects) it
> is "dead" data and not "live" objects. It has to be laid out for you
> in advance.
>
> query vs. find
> query is pretty much a wrapper for straight SQL queries. Since you
> query "pictures" that is what you get back. Querying "pictures AS
> Picture" will take you one step towards what is returned from Cake's
> find-methods. Using find you are asking Cake to find data for Models.
> Using qurey you are only using Cakes dbo layer to ask sql queries.
>
> find('first') vs. find('all')
> When asking for a single record you will get back an array with the
> model's name as a key to access its data. $data['Picture']...
> When asking for multiple records you will get back an numeric array.
> Each one of the elements in that array will be identical to what the
> single record returned. $data[2]['Picture']...
>
> Why the ['Picture']?
> My take on why this structure was chosen is that is allows the same
> view-elements to render from many different find operations. If
> Article hasMany Picture you would access the picture data the same
> from Article as from Picture directly.
> Picture->find returns an array with a Picture key
> Article->find returns an array with both Article and Picture keys.
> A view element used to show pictures anywhere in the application would
> never need to know that the pictures were found as related data or
> not. The same goes for the form helper and any other code used to
> manipulate data.
>
> At least that is one possible reason. I was not in the room when they
> came up with it ;)
>
> I hope that was helpful. Just remember that Cake is (or once was)
> similar to Rails in an overall perspective on things but not really in
> the details.
>
> On Sep 26, 3:49 am, alex_c <alex.cure...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > I am new to CakePHP.  I've used both PHP (with no frameworks) and Ruby
> > on Rails in the past, and decided that learning a PHP framework might
> > make PHP projects a lot more pleasant.  I chose CakePHP because I'm
> > familiar with Rails - so far it's great, but I do have to wrap my head
> > around the differences.
>
> > I'm a bit unsure on what is the "CakePHP way" to use data returned
> > from the model.  To keep things simple, let's say I have a model
> > Picture, with only one field, id.
>
> > What's throwing me off is that the data returned doesn't always seem
> > to follow a consistent format.  For example,
>
> > $this->Picture->findById("1")
>
> > will return
>
> > Array
> > (
> >     [Picture] => Array
> >         (
> >             [id] => 1
> >         )
> > )
>
> > but
>
> > $this->Picture->query("SELECT * FROM pictures WHERE id=1")
>
> > will return
>
> > Array
> > (
> >     [0] => Array
> >         (
> >             [pictures] => Array
> >                 (
> >                     [id] => 1
> >                 )
> >         )
> > )
>
> > It feels a bit odd to have to write, for example, $pic["Picture"]
> > ["id"] everywhere, rather than $pic["id], but I can live with that.
>
> > What's really throwing me off is $pic["Picture"]["id"] versus
> > $pic["pictures"]["id"].  Having to account for that every time I
> > either read or use data seems... well... it really doesn't feel right.
>
> > So, am I missing anything?  Am I supposed to massage the data returned
> > from Find and Query methods in the controller?  How do you guys use it
> > in your views and helpers, to keep things as simple and consistent as
> > possible?
>
> > I'm using 1.2.0.7296-RC2.
>
> > Thanks for any help!
>
> > Alex
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