Cakephp data retrieval from multiple tables in a single query

Question

I have the following mysql tables:

CREATE TABLE Articles (
   ArticleID SMALLINT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
   ArticleTitle VARCHAR(60) NOT NULL,
   Copyright YEAR NOT NULL
)
ENGINE=INNODB;


INSERT INTO Articles VALUES (12786, 'How write a paper', 1934),
                            (13331, 'Publish a paper', 1919),
                            (14356, 'Sell a paper', 1966),
                            (15729, 'Buy a paper', 1932),
                            (16284, 'Conferences', 1996),
                            (17695, 'Journal', 1980),
                            (19264, 'Information', 1992),
                            (19354, 'AI', 1993);


CREATE TABLE Authors (
   AuthID SMALLINT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
   AuthorFirstName VARCHAR(20),
   AuthorMiddleName VARCHAR(20),
   AuthorLastName VARCHAR(20)
)
ENGINE=INNODB;


INSERT INTO Authors VALUES (1006, 'Henry', 'S.', 'Thompson'),
                           (1007, 'Jason', 'Carol', 'Oak'),
                           (1008, 'James', NULL, 'Elk'),
                           (1009, 'Tom', 'M', 'Ride'),
                           (1010, 'Jack', 'K', 'Ken'),
                           (1011, 'Mary', 'G.', 'Lee'),
                           (1012, 'Annie', NULL, 'Peng'),
                           (1013, 'Alan', NULL, 'Wang'),
                           (1014, 'Nelson', NULL, 'Yin');


CREATE TABLE AuthorArticle (
   AuthID SMALLINT NOT NULL,
   ArticleID SMALLINT NOT NULL,
   PRIMARY KEY (AuthID, ArticleID),
   FOREIGN KEY (AuthID) REFERENCES Authors (AuthID),
   FOREIGN KEY (ArticleID) REFERENCES Articles (ArticleID)
)
ENGINE=INNODB;


INSERT INTO AuthorArticle VALUES (1006, 14356), 
                              (1008, 15729), 
                              (1009, 12786), 
                              (1010, 17695),
                              (1011, 15729), 
                              (1012, 19264), 
                              (1012, 19354), 
                              (1014, 16284);

Now I want to run a query to fetch data from all of the three tables. My query is as follows:

SELECT ArticleTitle, Copyright, CONCAT_WS(' ', AuthorFirstName, AuthorMiddleName, AuthorLastName) AS Author
FROM Articles AS b STRAIGHT_JOIN AuthorArticle AS ab STRAIGHT_JOIN Authors AS a
WHERE b.ArticleID=ab.ArticleID AND ab.AuthID=a.AuthID AND Copyright<1980
ORDER BY ArticleTitle;

So my question is how this will be accomplish in CakePHP 2+. Any help is appreciated...

Answer 1

I am able to answer to my own question but up to some extent i.e. joining multiple tables but not able to join with 'STRAIGHT_JOIN'. So my solution is as under:

$art = $this->Article->find('all', array('joins' => array(
    array(
        'table' => 'authorarticle',
        'alias' => 'AuthArt',
        'type' => 'inner',
        'foreignKey' => false,
        'conditions'=> array('AuthArt.ArticleID = Article.ArticleID')
    ),
    array(
        'table' => 'authors',
        'alias' => 'Author',
        'type' => 'inner',
        'foreignKey' => false,
        'conditions'=> array('AuthArt.AuthID = Author.AuthID')
        )
    ), 'fields'=>array('Article.ArticleTitle','CONCAT_WS(" ", Author.AuthorFirstName, Author.AuthorMiddleName, Author.AuthorLastName) As AuthorName','Article.Copyright'), 'conditions' => array('Article.Copyright' => 1980)));
$this->set('articles', $art); // debug($articles) in the view to get results

Hope it would help someone else looking for the same. I would like to hear from community if my own solution to my own question is good or it can be further optimized for getting best result in CAKEPHP way. Thanks