Conditions in associated models using Model->find() (CakePHP)

Question

I am having some issues with CakePHP\'s find() method and conditions in \'deeper\' model associations. There are some of these around but I could not find an answer to this

Answer 1

This may be one of those times you need to use the query method.

SQL calls that you can't or don't want to make via other model methods (careful - there are very few circumstances this is true) can be made using the model's query() method.

$votes = $this->Vote->query('SELECT Vote.* FROM votes Vote 
    JOIN comments Comment ON (Vote.comment_id = Comment.id)
    JOIN posts Post ON (Comment.post_id = Post.id)
    JOIN users User ON (Post.user_id = User.id)
    WHERE User.id = 1');

This should return an array of Vote entries like the find method would.

foreach ($votes as $vote):
    echo $vote['Vote']['id'];
endforeach;