Merge pull request #12268 from cakephp/issue-12250

Fix nested validator error messages

src/Datasource/EntityTrait.php

@@ -934,7 +934,7 @@ trait EntityTrait
      *
      * ```
      * // Sets the error messages for multiple fields at once
-     * $entity->setErrors(['salary' => ['message'], 'name' => ['another message']);
+     * $entity->setErrors(['salary' => ['message'], 'name' => ['another message']]);
      * ```
      *
      * @param array $fields The array of errors to set.
@@ -943,11 +943,27 @@ trait EntityTrait
      */
     public function setErrors(array $fields, $overwrite = false)
     {
+        if ($overwrite) {
+            foreach ($fields as $f => $error) {
+                $this->_errors[$f] = (array)$error;
+            }
+
+            return $this;
+        }
+
         foreach ($fields as $f => $error) {
             $this->_errors += [$f => []];
-            $this->_errors[$f] = $overwrite ?
-                (array)$error :
-                array_merge($this->_errors[$f], (array)$error);
+
+            // String messages are appended to the list,
+            // while more complex error structures need their
+            // keys perserved for nested validator.
+            if (is_string($error)) {
+                $this->_errors[$f][] = $error;
+            } else {
+                foreach ($error as $k => $v) {
+                    $this->_errors[$f][$k] = $v;
+                }
+            }
         }
 
         return $this;

tests/TestCase/ORM/EntityTest.php

@@ -1228,6 +1228,16 @@ class EntityTest extends TestCase
         ];
         $result = $entity->getErrors();
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $result);
+
+        $indexedErrors = [2 => ['foo' => 'bar']];
+        $entity = new Entity();
+        $entity->setError('indexes', $indexedErrors);
+
+        $expectedIndexed = [
+            'indexes' => ['2' => ['foo' => 'bar']]
+        ];
+        $result = $entity->getErrors();
+        $this->assertEquals($expectedIndexed, $result);
     }
 
     /**