Okay, so after more searching around I found a post by pkclarke who
makes use of a search on the join table, and then uses a find() with
those results.
I still have the feeling this is not the best way it should be done,
but I think this approach will allow me to move forward....and no
requestAction.
// in the book.php model
function similar($id) {
$books_genres = $this->BooksGenre->find('list',
array(
'conditions' => array('genre_id' => $id),
'fields' => array('book_id'),
'limit' => 5,
'order' => 'RAND()',
)
);
$similarBooks = array();
foreach ($books_genres as $value) {
$book = $this->find('first',
array(
'conditions' => array('Book.id' => $value),
'contain' => array(
'Author' => array('fields' => array('id', 'slug',
'lastname')),
'Language' => array('fields' => array('id', 'name')),
),
'fields' => array('id', 'slug', 'title')
)
);
$similarBooks[] = $book;
}
return $similarBooks;
}
// books_controller.php
// $genre_id is an array() of Genre ID's associated with the
current book being viewed
$similar = $this->Book->similar($genre_id);
I was also pleasantly surprised that I could pass the $id array to
'conditions' and it would use it as an 'OR' :)
Thanks for your help Joe, your comments really helped to point on the
right path.
Mike
On Apr 11, 8:45 pm, Mike Cook <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Joe,
>
> During my experimentations I did come up with something similar, but
> one of the problems is how to set the conditions to work on the Genre
> ID.
>
> So, I have a book that has two genre, "Mystery" (id=5) and "Short
> Story" (id=20) and if I only try to search with say, "Mystery";
>
> $id = 5;
> $this->Genre->Book->similar($id);
>
> The problem is that I don't know how to set the 'conditions' in the
> find() so that it only brings up Books that have a Genre ID of 5.
>
> I can't get 'conditions to work and I thought maybe I could use;
>
> 'contain => array('Genre.id' => $id),
>
> but I get the error; Model "Genre" is not associated with model "5" --
> obviously I don't know what I'm doing. :-|
>
> How would I go about setting the conditions to grab books that only
> have that Genre ID?
>
> Mike
>
> On Apr 11, 7:31 pm, Joe Critchley <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > You've currently got your similar() function in your
> > genres_controller, whereas the primary model for the query is the Book
> > model (as it's finding related *books*, not genres).
>
> > I believe the following would be a more scalable approach.
>
> > Place your similar() function into your Book model. (So it would
> > be ....... $similarBooks = $this->find('all')............ and just
> > return your results).
>
> > Then call this model's function from wherever you need it, whether it
> > be the genres_controller:
>
> > $this->Genre->Book->similar($id);
>
> > ... or your books_controller....
>
> > $this->Book->similar($id);
>
> > .... or even from a completely unrelated model (use sparingly)....
>
> > $Book = ClassRegistry::init('Book');
> > $similar = $Book->similar();
>
> > It's possible that I'm missing the actual issue, but two important
> > points: 1) never use requestAction (as you probably know), and 2)
> > there should never be any variables in your views that aren't
> > available in your controllers, because there shouldn't be any new
> > variables assigned. If this is ever required, you're likely in need of
> > a Helper class. And yes, it would be worth looking at creating
> > elements for anything like "Similar books", or "5 Related Authors".
> > You can pass variables into elements.
>
> > I hope this helps.
>
> > On Apr 11, 5:00 pm, Mike Cook <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > In my books view.ctp, I want to have a list of 5 books that are
> > > related via the genres data, which has a HABTM relationship. Although
> > > I can do this by placing a function similar() in the
> > > genres_controller, I have to call it from the view with requestAction.
>
> > > // genres_controller.php
> > > function similar($id = null) {
> > > $similarbooks = $this->Genre->Book->find('all', array(
> > > 'contain' => array(
> > > 'Author' => array('fields' => array('id', 'slug')),
> > > ),
> > > 'fields' => array('id', 'slug', 'title'),
> > > 'limit' => 5,
> > > 'order' => 'RAND()',
> > > ));
> > > $this->set(compact('similarbooks'));
> > > }
>
> > > // Book view.ctp
> > > $results = $this->requestAction('/genres/similar/' . $id);
>
> > > Of course I don't want to really use requestAction (the only place so
> > > far I have used it!) but I would also like to be able to bring up 5
> > > random books from ALL the genres the book is assigned to - at the
> > > moment I am just searching on one genre id.
>
> > > I also know that this approach is not very good if I wish to include 5
> > > books which are related to say, both Genre and Author.
>
> > > At some point down the line I would also like to include a "5 Related
> > > Authors" list, so I guess I need a more modular approach (would
> > > elements be it?) - the problem is that I am completely stumped, even
> > > after a week looking at this!
>
> > > The solution I currently have is better than nothing, but I would be
> > > very grateful if anyone has an idea on how I could achieve a proper
> > > solution.
>
> > > Many thanks, Mike.
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