Add.php Form->control not building the proper <select> for the belongsTo association

Question

I'm trying to learn CakePHP and running into some issues (maybe just my misunderstanding) with the ways associations are handled. I have a RESULTS table with a composite key made of two foreign keys from tables WORKSHEETS and STUDENTS. Here are the relationships between Results, Worksheets and Students.

Results N - 1 Students

Results N - 1 Worksheets

Data Schema here

My problem is, the scaffolded ADD page for my RESULTS table doesn't show the <select> field for STUDENTS and WORKSHEETS.

First, here is the HTML of the results/add.php page, generated by the Form->control. The two inputs for STUDENT and WORKSHEET are not Selects but hidden inputs.

<input type="hidden" name="student_id" options="(object)Cake\Datasource\ResultSetDecorator" id="student-id"/>
<input type="hidden" name="worksheet_id" options="(object)Cake\Datasource\ResultSetDecorator" id="worksheet-id"/>
<div class="input text">
<label for="result">Result</label>
<input type="text" name="result" id="result" maxlength="6"/></div>

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

Here is the scaffolded initialize() code for ResultsTable.php:

    $this->setTable('results');
    $this->setDisplayField(['student_id', 'worksheet_id']);
    $this->setPrimaryKey(['student_id', 'worksheet_id']);

    $this->addBehavior('Timestamp');

    $this->belongsTo('Students', [
            'foreignKey' => 'student_id',
            'joinType' => 'INNER',
    ]);
    $this->belongsTo('Worksheets', [
            'foreignKey' => 'worksheet_id',
            'joinType' => 'INNER',
    ]);

Here is the Form Control generation in add.php (the two first lines were not even added during scaffolding).

   echo $this->Form->control('student_id', ['options' => $students]);
   echo $this->Form->control('worksheet_id', ['options' => $worksheets]);
   echo $this->Form->control('result');

Here is the last part of the add function in the controller:

  $students = $this->Results->Students->find('list', ['limit' => 200])->all();
  $worksheets = $this->Results->Worksheets->find('list', ['limit' => 200])->all();
  $this->set(compact('result', 'students', 'worksheets'));

StudentsTable.php initialize()

        $this->setTable('students');
        $this->setDisplayField('name');
        $this->setPrimaryKey('id');

        $this->addBehavior('Timestamp');

        $this->belongsTo('Ranks', [
            'foreignKey' => 'rank_id',
        ]);
        $this->belongsTo('Grades', [
            'foreignKey' => 'grade_id',
            'joinType' => 'INNER',
        ]);
        $this->hasMany('Results', [
            'foreignKey' => 'student_id',
        ]);

WorksheetsTable.php initialize()

        $this->setTable('worksheets');
        $this->setDisplayField('id');
        $this->setPrimaryKey('id');

        $this->addBehavior('Timestamp');

        $this->belongsTo('Subranks', [
            'foreignKey' => 'subrank_id',
            'joinType' => 'INNER',
        ]);
        $this->hasMany('Results', [
            'foreignKey' => 'worksheet_id',
        ]);
    }

Some hints about why this is happening ?

Let me know if you need any kind of other information or piece of code.

PS: All other tables with belongsTo relationships were scaffolded properly and have the right <select> fields.

Debug($worksheets) output:

ROOT\templates\Results\add.php (line 8)
object(Cake\Datasource\ResultSetDecorator) id:0 {
'count' => (int) 12
}

debug($students) output:

ROOT\templates\Results\add.php (line 10)
object(Cake\Datasource\ResultSetDecorator) id:0 {
  'count' => (int) 2
}

After removing ->all() from the add method in the controller, getting a query object as follows:

