CakePHP sub query SQL in HABTM relation - mysql

Question

I want to suggest related products by tags and sort order by the most matched.
the HABTM model association between Product and Tag
class Product extends AppModel {
//..
var $hasAndBelongsToMany = array("Tag");
//..
}
and vice versa in Tag model. also join-table name is "products_tags".
for Ex.sample..
//just sample of Product contain Tag data
$products[0]['Tag'] = array('touch', 'phone', '3G', 'apple'); //iPhone
$products[1]['Tag'] = array('phone', '3G', 'BB'); //BB
$products[2]['Tag'] = array('touch', '3G', 'apple'); //iPad
$products[3]['Tag'] = array('3G', 'air card'); //3G air card
in this sample the most related to iPhone sort by priority are..
ipad (found in 3 tags)
BB (found in 2 tags)
aircard (only 1 matched)
How Cake's way using Model find() to get sub-query like this:
SELECT DISTINCT (product_id) AS id, (
/* sub-query counting same tags*/
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM tags as Tag
LEFT JOIN products_tags AS ProductTag ON ( Tag.id = ProductTag.tag_id )
WHERE product_id = id
AND Tag.name IN ( 'touch', 'phone', '3G', 'apple' )
) AS priority /*this is weight count by how many same tags*/
FROM `tags` as Tag
LEFT JOIN products_tags AS ProductTag ON ( Tag.id = ProductTag.tag_id )
WHERE Tag.name
IN ( 'touch', 'phone', '3G', 'apple' )
ORDER BY priority DESC
SQL query above return exactly what I needed. but I can't find the way to parse params to CakePHP's AppModel->find() method.

Answer 1

If the result of this sql does not use pagination (assuming that related products in a normal webpage are 3-5 entries) why don't you use this complex SQL instead?
i.e. create a function relatedProducts() in your Product model
then use $this->query($sql)
sample code will be:
class Product extends AppModel {
//..
var $hasAndBelongsToMany = array("Tag");
//..
function relatedProducts($parameters){
$sql = "select..... where ....$parameters...";
return $this->query($sql);
}
}
Then you can use it in the controller by
$this->Product->relatedProducts($some_parameters);