# "Check" checkboxes if they have a record in reference table
**URL:** https://discourse.cakephp.org/t/check-checkboxes-if-they-have-a-record-in-reference-table/8365
**Category:** Need Help
**Tags:** help
**Created:** [September 10, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://discourse.cakephp.org/t/check-checkboxes-if-they-have-a-record-in-reference-table/8365 "2020-09-10T18:02:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
More fun converting a Cake 2.x app to Cake 4.x. I have a ‘Manage Roles’ option in my user management setup. When I click ‘Manage Roles’ for a user, I’m taken to `admin_groups.php` and I get an array of checkboxes read from my `Groups` table. This is the code from my UsersController that brings these in:
```
$this->set('groups', $this->Groups->find('list', [
'keyfield' => 'id', 'valueField' => 'group_name',
'order' => ['group_name ASC']
])
);
```
I also contained my `UserGroups` table when looking up the user, thinking that would help.
```
$user = $this->Users->get($id, [
'contain' => ['UserGroups'],
]);
```
Users, Groups, and UserGroups tables have the following associations:
```
Users hasMany UserGroups FK = user_id
UserGroups belongsTo Users FK = user_id
UserGroups belongsTo Groups FK = group_id
Groups hasMany Users FK = group_id
```
And here is the code from my admin\_groups.php that displays the checkboxes and their labels.
```
Form->create($user) ?>
Form->button(__('Submit')) ?>
Form->end() ?>
```
I have no trouble displaying the checkboxes or selecting them and saving the result to the `UserGroups` table; however, I’m struggling with displaying the checkboxes as “checked” after they’ve been selected. The user’s group memberships are retrieved by calling `getGroups` in my `UsersTable`:
```
public function getGroups($user_id, $keys = true)
{
// Get the user's group memberships
$groups = [];
foreach($this->UserGroups->find('all', ['contain' => ['Groups']])->where (['user_id' => $user_id]) as $data) {
$groups[$data->group->id] = $data->group->group_key;
}
return ($keys) ? $groups : array_keys($groups);
}
```
In the old days, all it took was a modification to the request object to populate the checkboxes, like so:
```
$this->request->data['UserGroup']['group_id'] = $this->User->getGroups($id, false);
```
Obviously, that’s forbidden now, so I’m looking for the Cake 4 equivalent.
---
You can use the request’s `withData()` method which I believe will create a new request object with your added data included.
Or, I like to pull the data out of the request and work with it separately:
```php
$postData = $this->request->getData();
```
Then the immutable request is not in my way.
---
So that’s close to what I’m after, but when the page loads, there isn’t any request data for me to extract yet (I think? Please correct me if I’m wrong). I need the selected boxes to be checked when I visit the page.
Now, when I do something like this, using getData() instead of withData():
```
$test = $this->request->getData('UserGroups.group_id', $this->Users->getGroups($user->id, false));
```
and I debug `$test`, I see the correct results: an array of `group_id`'s assigned to the user.
```
[
(int) 0 => (int) 33,
(int) 1 => (int) 31,
(int) 2 => (int) 24,
(int) 3 => (int) 21,
(int) 4 => (int) 20,
(int) 5 => (int) 2,
(int) 6 => (int) 1,
]
```
What’s eluding me is how to use that data to populate my checkboxes.
---
Aaaand I just figured it out! `$this->set('test', $test)` in my UsersController and then add this to my checkbox display:
```
'default' => $test,
```
Just tested it out and it works perfectly. Thanks for the nudge!