Lithium Framework Architecture - Call One Controller from Another - lithium

Question

I'm working on a web app using the Lithium Framework with a MongoDB database.
On one page of the application - I want to display data from multiple object types. I understand the concept of relationships (i.e. belongsTo, hasMany, etc.) between models. But, my questions has to do with Controller relationships.
For example, assume I have two objects named "People" and "Companies". I want to show specific information about Companies on a "people" view. I have done the following:
1) In the "People" model, I've added the following line:
public $belongsTo = array('Companies');
2) In the "PeopleController" file, I've also included a reference to the Companies Model, such as:
use app\models\Companies;
Now, within the PeopleController, I want to call a method in the CompaniesController file.
Do I access this by directly calling the CompaniesController file? Or, do I have to go thru the Company model.
In either case, I'll need help with the syntax. I'm having rouble figuring out the best way this should be called.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

You should rethink your structure - you controller method should really grab all the resources you need for that view, it doesn't matter what they are.
So if you have a url '/people/bob' and you want to get the company data for Bob just add that to the view method of your People controller. Something like
People::first(array('conditions' => array('name' => 'Bob'), 'with' => 'Companies'));

Answer 2

You could instantiate a CompaniesController (maybe passing in $this->request to the 'request' option in the process) and then call the method in it. However, a better way to organize it is to move the common functionality from CompaniesController to Companies and call it from both places.
use app\models\Companies does not really make a "reference." It simply indicates that Companies really means app\models\Companies. I think an "alias" is a better way to think of it. See http://php.net/manual/en/language.namespaces.importing.php.
Example:
// in app/models/Companies.php
namespace app\models;
class Companies extends \lithium\data\Model {
public static function doSomething() {
// do something related to companies.
}
}
// in app/controllers/CompaniesController.php
namespace app\controllers;
use app\models\Companies;
class CompaniesController extends \lithium\action\Controller {
public function index() {
$result = Companies::doSomething();
return array('some' => 'data', 'for' => 'the view');
}
}
// in app/controllers/PeopleController.php
namespace app\controllers;
use app\models\Companies;
class PeopleController extends \lithium\action\Controller {
public function index() {
$result = Companies::doSomething();
return array('some' => 'data', 'for' => 'the view');
}
}