How do I use the findBy magic find functions WITH $fields optional parameters?

Question

Was considering utilizing the magic findBy functions on a model today and encountered an issue when attempting to set optional parameters for the function. Here is what I tried.

$result = $this->findById($id['Alpha.name']);

So to explain, I'm attempting to find a record with a specific id and only return the value of the name field. According to the documentation, there is a way to do this.

The findBy magic functions also accept some optional parameters: findBy<fieldName>(string $value[, mixed $fields[, mixed $order]]);

CakePHP 1.3 Book :: findBy

When I do a simple findBy($id) I do get a result set. But with parameters, I get nothing. I know there are other ways to do this but was just curious if anyone has had any success using these magic functions with additional parameters?

Solution

try this:

$result = $this->findById($id, array('Alpha.name'));

where $id is an id of record you're searching for and Alpha.name is a field you need (e.g. name from model Alpha)

Comments

[generalopinion]

This worked. I will give credit for this answer since the problem was with the syntax (i.e. I was using incorrect syntax). However, I discovered that if the model has hasMany relationships, those relationships will be returned. This model had hasOne relationships but those weren't returned. It didn't have any belongsTo relationships so I don't know if those would've been returned or not.

[zergussino]

@generalopinion try to set $this->Alpha->recursive = 1 to get model with related models, e.g. Alpha with corresponding data from hasOne model Beta

[generalopinion]

Sweet. I assume that doing $this->Alpha->recursive = -1 would return only the model without any relationships?