Accessing variable in controller method CAKEPHP

Question

Students HasMany Payments and Payments BelongsTo Student. When creating a Payment, I have to indicate which Student I am creating this Payment for. I want to be able to access the id of the Student when the Payment is being created, in order to manipulate something within the add() method.

I have an add() method in my controller. Here is the current code for the add().

public function add() {     
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        $this->Payment->create();
        if ($this->Payment->save($this->request->data)) {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('The payment has been saved.'));
            return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
        } else {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('The payment could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
        }
    }
    $students = $this->Payment->Student->find('list');
    $this->set(compact('students'));
}

Payment form code

<?php echo $this->Form->create('Payment'); ?>
<fieldset>
    <legend><?php echo __('Add Payment'); ?></legend>
<?php
    echo $this->Form->input('student_id');
    echo $this->Form->input('date');
    echo $this->Form->input('total', array('default' => '0.0'));
    echo $this->Form->input('notes');
?>
</fieldset>
<?php echo $this->Form->end(__('Submit')); ?>

Can you add the code for the Payment form in the view? If you are selecting a student in that form then it should be included in $this->request->data — John McMahon
– John McMahon, Commented Feb 6, 2014 at 4:29

JamesLee · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 04:43:42Z

2

You should be able to access the ID as

$this->request->data['Payment']['student_id']

So something like this:

public function add() {     
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        $this->Payment->create();
        $student_id = $this->request->data['Payment']['student_id'];
        // Do something with student ID here...
        if ($this->Payment->save($this->request->data)) {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('The payment has been saved.'));
            return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
        } else {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('The payment could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
        }
    }
    $students = $this->Payment->Student->find('list');
    $this->set(compact('students'));
}

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 4:43

JamesLee

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John McMahon · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 04:40:11Z

1

One strategy I find very useful for navigating CakePHP's large multi-dimensional arrays is to use the debug() function often in development.

For example, in the add() method I would do something like:

if ($this->request->is('post')) {
    debug($this->request->data);
    die;
}

Then you'll be able to see where that Student id is hiding and use it however you need before the add() method finishes. I don't know the exact structure your array will be in, but most likely you should be able to do something like:

$student_id = $this->request->data['Payment']['Student']['id'];

Just check the output of the debug() first (after submitting the form) to determine where in the array the data you want has been placed.

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 4:40

John McMahon

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1 Comment

john smith Over a year ago

Thank you! I'll be sure to use this in the future. got it working now

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