TableRegistry association different than Model association

Question

i want Bake to allow multiple foreign keys between the same tables. Multiple belongsTo and multiple HABTM (using multiple joinTables).

I have no problems with the belongsTo part, but i am struggling with implementing multiple HABTM tables. My syntax looks like this:

[joinTable, prefix, [joined Tables Array]],
["in_protocols_plant_controllers", "in", ["protocols", "plant_controllers"]], 
["out_protocols_plant_controllers", "out", ["protocols", "plant_controllers"]]

The prefix is used for producing different alias association names. I edited the ModelTask and my model file looks now how i want it to. This is what i added to ModelTask.findBelongsToMany( ) before return $associations.

foreach (Configure::read("specialBelongsToMany") as $elem) {
    $joinTableName = $elem[0];
    if (!in_array($joinTableName, $tables)) { debug($elem); die(); }
    $prefix = $elem[1];
    $conTables = $elem[2];

    $currIndex = array_search($tableName, $conTables);

    if ($currIndex !== false) {
        $otherIndex = $currIndex == 0 ? 1 : 0;
        $otherTableName = $conTables[$otherIndex];
        if (!in_array($otherTableName, $tables)) { debug($elem); die(); }

        $assoc = [
            'alias' => $this->_camelize($prefix . "_" . $otherTableName),
            'className' => $this->_camelize($otherTableName),
            'foreignKey' => $this->_modelKey($tableName),
            'targetForeignKey' => $this->_modelKey($otherTableName),
            'joinTable' => $joinTableName
        ];
        $associations['belongsToMany'][] = $assoc;
    }
}

My power_analyzers association produced by this looks like

[
    'belongsTo' => [
        (int) 0 => [
            'alias' => 'Manufacturers',
            'className' => 'Contacts',
            'foreignKey' => 'manufacturer_id'
        ]
    ],
    'hasMany' => [],
    'belongsToMany' => [
        (int) 0 => [
            'alias' => 'PlantControllers',
            'foreignKey' => 'power_analyzer_id',
            'targetForeignKey' => 'plant_controller_id',
            'joinTable' => 'plant_controllers_power_analyzers'
        ]
    ]
]

I didnt edited any other stuff in my tasks besides findbelongsto() in ModelTask for my multiple belongsTo logic and the above code.

But for some reason TableRegistry::get() is returning not existing associations and i dont know how to fix this. TableRegistry::get() in ControllerTask.php returns in function bake() this modelobject for power_analyzers

object(App\Model\Table\PowerAnalyzersTable) {

    'registryAlias' => 'PowerAnalyzers',
    'table' => 'power_analyzers',
    'alias' => 'PowerAnalyzers',
    'entityClass' => 'App\Model\Entity\PowerAnalyzer',
    'associations' => [
        (int) 0 => 'manufacturers',
        (int) 1 => 'plantcontrollers',
        (int) 2 => 'plantcontrollerspoweranalyzers',
        **(int) 3 => 'inplantcontrollers',** // i dont want this
        **(int) 4 => 'outplantcontrollers'** // i dont want this
    ],
    'behaviors' => [
        (int) 0 => 'Timestamp',
        (int) 1 => 'Search'
    ],
    'defaultConnection' => 'default',
    'connectionName' => 'default'

}

Here is a snipped of my database schema. It returns that power_analyzers and power_controller_features are connected with in_protocols_plan_controllers and out_protocols_plant_controllers, vice versa. This association isnt returned in ModelTask.

Where is the information for TableRegistry saved? Why does it save associations which aren't listed in the corresponding model file? How can i fix by TableRegistry? I hope you can help me.

TableRegistry is definitly retrieving data from ModelTask, but why does it connect different HABTM associations? Without my modification it does not.

I have problems with this because my Controllers now try to contain the not existing associations in their find.

Thanks for your help!

Edit:

I tried something more and figured out, that the tableobject changes while ModelTask.php is running. The two unwanted associations get added after protocol table's ModelTask bake() is done (after $this->bakeTest but before end of function). This is the table which introduces the associations. But i couldnt figure out why the associations of protocols were also added to power_analyzers associations. And what makes me more confused is that the tableobject changes after bakeTest(). What the hell has bakeTest to do with associations.

