CakePHP: get user info in models

Question

I'm moving some of my find code inside models.

Previously in my controller I had

$this->Book->Review->find('first', array(
    'conditions' => array(
        'Review.book_id' => $id,
        'Review.user_id' => $this->Auth->user('id')
    )
));

so in my Review model I put something like

function own($id) {
    $this->contain();
    $review = $this->find('first', array(
        'conditions' => array(
            'Review.book_id' => $id,
            'Review.user_id' => AuthComponent::user('id')
        )
    ));
    return $review;
}

So I'm calling AuthComponent statically from the Model. I know I can do this for the method AuthComponent::password(), which is useful for validation. But I'm getting errors using the method AuthComponent::user(), in particular

Fatal error: Call to a member function check() on a non-object in /var/www/MathOnline/cake/libs/controller/components/auth.php on line 663

Is there a way to get the info about the currently logged user from a model?

Answer 1

Dirtiest way would be to just access the user information in the Session. Least amount of overhead associated with that.

The "proper" way would probably be to instantiate the AuthComponent object, so that it does all the stuff it needs to be fully operational. Much like a death star, the AuthComponent doesn't really work well when not fully setup.

To get a new AC object, in the model:

App::import( 'Component', 'Auth' );
$this->Auth = new AuthComponent();

Now you can use $this->Auth in the model, same as you would in the controller.

Answer 2

There is a nice solution by Matt Curry. You store the data of the current logged user in the app_controller using the beforeFilter callback and access it later using static calls. A description can be found here: http://www.pseudocoder.com/archives/2008/10/06/accessing-user-sessions-from-models-or-anywhere-in-cakephp-revealed/

Answer 3

I think the code is fine as it is and belongs in the Controller, or at the very least it needs to receive the ids from the Controller and not try to get them itself. The Model should only be concerned with fetching data from a data store and returning it. It must not be concerned with how the data is handled in the rest of the application or where the parameters to its request are coming from. Otherwise you paint yourself into a corner where the ReviewModel can only retrieve data for logged in users, which might not always be what you want.

As such, I'd use a function signature like this:

function findByBookAndUserId($book_id, $user_id) {
    …
}

$this->Review->findByBookAndUserId($id, $this->Auth->user('id'));