Yii: Update model values before actionCreate and actionUpdate - post

Question

I have a Location model with the following attributes -
id
City
State
Country
I wan't the user to be able to select from a list of existing states / countries, and if an additional item needs to be added it may be typed into a textbox. I've modified the _form.php partial as follows -
// city
<?php echo $form->textField($model,'city',array('size'=>60,'maxlength'=>100)); ?>
// state
<?php echo $form->dropDownList($model, 'state', CHtml::listData(Location::model()->findAll(), 'state', 'state')); ?>
<?php echo CHtml::textField('state2','',array('size'=>60,'maxlength'=>100)); ?>
// country
<?php echo $form->dropDownList($model, 'country', CHtml::listData(Location::model()->findAll(), 'country', 'country')); ?>
<?php echo CHtml::textField('country2','',array('size'=>60,'maxlength'=>100)); ?>
state2 and country2 are not a part of the model attributes. Now, in the Location Controller I have the following action -
public function actionCreate()
{
$model=new Location;
// Uncomment the following line if AJAX validation is needed
// $this->performAjaxValidation($model);
if(isset($_POST['Location']))
{
$model->attributes=$_POST['Location'];
if($model->save())
$this->redirect(array('view','id'=>$model->id));
}
$this->render('create',array(
'model'=>$model,
));
}
I want to set the values like this before this action executes -
if(!empty($_POST['state2'])) $model->state = $_POST['state2'];
if(!empty($_POST['country2'])) $model->country = $_POST['country2'];
What I've tried so far
1. Attempt 1
I added the lines directly to both actionCreate and actionUpdate. However, I don't think this is a clean solution.
1. Attempt 2
I tried adding a filter like this -
public function filterAlternateData($filterChain)
{
if(!empty($_POST['state2'])) $_POST['Location[state]'] = $_POST['state2'];
if(!empty($_POST['country2'])) $_POST['Location[country]'] = $_POST['country2'];
$filterChain->run();
}
Then I modified the filters() function like this so that it's bound to the create and update actions -
public function filters()
{
return array(
'accessControl', // perform access control for CRUD operations
'alternateData + create, update',
);
}
But this did not work.
Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

I presume this is happening in a CRUD operation based upon the actionCreate() method.
Personally I would create a separate form for the create functionality with the following attributes.
Form
Cities
States
Countries
New city (not required)
New State (not required)
New Country (not required)
Then in the form validation you can check to see if the user has entered a city, state or country which already exists etc.

Answer 2

You can add the lines in beforeSave() method (you will have to override it) of your model.