Maybe it would help me, if I knew where the association (int) 2 => 'plantcontrollerspoweranalyzers', got added to the tableobject. This is a wanted behaviour. I think that my modification doesnt work with it and i have to modify that part.

My bake processes are always clean. I am using a python script deleting all old stuff before bake.

Thanks for your help so far!

Edit 2:

Found a trace from Table::belongsToMany(). I will look into this the next days.

########## DEBUG ##########
'power_analyzers   InPlantControllers'
###########################

Cake\ORM\Table::belongsToMany() - CORE\src\ORM\Table.php, line 1117
Cake\ORM\Association\BelongsToMany::_generateTargetAssociations() - CORE\src\ORM\Association\BelongsToMany.php, line 364
Cake\ORM\Association\BelongsToMany::junction() - CORE\src\ORM\Association\BelongsToMany.php, line 322
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::_processModel() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 459
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::_processModel() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 456
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::_processModel() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 456
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::_processModel() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 456
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::_processModel() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 456
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::generateFixtureList() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 424
Bake\Shell\Task\TestTask::bake() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\Task\TestTask.php, line 231
App\Shell\Task\ModelTask::bakeTest() - APP/Shell\Task\ModelTask.php, line 1195
App\Shell\Task\ModelTask::bake() - APP/Shell\Task\ModelTask.php, line 118
App\Shell\Task\ModelTask::main() - APP/Shell\Task\ModelTask.php, line 101
Bake\Shell\BakeShell::Bake\Shell\{closure}() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\BakeShell.php, line 259
Cake\Collection\Collection::each() - CORE\src\Collection\CollectionTrait.php, line 51
Bake\Shell\BakeShell::all() - ROOT\vendor\cakephp\bake\src\Shell\BakeShell.php, line 260
Cake\Console\Shell::runCommand() - CORE\src\Console\Shell.php, line 493
Cake\Console\CommandRunner::run() - CORE\src\Console\CommandRunner.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT\bin\cake.php, line 12

TableRegistry::get() will return what it's being asked for, either a concrete table class instance for the given alias, or an auto-table (that is an instance of \Cake\ORM\Table), it has no involvement with associations. I think you need to add more details to your question (including your TableRegistry::get() usage and possibly the modified task code), as it's really hard to tell where in your code, what technical problem it is exactly that you are experiencing. — ndm
So what exactly does the generated table class look like? I'm fairly certain that the controller task doesn't add anything, and neither does the table locator, so I would suspect that the associations are present in the table class (or in a cached version maybe if you're using some sort of opcode cache). Also have you tried a clean run, that is, remove the genereated model(s) and controller(s) and rebake them? — ndm
I dont get this.... especially the part that bakeTest() of my protocols table changes the association of power_analyzers. Does somebody know where the association to the join table is added? Maybe this could be the solution for my modification. I am talking about ** (int) 2 => 'plantcontrollerspoweranalyzers' **. This is also not added after ModelTask.findBelongsToMany() but somewhere else. — Carsten
I'd suggest that you add breakpoints in \Cake\ORM\Table::addAssociations() and \Cake\ORM\Table::belongsToMany(), then you'll see from where the methods are being invoked (if at all). All I can do from here without seeing the full context, is shooting into the dark, which isn't too helpful. — ndm

Carsten Carsten · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-16T09:20:52

I found out that TestTask is running over all association calling Cake\ORM\Association::junction() which adds "missing" associations. I wanted not to edit the core files of cakephp. Instead I avoided that TestTask calls the junction function by adding this code at the beginning of TestTask::_processModel()

foreach (Configure::read("specialBelongsToMany") as $elem) {
    $joinTableName = $elem[0];
    $prefix = $elem[1];
    $conTables = $elem[2];

    foreach ($conTables as $conTable) {
        $conAlias = Inflector::camelize($prefix . "_" . $conTable);
        if ($conAlias == $subject->alias()) {
            return;
        }
    }
}

TableRegistry association different than Model association

1 Answers