ROOT\templates\Results\add.php (line 10)
object(Cake\ORM\Query) id:0 {
  '(help)' => 'This is a Query object, to get the results execute or iterate it.'
  'sql' => 'SELECT Students.id AS Students__id, Students.name AS Students__name FROM students Students LIMIT 200'
  'params' => [
  ]
  'defaultTypes' => [
    'Students__id' => 'integer',
    'Students.id' => 'integer',
    'id' => 'integer',
    'Students__student_number' => 'string',
    'Students.student_number' => 'string',
    'student_number' => 'string',
    'Students__name' => 'string',
    'Students.name' => 'string',
    'name' => 'string',
    'Students__rank_id' => 'integer',
    'Students.rank_id' => 'integer',
    'rank_id' => 'integer',
    'Students__worksheets_count' => 'integer',
    'Students.worksheets_count' => 'integer',
    'worksheets_count' => 'integer',
    'Students__perfects_count' => 'integer',
    'Students.perfects_count' => 'integer',
    'perfects_count' => 'integer',
    'Students__accuracy_rate' => 'integer',
    'Students.accuracy_rate' => 'integer',
    'accuracy_rate' => 'integer',
    'Students__created' => 'date',
    'Students.created' => 'date',
    'created' => 'date',
    'Students__modified' => 'date',
    'Students.modified' => 'date',
    'modified' => 'date',
    'Students__email' => 'string',
    'Students.email' => 'string',
    'email' => 'string',
    'Students__password' => 'string',
    'Students.password' => 'string',
    'password' => 'string',
    'Students__grade_id' => 'integer',
    'Students.grade_id' => 'integer',
    'grade_id' => 'integer',
  ]
  'decorators' => (int) 0
  'executed' => false
  'hydrate' => true
  'buffered' => true
  'formatters' => (int) 1
  'mapReducers' => (int) 0
  'contain' => [
  ]
  'matching' => [
  ]
  'extraOptions' => [
  ]
  'repository' => object(App\Model\Table\StudentsTable) id:1 {
    'registryAlias' => 'Students'
    'table' => 'students'
    'alias' => 'Students'
    'entityClass' => 'App\Model\Entity\Student'
    'associations' => [
      (int) 0 => 'Ranks',
      (int) 1 => 'Grades',
      (int) 2 => 'Results',
    ]
    'behaviors' => [
      (int) 0 => 'Timestamp',
    ]
    'defaultConnection' => 'default'
    'connectionName' => 'default'
  }
}

ROOT\templates\Results\add.php (line 8)
object(Cake\ORM\Query) id:0 {
  '(help)' => 'This is a Query object, to get the results execute or iterate it.'
  'sql' => 'SELECT Worksheets.id AS Worksheets__id FROM worksheets Worksheets LIMIT 200'
  'params' => [
  ]
  'defaultTypes' => [
    'Worksheets__id' => 'integer',
    'Worksheets.id' => 'integer',
    'id' => 'integer',
    'Worksheets__subrank_id' => 'integer',
    'Worksheets.subrank_id' => 'integer',
    'subrank_id' => 'integer',
    'Worksheets__link' => 'string',
    'Worksheets.link' => 'string',
    'link' => 'string',
    'Worksheets__created' => 'date',
    'Worksheets.created' => 'date',
    'created' => 'date',
    'Worksheets__modified' => 'date',
    'Worksheets.modified' => 'date',
    'modified' => 'date',
  ]
  'decorators' => (int) 0
  'executed' => false
  'hydrate' => true
  'buffered' => true
  'formatters' => (int) 1
  'mapReducers' => (int) 0
  'contain' => [
  ]
  'matching' => [
  ]
  'extraOptions' => [
  ]
  'repository' => object(App\Model\Table\WorksheetsTable) id:1 {
    'registryAlias' => 'Worksheets'
    'table' => 'worksheets'
    'alias' => 'Worksheets'
    'entityClass' => 'App\Model\Entity\Worksheet'
    'associations' => [
      (int) 0 => 'Subranks',
      (int) 1 => 'Results',
    ]
    'behaviors' => [
      (int) 0 => 'Timestamp',
    ]
    'defaultConnection' => 'default'
    'connectionName' => 'default'
  }
}

Answer 1

try forcing the type to select to the form control

echo $this->Form->control('student_id', ['type' => 'select', 'options' => $students]);