Controllers¶

form¶

$this->params['form']

Any POST data from any form is stored here, including information also found in $_FILES.

admin¶

$this->params['admin']

Is set to 1 if the current action was invoked via admin routing.

bare¶

$this->params['bare']

Stores 1 if the current layout is empty, 0 if not.

isAjax¶

$this->params['isAjax']

Stores 1 if the current request is an ajax call, 0 if not. This variable is only set if the RequestHandler Component is being used in the controller.

controller¶

$this->params['controller']

Stores the name of the current controller handling the request. For example, if the URL /posts/view/1 was requested, $this->params['controller'] would equal “posts”.

action¶

$this->params['action']

Stores the name of the current action handling the request. For example, if the URL /posts/view/1 was requested, $this->params['action'] would equal “view”.

pass¶

$this->params['pass']

Returns an array (numerically indexed) of URL parameters after the Action.

// URL: /posts/view/12/print/narrow

Array
(
    [0] => 12
    [1] => print
    [2] => narrow
)

url¶

$this->params['url']

Stores the current URL requested, along with key-value pairs of get variables. For example, if the URL /posts/view/?var1=3&var2=4 was called, $this->params['url'] would contain:

[url] => Array
(
    [url] => posts/view
    [var1] => 3
    [var2] => 4
)

data¶

$this->data

Used to handle POST data sent from the FormHelper forms to the controller.

// The FormHelper is used to create a form element:
echo $this->Form->text('User.first_name');

Which when rendered, looks something like:

<input name="data[User][first_name]" value="" type="text" />

When the form is submitted to the controller via POST, the data shows up in this->data

//The submitted first name can be found here:
$this->data['User']['first_name'];

prefix¶

$this->params['prefix']

Set to the routing prefix. For example, this attribute would contain the string “admin” during a request to /admin/posts/someaction.

named¶

$this->params['named']

Stores any named parameters in the url query string in the form /key:value/. For example, if the URL /posts/view/var1:3/var2:4 was requested, $this->params['named'] would be an array containing:

[named] => Array
(
    [var1] => 3
    [var2] => 4
)

set¶

set(string $var, mixed $value)

The set() method is the main way to send data from your controller to your view. Once you’ve used set(), the variable can be accessed in your view.

<?php

//First you pass data from the controller:

$this->set('color', 'pink');

//Then, in the view, you can utilize the data:
?>

You have selected <?php echo $color; ?> icing for the cake.

The set() method also takes an associative array as its first parameter. This can often be a quick way to assign a set of information to the view.

Array keys will no longer be inflected before they are assigned to the view (‘underscored_key’ does not become ‘underscoredKey’ anymore, etc.):

<?php

$data = array(
    'color' => 'pink',
    'type' => 'sugar',
    'base_price' => 23.95
);

//make $color, $type, and $base_price
//available to the view:

$this->set($data);

?>

The attribute $pageTitle no longer exists, use set() to set the title

<?php
$this->set('title_for_layout', 'This is the page title');
?>

render¶

render(string $action, string $layout, string $file)

The render() method is automatically called at the end of each requested controller action. This method performs all the view logic (using the data you’ve given in using the set() method), places the view inside its layout and serves it back to the end user.

The default view file used by render is determined by convention. If the search() action of the RecipesController is requested, the view file in /app/views/recipes/search.ctp will be rendered.

class RecipesController extends AppController {
...
    function search() {
        // Render the view in /views/recipes/search.ctp
        $this->render();
    }
...
}

Although CakePHP will automatically call it (unless you’ve set $this->autoRender to false) after every action’s logic, you can use it to specify an alternate view file by specifying an action name in the controller using $action.

If $action starts with ‘/’ it is assumed to be a view or element file relative to the /app/views folder. This allows direct rendering of elements, very useful in ajax calls.

// Render the element in /views/elements/ajaxreturn.ctp
$this->render('/elements/ajaxreturn');

You can also specify an alternate view or element file using the third parameter, $file. When using $file, don’t forget to utilize a few of CakePHP’s global constants (such as VIEWS).

The $layout parameter allows you to specify the layout the view is rendered in.

