Welcome to the Cookbook

Models represent data and are used in CakePHP applications for data access. A model usually represents a database table but can be used to access anything that stores data such as files, LDAP records, iCal events, or rows in a CSV file.

A model can be associated with other models. For example, a Recipe may be associated with the Author of the recipe as well as the Ingredient in the recipe.

This section will explain what features of the model can be automated, how to override those features, and what methods and properties a model can have. It'll explain the different ways to associate your data. It'll describe how to find, save, and delete data. Finally, it'll look at Datasources.