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7.10.2 flash

The flash method uses the default key set by setFlash(). You can also retrieve specific keys in the session. For example, the Auth component sets all of its Session messages under the 'auth' key

// Controller code
$this->Session->setFlash('My Message');

// In view
echo $this->Session->flash();
// outputs "<div id='flashMessage' class='message'>My Message</div>"

// output the AuthComponent Session message, if set.
echo $this->Session->flash('auth');
  1. // Controller code
  2. $this->Session->setFlash('My Message');
  3. // In view
  4. echo $this->Session->flash();
  5. // outputs "<div id='flashMessage' class='message'>My Message</div>"
  6. // output the AuthComponent Session message, if set.
  7. echo $this->Session->flash('auth');

# Using Flash for Success and Failure

In some web sites, particularly administration backoffice web applications it is often expected that the result of an operation requested by the user has associated feedback as to whether the operation succeeded or not. This is a classic usage for the flash mechanism since we only want to show the user the result once and not keep the message.

One way to achieve this is to use Session->flash() with the layout parameter. With the layout parameter we can be in control of the resultant html for the message.

In the controller you might typically have code:

if ($user_was_deleted) {
    $this->Session->setFlash('The user was deleted successfully.', 'flash_success');
} else {
    $this->Session->setFlash('The user could not be deleted.', 'flash_failure');
}
  1. if ($user_was_deleted) {
  2. $this->Session->setFlash('The user was deleted successfully.', 'flash_success');
  3. } else {
  4. $this->Session->setFlash('The user could not be deleted.', 'flash_failure');
  5. }

The flash_success and flash_failure parameter represents an element file to place in the root app/views/elements folder, e.g. app/views/elements/flash_success.ctp, app/views/elements/flash_failure.ctp

Inside the flash_success element file would be something like this:

<div class="flash flash_success">
    <?php echo $message ?>
</div>
  1. <div class="flash flash_success">
  2. <?php echo $message ?>
  3. </div>

The final step is in your main view file where the result is to be displayed to add simply

<?php echo $this->Session->flash(); ?>
  1. <?php echo $this->Session->flash(); ?>

And of course you can then add to your CSS a selector for div.flash, div.flash_success and div.flash_failure

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