The correct way to set a default search value in CakePHP

Question

I have a CakePHP Application with many many screens using data from a specific model. Most of the time, I need a specific field to be checked against (like the "user_active=>1" example in the cookbook), however I'd still like to be able to specify that field as a condition and override the default. My code works, but is this the best way to do this?

Also, the $queryData field is mixed — what are the possibilities other than array? just NULL?

<?php public function beforeFind($queryData) {
    if(is_array($queryData)) {
        //query data was an array
        if(!is_array($queryData['conditions'])) {
            $queryData['conditions'] = array('Course.semester_id'=>SEMESTER_ID);
        } else if (!isset($queryData['conditions']['Course.semester_id'])) {
            $queryData['conditions']['Course.semester_id'] = SEMESTER_ID;
        }
    }
} ?>

Answer 1

I would recommend making a custom findCourses($options) function in your model. That way, you can just set all the default conditions, and override any that were passed in $options.

Here's an example:

//Article model

public function articles($opts = null) {

    //initialize
    $params = array();
    $findType = 'all';
    $params['conditions'] = array();

    //status
    if(!empty($opts['status'])) {
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('Article.status'=>$opts['status']));
    } else {
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('Article.status'=>1));
    }

    //id
    if(!empty($opts['id'])) {
        $params['limit'] = 1;
        $findType = 'first';
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('Article.id'=>$opts['id']));
    }

    //slug
    if(!empty($opts['slug'])) {
        $params['limit'] = 1;
        $findType = 'first';
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('Article.slug'=>$opts['slug']));
    }

    //limit (and find type)
    if(!empty($opts['limit'])) {
        $params['limit'] = $opts['limit'];
        if($opts['limit'] == 1) $findType = 'first';
    }

    //order by
    $params['order'] = array('Article.created DESC');
    if(!empty($opts['order'])) {
        $params['order'] = $opts['order'];
    }

    //type
    if(!empty($opts['type'])) {
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('type'=>$opts['type']));
    }

    //find type
    if(!empty($opts['find_type'])) $findType = $opts['find_type'];

    //slug
    if(!empty($opts['slug'])) {
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('slug'=>$opts['slug']));
    }

    //search
    if(!empty($opts['search'])) {
        array_push($params['conditions'], array('Article.title LIKE' => '%'.$opts['search'].'%'));
    }

    //contain
    $params['contain'] = array('MetaData', 'Tag', 'Upload');

    //paginate options or results
    if(!empty($opts['paginate'])) {
        return $params;
    } else {
        return $this->find($findType, $params);
    }

}

In my controller, I can just do this:

$opts = array('limit'=>6, 'type'=>'gaming');
$articles = $this->Article->articles($opts);