HABTM saving with additional fields

Need Help
1

I have tables
users, projects, project_roles and project_users.

I want to create project, project_role (two default) and then add user to one of that roles all at once.
Problem is adding user. Table project_users has project_role_id field which doesn’t get filled.

Here is what i tried.

$project = $this->Projects->newEntity();
    $project_role_default = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->newEntity();
    $project_role_manager = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->newEntity();
    $project_role_user = $this->Projects->ProjectUsers->newEntity();
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        $project = $this->Projects->patchEntity($project, $this->request->getData());
        $project_role_default->title = 'Collaborator';
        $project_role_manager->title = 'Manager';
        $project_role_manager->is_manager = 1;
        **$project_user->project_role_id = ???? // doesn't get automatically filled as project_id, i tried $project_role_manager->id (id is acessible) but that doesn't work either**
        $project->project_roles = [$project_role_default, $project_role_manager];
        $project->project_users = [$project_user];
        if ($this->Projects->save($project)) {
                $this->Flash->success(__('Project successfully created.'));
                return $this->redirect(['project_roles' => 'index']);
        }
    }
    $this->set(compact('project', 'project_roles', 'project_users'));

And i get this error without bold line
General error: 1364 Field ‘project_role_id’ doesn’t have a default value

Here is what I did to make it work. But I believe there is a correct way to do it?

$project = $this->Projects->newEntity();
    $project_role_default = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->newEntity();
    $project_role_manager = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->newEntity();
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        $project = $this->Projects->patchEntity($project, $this->request->getData());
        $project_role_default->title = 'Collaborator';
        $project_role_manager->title = 'Manager';
        $project_role_manager->is_manager = 1;
        $project->project_roles = [$project_role_default, $project_role_manager];
        if ($result = $this->Projects->save($project)) {
            $project_user = $this->Projects->ProjectUsers->newEntity();
            $project_user->user_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
            $project_user->project_id = $result->id;
            $query = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->find('all', [
                'conditions' => ['project_id =' => $result->id, 'title =' => 'Manager']
            ]);
            $role = $row = $query->first();
            $project_user->project_role_id = $role->id;
            if($this->Projects->ProjectUsers->save($project_user)){
                $this->Flash->success(__('Project successfully created.'));
                return $this->redirect(['project_roles' => 'index']);
            }
        }
    }
    $this->set(compact('project', 'project_roles'));
2

I managed to do it, but now project_id field doesn’t get saved in project_users table.
All fields are accessible and hasMany/belongs to relation is made between the tables.

        $project = $this->Projects->newEntity();
    $project_role = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->newEntity();
    $project_user = $this->Projects->ProjectRoles->ProjectUsers->newEntity();
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        $project->user_creator_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
        $project_role->user_creator_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
        $project_role->title = "Manager";
        $project_role->is_manager = 1;
        $project_user->user_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
        $project_user->user_creator_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
        $project->project_roles = [$project_role];
        $project_role->project_users = [$project_user];
        $project = $this->Projects->patchEntity($project, $this->request->getData(), ['associated' => ['ProjectRoles', 'ProjectRoles.ProjectUsers']]);
        if ($this->Projects->save($project,['associated' => ['ProjectRoles', 'ProjectRoles.ProjectUsers']])) {
            $this->Flash->success(__('Project successfully created.'));
            return $this->redirect(['project_roles' => 'index']);
        }
    }
3

if your table associations are defined correct

$this->Projects->patchEntity($project with associated option

shoulld do all the work of creating/saving associated data. Post your tables model associations and the debug($this->request->getData())