Rendering a specific view¶

In your controller you may want to render a different view than what would conventionally be done. You can do this by calling render() directly. Once you have called render() CakePHP will not try to re-render the view.

class PostsController extends AppController {
    function my_action() {
        $this->render('custom_file');
    }
}

This would render app/views/posts/custom_file.ctp instead of app/views/posts/my_action.ctp

redirect¶

redirect(mixed $url, integer $status, boolean $exit)

The flow control method you’ll use most often is redirect(). This method takes its first parameter in the form of a CakePHP-relative URL. When a user has successfully placed an order, you might wish to redirect them to a receipt screen.

function placeOrder() {

    //Logic for finalizing order goes here

    if($success) {
        $this->redirect(array('controller' => 'orders', 'action' => 'thanks'));
    } else {
        $this->redirect(array('controller' => 'orders', 'action' => 'confirm'));
    }
}

You can also use a relative or absolute URL as the $url argument:

$this->redirect('/orders/thanks');
$this->redirect('http://www.example.com');

You can also pass data to the action:

$this->redirect(array('action' => 'edit', $id));

The second parameter of redirect() allows you to define an HTTP status code to accompany the redirect. You may want to use 301 (moved permanently) or 303 (see other), depending on the nature of the redirect.

The method will issue an exit() after the redirect unless you set the third parameter to false.

If you need to redirect to the referer page you can use:

$this->redirect($this->referer());

flash¶

flash(string $message, string $url, integer $pause, string $layout)

Like redirect(), the flash() method is used to direct a user to a new page after an operation. The flash() method is different in that it shows a message before passing the user on to another URL.

The first parameter should hold the message to be displayed, and the second parameter is a CakePHP-relative URL. CakePHP will display the $message for $pause seconds before forwarding the user on.

If there’s a particular template you’d like your flashed message to use, you may specify the name of that layout in the $layout parameter.

For in-page flash messages, be sure to check out SessionComponent’s setFlash() method.

constructClasses¶

This method loads the models required by the controller. This loading process is done by CakePHP normally, but this method is handy to have when accessing controllers from a different perspective. If you need CakePHP in a command-line script or some other outside use, constructClasses() may come in handy.

referer¶

string referer(mixed $default = null, boolean $local = false)

Returns the referring URL for the current request. Parameter $default can be used to supply a default URL to use if HTTP_REFERER cannot be read from headers. So, instead of doing this:

<?php
class UserController extends AppController {
    function delete($id) {
        // delete code goes here, and then...
        if ($this->referer() != '/') {
            $this->redirect($this->referer());
        } else {
            $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
        }
    }
}
?>

you can do this:

<?php
class UserController extends AppController {
    function delete($id) {
        // delete code goes here, and then...
        $this->redirect($this->referer(array('action' => 'index')));
    }
}
?>

If $default is not set, the function defaults to the root of your domain - ‘/’.

Parameter $local if set to true, restricts referring URLs to local server.

disableCache¶

Used to tell the user’s browser not to cache the results of the current request. This is different than view caching, covered in a later chapter.

The headers sent to this effect are:

Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT

Last-Modified: [current datetime] GMT

Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate

Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0

Pragma: no-cache

postConditions¶

postConditions(array $data, mixed $op, string $bool, boolean $exclusive)

Use this method to turn a set of POSTed model data (from HtmlHelper-compatible inputs) into a set of find conditions for a model. This function offers a quick shortcut on building search logic. For example, an administrative user may want to be able to search orders in order to know which items need to be shipped. You can use CakePHP’s Form- and HtmlHelpers to create a quick form based on the Order model. Then a controller action can use the data posted from that form to craft find conditions:

function index() {
    $conditions = $this->postConditions($this->data);
    $orders = $this->Order->find("all",compact('conditions'));
    $this->set('orders', $orders);
}

If $this->data[‘Order’][‘destination’] equals “Old Towne Bakery”, postConditions converts that condition to an array compatible for use in a Model->find() method. In this case, array(“Order.destination” => “Old Towne Bakery”).

If you want use a different SQL operator between terms, supply them using the second parameter.

