ColdFusion 9 ORM Relationship Mappings

Question

I am trying to define the relationship between tables using ColdFusion 9.0.1 ORM.

I have 2 tables: users and companies

I am working on the relationship between users to companies. Right now I have this:

component persistent="true" table="users" datasource="core"
{
    property name="userID" fieldtype="id" column="userID" 
    setter="false" generator="native";

    property name="firstName" length="255";
    property name="lastName" length="255";
    property name="userName" length="45";

    property name="companies" fieldtype="many-to-one" cfc="company" 
    fkcolumn="companyID" singularname="company";

}

and

component persistent="true" table="companies" datasource="core"
{
    property name="companyID" fieldtype="id" column="companyID" 
    setter="false" generator="native";

    property name="companyName" length="255";
    property name="companyCode" length="45";;

    property name="users" fieldtype="one-to-many" fkcolumn="userID" cfc="user"
    cascade="all" inverse="true";


}

I am having an issue with writing to the user table. I need to write a companyID into the user table so that I can link back to the company. On this insert I do not want insert anything into the companies table. I just want to write to the users table and have it link to the companies table via a companyID in the users table.

Here is my EntitySave code:

transaction{

        newUser = EntityNew("user");

            newUser.setCompanies(#FORM.companyID#);     
            newUser.setFirstName(#FORM.firstName#);
            newUser.setLastName(#FORM.lastName#);
            newUser.setUserName(#FORM.userName#);

        EntitySave(newUser);

    }

When I run it like that I get this error "The value for property java.lang.String cannot be retrieved from object of type companyID. Expected object type is company."

I was thinking maybe I need to have separate property for the companyID like this "property name="companyID" ormType="int" and then maybe I could use "newUser.setCompanyID(#FORM.companyID#);" in the EntitySave but that does not work. I get an error on the ORMReload(); when I have that in there.

I am obviously pretty confused about the best way to setup relationships. I can get this working without trying to officially reference the relationship in the user.cfc file and just using property name="companyID" ormType="int" but that does not give me a proper relationship between the tables. I think?

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try changing this:

newUser.setCompanies(#FORM.companyID#);     

to this:

newUser.setCompanies(EntityLoadByPK ("company", FORM.companyID));   

Answer 2

what's with the last "true"? I don't think it is needed unless you use EntityLoad() –

EntityLoadByPK ("company", FORM.companyID)

returns an array containing all entities that conform to the criteria (pk=FORM.companyID)

EntityLoadByPK ("company", FORM.companyID, true)

returns an object that conforms to the criteria (pk=FORM.companyID)