Insert/save client search/form entries into separate table prior to running code- CakePHP

I want to store the form entries into a table that will store what my users searched for, then actually execute the code on the form results.

I tried doing:

$this->Search->create();

$this->Search->save($this->data);

But I don't think it liked me using a model that doesn't belong to that controller (my guess this doesn't follow convention and fully utilize CakePHP).

The other idea I had was to create a new searche开发者_Go百科s_controller, then run $this->data through the above code and redirect back to the Trips controller but it seems like that's not the optimal way of doing it either.

Any thoughts on how best to do this?

In procedural PHP, I would just do an INSERT query before.

Thanks for the help!

---

I think that having Model which doesn't belong to the specific controller is not so bad idea.

Actually you can put this logic in the beforeFilter() of the Trips model like that:

class Trip extends AppModel {
   //....
   function beforeFind(){
      if($this->data){
         $search = ClassRegistry::init('Search'); //adding instance of Search model
         $search->save($this->data); //save the data
         //Do extra things if needed
      }
   }
   //....
}

This way you don't have "alien" model in your controllers, and utilise the recommendation "Fat Models, Skinny controllers" :)