/*
Contents of $this->data
array(
    'Order' => array(
        'num_items' => '4',
        'referrer' => 'Ye Olde'
    )
)
*/

//Let’s get orders that have at least 4 items and contain ‘Ye Olde’
$conditions=$this->postConditions(
    $this->data,
    array(
        'num_items' => '>=',
        'referrer' => 'LIKE'
    )
);
$orders = $this->Order->find("all",compact('conditions'));

The third parameter allows you to tell CakePHP what SQL boolean operator to use between the find conditions. String like ‘AND’, ‘OR’ and ‘XOR’ are all valid values.

Finally, if the last parameter is set to true, and the $op parameter is an array, fields not included in $op will not be included in the returned conditions.

paginate¶

This method is used for paginating results fetched by your models. You can specify page sizes, model find conditions and more. See the pagination section for more details on how to use paginate.

requestAction¶

requestAction(string $url, array $options)

This function calls a controller’s action from any location and returns data from the action. The $url passed is a CakePHP-relative URL (/controllername/actionname/params). To pass extra data to the receiving controller action add to the $options array.

You can use requestAction() to retrieve a fully rendered view by passing ‘return’ in the options: requestAction($url, array('return'));. It is important to note that making a requestAction using ‘return’ from a controller method can cause script and css tags to not work correctly.

If used without caching requestAction can lead to poor performance. It is rarely appropriate to use in a controller or model.

requestAction is best used in conjunction with (cached) elements – as a way to fetch data for an element before rendering. Let’s use the example of putting a “latest comments” element in the layout. First we need to create a controller function that will return the data.

// controllers/comments_controller.php
class CommentsController extends AppController {
    function latest() {
        $comments = $this->Comment->find('all', array('order' => 'Comment.created DESC', 'limit' => 10));
        if (!empty($this->params['requested'])) {
            return $comments;
        } else {
            $this->set(compact('comments'));
        }
    }
}

When an action is called through requestAction $this->params['requested'] is set to 1 as an indicator. So checking that you can either return the required data else set it a view variable like you normally would. This helps keep things DRY.

If we now create a simple element to call that function:

// views/elements/latest_comments.ctp

$comments = $this->requestAction('/comments/latest');
foreach($comments as $comment) {
    echo $comment['Comment']['title'];
}

We can then place that element anywhere at all to get the output using:

echo $this->element('latest_comments');

Written in this way, whenever the element is rendered, a request will be made to the controller to get the data, the data will be processed, and returned. However in accordance with the warning above it’s best to make use of element caching to prevent needless processing. By modifying the call to element to look like this:

echo $this->element('latest_comments', array('cache' => '+1 hour'));

The requestAction call will not be made while the cached element view file exists and is valid.

In addition, requestAction now takes array based cake style urls:

echo $this->requestAction(array('controller' => 'articles', 'action' => 'featured'), array('return'));

This allows the requestAction call to bypass the usage of Router::url which can increase performance. The url based arrays are the same as the ones that HtmlHelper::link uses with one difference - if you are using named or passed parameters, you must put them in a second array and wrap them with the correct key. This is because requestAction merges the named args array (requestAction’s 2nd parameter) with the Controller::params member array and does not explicitly place the named args array into the key ‘named’; Additional members in the $option array will also be made available in the requested action’s Controller::params array.

echo $this->requestAction('/articles/featured/limit:3');
echo $this->requestAction('/articles/view/5');

As an array in the requestAction would then be:

echo $this->requestAction(array('controller' => 'articles', 'action' => 'featured'), array('named' => array('limit' => 3)));

echo $this->requestAction(array('controller' => 'articles', 'action' => 'view'), array('pass' => array(5)));

Unlike other places where array urls are analogous to string urls, requestAction treats them differently.

When using an array url in conjunction with requestAction() you must specify all parameters that you will need in the requested action. This includes parameters like $this->data and $this->params['form']. In addition to passing all required parameters, named and pass parameters must be done in the second array as seen above.

loadModel¶

loadModel(string $modelClass, mixed $id)

The loadModel function comes handy when you need to use a model which is not the controller’s default model or its associated model.

$this->loadModel('Article');
$recentArticles = $this->Article->find('all', array('limit' => 5, 'order' => 'Article.created DESC'));

$this->loadModel('User', 2);
$user = $this->User->read();