Multiple relations to the same model CakePHP

Question

Hey we have three tables in our database which are connected through two relationships which are Account and Invoices.

Accounts (id....) Invoices (id, sender_id, rec

Answer 1

I don't think you need a join table for invoices, and senders and receivers. You can store these foreign keys in your invoices table. Your relationships would then be:

<?php
class Invoice extends AppModel {

    public $belongsTo = array(
        'Sender' => array(
            'className' => 'Account',
            'foreignKey' => 'sender_id'
        ),
        'Receiver' => array(
            'className' => 'Account',
            'foreignKey' => 'receiver_id'
        )
    );
}

If you then need to distinguish invoices that have been sent or not, you could also add a column called status_id or similar, and store another foreign key to a new statuses table, with an ID column and name column, and the following sample data:

id name
== ====
1  Draft
2  Sent

And any other statuses you may need.