How to perform complex searches and test them, in cakePHP and Simpletest

Question

I have a very complex data structure, something like 10 tables without the join tables. My application needs to be able to perform search in most of the tables.

To do this, I though to turn the content of the search fields into an array of conditions. The key is the model name, the value is the search conditions, i.e.

$conditions = array(
        'Artist' => array(
                'OR' => array(
                    'Artist.name LIKE' => '%barl%', 
                    'Pseudonym.name LIKE' => '%barl%'
                    )
                ),
        'Content' => array('Content.subject' => 'architecture'),
        'Editor'  => array('Editor.name LIKE' => '%Gal%'),
        etc....
    )

This array gets passed to the models that are searchable and each model takes the condition that is relevant.

$this->find('all', array('conditions' => $conditions['Artist']))

So far so good, at least I think. Now I started to test the models and I found myself copying over and over that same array in the different model test cases, and that bothers me.

Is there a way to have this array accessible to every test cases? Maybe the array is not the best solution and I should make a search model?

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Put the array as property in the app_model.php as something like $commonSearchConditions and access them from inside your models which should inherit the AppModel.

Depending on what exactly you do, if the searches differ in every model, I would have a test-case in every models test. If not you might want to create a separate test with a test model you create inside of the test for testing just the search stuff you want to do. Hard to tell without knowing more.