cakephp-2.0

Best way to load models in CakePHP 2.0

I'm not sure of the best way to load models in CakePHP 2.0 now.

Question 1

I have a model where more than one database field is related to another model.

customers table has the fields country_origin, country_residence and country_study and all of those fields contain an ID from the table countries.

So in my Customer model, how am I supposed to load the Country model?

Question 2

Has Controller::loadModel() been deprecated or is it bad practice to use this? How am I supposed to load a model in the controller?

Question 3

When or why do you have to use App::uses() in a controller or model? I don't understand the point when the models will load anyway if you use the normal methods like loadModel(), hasOne, hasMany, belongsTo, etc.

Solution

  • This should be simple to understand. If you are using a controller and you need to load another model, you can call:

    $this->loadModel('SomeModel');

    Then you can make calls to the model like you normally would:

    $this->SomeModel->read(null, '1');

    App::uses is for lazy loading of classes. So you can still load a model using uses:

    App::uses('MyModel', 'Model');

    But then you will need to call it differently: 

    $MyModel = new MyModel();
$MyModel->read(null, '1');

    or

    MyModel::read(null, '1');

    It just depends on where and how you want to use it.