Associating CakePHP HABTM models without a view

Question

I'm writing an import from CSV and have been able to successfully manually set data fields on a model in code by using the $this->Book->set() function and passing it a hash containing all of the fieldName => value pairings.

How do I create habtm associations in code? All the examples I've seen in the documentation are based on the $this->data returned from a form in the view. Because my data is coming from a csv file and not a view I can't use this!

So in the following example:

// Book habtm Tags
// Tag habtm Books

$this->Book->create();
$this->Book->set(
    array(
      'author' => 'tolkein',
      'title' => 'lord of the rings')
    );

$arrayOfTagIds = array(1, 5, 6);
// Do something with $arrayOfTagIds...
$this->Book->save();

How would I associate the $arrayOfTagIds with the Book?

Answer 1

Instead of using set to add data to the new entity and save to save it, use create and saveAll . In the example below, replace the BookTag model with the name of the model used in the relationship between books and tags. You'll also need to change tag_id to match the name of the field that represents the tag's id.

Example:

$book = array(
  'Book' => array(
    'author' => 'tolkein',
    'title' => 'lord of the rings'
  ),
  'Tag' => array(
    'Tag' => array(1,5,6);
  )
);

$this->Book->create($book);
$this->Book->saveAll();