Query entries relatedTo multiple categories in controller

Question

I have an AJAX GET call that should count all the products matching three different taxonomies.

• Product families
• Sectors of application
• Liquids suitable for the product

so in the form the user could select pumps, agriculture, diesel and the controller called should count the products that matches all those criteria.

I get the solution in the templating engine:

{% set relationParams = ['and', id1, id2, id3 ] %}
{% set products = craft.entries.section('products').relatedTo(relationParams) %}

But something is not working as expected in the controller:

        $prodCriteria = craft()->elements->getCriteria(ElementType::Entry)->section('products');

        $prodCriteria->relatedTo = array(
            'and',
            'targetElement' => $catIds // Where $catIds is an array of ids
        );            
        $products = $prodCriteria->count();

        $this->returnJson( $products );    

It seems like relatedTo behave like an or operator. Also, is it possible to make the relatedTo behave in a more complex way, like, I want to use or for product families and and for other taxonomies?

Answer 1

You need to pass an array of element IDs, where the first index is "and" – just like in your template (Twig) code – to targetElement. Basically, this just means that you need to prepend the string "and" to your array of IDs.

Something like this should do it:

...

$prodCriteria->relatedTo = array(
    'targetElement' => array_merge(['and'], $catIds),
);

Answer 2

Completely untested, but I believe what you're looking for is:

array_unshift($catIds , 'and');

$prodCriteria->relatedTo = array(
    'targetElement' => $catIds // Where $catIds is an array of ids
);