How do I filter deep associations in CakePHP

Question

I have the following tables: binders, docs, users, docs_users. Doc belongsTo Binder, Doc hasAndBelongsToMany User.

I want to get binders and their associated docs f

Answer 1

Have you tried coming in from a user perspective?

$this->Binder->Doc->User->Behaviors->attach('Containable');
$this->Binder->Doc->User->contain(array('Doc'=>'Binder'));
$user = $this->Binder->Doc->User->find('all',array('conditions'=>'User.id'=>$user_id));

The 'DocsUser' association should be detected anyway.

From a Binders perspective maybe

In your Binders MODEL add ( please check table, key and model names in case I made a typo )

function getBindersByUserSql($user_id)
    {       
        $dbo = $this->getDataSource();
        $subQuery = $dbo->buildStatement(
            array(
                    'fields' => array('DISTINCT(Doc.binder_id)'),
                    'table' => "docs_users",                                       
                    'joins' => array(
                                array('table' => 'users',
                                    'alias' => 'User',
                                    'type' => 'INNER',
                                    'conditions' => array('DocsUser.user_id = User.id')
                                ),
                                array('table' => 'docs',
                                    'alias' => 'Doc',
                                    'type' => 'INNER',
                                    'conditions' => array('Doc.id = DocsUser.doc_id')
                                )
            ),
                    'alias'=>"DocsUser",                                            
                    'conditions' => array("User.id"=>$user_id),
                    'order' => null,
                    'group' => "Doc.binder_id"
                    ),
                    $this
                    );
        return $dbo->expression($subQuery);
    }

Then in your binders CONTROLLER try

$this->Binder->Behaviors->attach('Containable');
$this->Binder->contain(array('Doc'));
$conditions = array();
$conditions = $this->Binder->getBindersByUserSql($this->Auth->user('id'));
$binders = $this->Binder->find('all',array('conditions'=>$conditions)));

Any good?