On Apr 13, 2:44 am, iqbal-san <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm wondering how best to define the models for users with roles,
> where I want to save a different set of data for each role. Plus,
> there will be relationships between the roles. For example, there is
> user type student and user type teacher, where a teacher have many
> students. Both type of users have some similar methods and attributes
> (e.g. can log into the system, both attend school during the same
> academic year), but each also have its own unique attributes and
> functions.
>
> Currently I'm trying to set teacher and students as an extension of
> the User model, but I found some hassle in bringing up each role's
> data, for example after login.
>
> Should they be totally separate models? but then how to handle the
> login?
>
> I didn't find enough info by googling, but perhaps i entered the wrong
> term? If this have been discussed in this group before, please point
> me in the right direction.
I've run into this problem several times now and have tried a few
different solutions. The latest is to include model & association_key
columns in the users table. I then also include a $user_id in the
associated tables. This is actually working quite well. One thing I
really didn't like doing was creating the user_id column as allowing
NULL. It was either that, or setting the users table columns as NULL.
Chicken & egg issue when first creating a user.
So, here's a few notes about what I did, adjusted for your scenario.
Usermodel:
var $hasOne = array(
'Student' => array(
'className' => 'Student',
'foreignKey' => 'user_id',
'dependent' => true
),
'Teacher' => array(
'className' => 'Teacher',
'foreignKey' => 'user_id',
'dependent' => true
),
'Administrator' => array(
'className' => 'Administrator',
'foreignKey' => 'user_id',
'dependent' => true
)
);
Of course, you'll end up with empty arrays for the model the User
isn't. But I never run a find on User anyway.
var $actsAs = array(
'Sluggable' => array(
'translation' => 'utf-8',
'separator' => '-',
'label' => array('first_name', 'last_name'),
'length' => 64,
'overwrite' => true
),
'AutoField' => array(
'full_name' => array(
'fields' => array('first_name', 'last_name'),
'mask' => '%s %s'
)
)
);
Student:
var $belongsTo = array(
'User' => array(
'className' => 'User',
'foreignKey' => 'user_id'
)
);
This could go in AppModel except that each User type may have
different things I need contained. Also there are other models, not
associated with User, that I want to find by slug.
public function findBySlug($slug)
{
return $this->find(
'first',
array(
'fields' => array('*'),
'conditions' => array('User.slug' => $slug),
'contain' => array(
'User' => array(
'fields' => array(
'User.email',
'User.first_name',
'User.last_name',
'User.slug'
)
)
)
)
);
}
Note that you can have User model in the conditions, just like a table
in a left join.
I create each type in UsersController:
/**
* Add a new User.
* A new Administrator, Member, or Affiliate will also be created.
*
* @param void
* @returns void
*/
function admin_add($model = null)
{
if (!empty($this->data))
{
$model = $this->data['User']['model'];
if ($this->User->{$model}->save($this->data))
{
$association_key =
$this->User->{$model}->getLastInsertID();
$this->data['User']['association_key'] =
$association_key;
$password = $this->Password->create();
$this->data['User']['password'] = $password['hash'];
$this->User->create();
if ($this->User->save($this->data))
{
$user_id = $this->User->getInsertID();
$this->User->{$model}->saveField('user_id',
$user_id);
/* queue up an email
*/
$this->Queue->load(
'swiftmailer',
array(
'settings' => array(
'view' => 'new_' .
strtolower($model),
'subject' => 'AFVBM',
'from' =>
array(Configure::read('email_no_reply'),
Configure::read('email_name')),
'to' =>
$this->data['User']['email']
),
'vars' => array(
'password' =>
$password['cleartext'],
'first_name' =>
$this->data[$model]['first_name'],
'last_name' =>
$this->data[$model]['last_name']
)
)
);
$this->flash(
'The User has been saved',
array('controller' => 'users', 'action'
=> 'index', 'admin' => 1)
);
}
else
{
$this->flash('The User could not be saved.
Please, try again.');
}
}
}
$this->set('model', $model);
$this->set('regions', $this->User->Member->Region->find('list'));
$this->set('countries', $this->User->Member->Country->find('list'));
}
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