Can a model have multiple tables in CakePHP?

Question

Can a model have multiple tables in CakePHP?

Answer 1

I guess you want to implement some sort of inheritance in the database (that requires to join the data stored in the parent table when retrieving information from the child table). My approach to solve this was using afterFind callback in the child model. I redefined the callback as follows:

function afterFind($results) {
    foreach ($results as $key => $val) {
                $fieldRetrieved=$this->query("SELECT *field* FROM *parent_table* WHERE id={$val['*ChildModelName*']['id']}");
                $results[$key]['*ChildModelName*']['*field*']=$fieldRetrieved[0]['*parent_table*']['*field*'];
    }
    return $results;
}

In this way I was including the field/s from the parent table to the results obtained from the child table. In this case I've assumed that both tables are index with a field called id and that field, in the child table, is also a foreign key to the parent table (thus creating the pseudo-inheritance).