"cake bake fixture all" could not find correct table name

[ericj]

1. In CakePHP 2.5.x, FixtureTask.php function all(), it will read all tables from database connection, even the model file .php not exists. I think this is in-consist with the comment "Bake All the Fixtures at once. Will only bake fixtures for models that exist." ?
2. In CakePHP 2.5.x, FixtureTask.php function bake(), if the model file exists and defines the $useTable variable, this function will not use it, instead it will always use "Inflector::tableize" with model name.

In my use case, if you want to "bake fixture all" at once, if there are many tables in your database which are not follow the table naming convention, the bake fixture all will fail, because of the error "Could not find your selected table "

I think for all() function in FixtureTask, we should only bake fixtures with model file exists? and if the $useTable variable defined in model file, then we should bake fixture from the defined table name.

By doing this, we can easily create model fixtures for existing project more easily.
How do you think?

[markstory]

Fixtures should be independent of the models imo. I think the documentation is wrong and should probably be updated as well. The issue with only baking fixtures for models, is that when baking a model + fixture, the model won't exist yet

[ericj]

Hi markstory,
Thanks, now I understand the design consideration for "bake fixture all" behavior.
Per your saying, it seems like current "bake fixture all" behavior is correct, since CakePHP will read all tables from database connection regardless model .php file exists or not.

Here I have a use case:

In an existing project there are no any unit test cases before, and there are many tables. Some table name not follow CakePHP conventions and not using plural. And some are just exists in database and not used by any Model. Those using tables are well defined in model .php file.

In this case, when using "bake fixture all", it will fail because of table name is incorrect. That's because CakePHP will bake fixtures for all tables and read from "Inflector:: tableize" name
which might different than real table name existing in database.

This situation let me confused, is this the intension that "bake fixture all" intent to help?
We need fixtures to test models, and hope there is one way to quickly auto create fixtures for our testing target, model. But current "bake fixture all" behavior is creating fixtures independently from model which blocks me to create fixtures for an working project even it's not 100% follow CakePHP conventions.

So, what do you think on automatically creating fixtures for testing model? And how to make it more flexible for the existing project?

[markstory]

This situation let me confused, is this the intension that "bake fixture all" intent to help?

bake fixture all like all features of bake works best when the database tables follow the conventions. If your tables don't the output will not be ideal. If you are getting fixtures for tables you don't need, just delete the generated files 😄

[ericj]

I also hope things can be that easy, but the reality is "cake bake all" will stop when it tries to create fixture for the table name which not follow the convention :(

[markstory]

Do you have a table definition that bake has issues with? I can update bake to skip/work through the problems.

[ericj]

Hi Mark,

I think we just need to create a table in database with name not in plural, for example: "user"
Then run "cake bake fixture all".
The error will show "Error: Could not find your selected table users"

[markstory]

Thanks, I'll try reproducing 😄

[markstory]

Closing as #5422 is open now.