I am working on a similar project and decided to use a taxonomic_unit as the basic element. I have one table taxonomic_units where all levels get stored, as well as the hierarchical relations between them. You should look into modified pre-order tree traversal (see http://www.sitepoint.com/article/hierarchical-data-database ). Of course each level will have different additional characteristics besides just the taxonomic relationships, and I use separate tables to store these characteristics (i.e. kingdom_characteristics, phylum_characteristics, etc.). I have just one model and one controller for the taxonomic units and in my controller I go the relevant additonal table, extract the other details, and my views are set up generically to display the info.
I am not sure if this is the most cake like approach, but it makes maintenance easier even if the coding is a bit uglier (lots of switch statements for example). Hope that helps. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cake PHP" group. To post to this group, send email to cake-php@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
