Welcome to The Cookbook

Table of Contents : The Manual

• 1 Basic Principles of CakePHP
  • 1.1 CakePHP Structure
    • 1.1.1 Controller Extensions
    • 1.1.2 View Extensions
    • 1.1.3 Model Extensions
    • 1.1.4 Application Extensions
  • 1.2 CakePHP File Structure
    • 1.2.1 The App Folder
  • 1.3 A Typical CakePHP Request
  • 1.4 CakePHP Conventions
    • 1.4.1 File and Classname Conventions
    • 1.4.2 Model and Database Conventions
    • 1.4.3 Controller Conventions
    • 1.4.4 View Conventions
• 2 Developing with CakePHP
  • 2.1 Requirements
  • 2.2 Installation Preparation
    • 2.2.1 Getting CakePHP
    • 2.2.2 Permissions
  • 2.3 Installation
    • 2.3.1 Development
    • 2.3.2 Production
    • 2.3.3 Advanced Installation
      • 2.3.3.1 Additional Class Paths
    • 2.3.4 Apache and mod_rewrite
    • 2.3.5 Fire It Up
  • 2.4 Configuration
    • 2.4.1 Database Configuration
    • 2.4.2 Core Configuration
    • 2.4.3 The Configuration Class
      • 2.4.3.1 Configure Methods
        • 2.4.3.1.1 write
        • 2.4.3.1.2 read
        • 2.4.3.1.3 delete
        • 2.4.3.1.4 load
        • 2.4.3.1.5 version
      • 2.4.3.2 CakePHP Core Configuration Variables
      • 2.4.3.3 Configuration Constants
    • 2.4.4 Routes Configuration
    • 2.4.5 Custom Inflections
    • 2.4.6 Bootstrapping CakePHP
  • 2.5 Controllers
    • 2.5.1 Introduction
    • 2.5.2 Controller Attributes
      • 2.5.2.1 $name
      • 2.5.2.2 $components, $helpers and $uses
      • 2.5.2.3 Page-related Attributes: $layout and $pageTitle
      • 2.5.2.4 The Parameters Attribute ($params)
        • 2.5.2.4.1 form
        • 2.5.2.4.2 bare
        • 2.5.2.4.3 isAjax
        • 2.5.2.4.4 controller
        • 2.5.2.4.5 action
        • 2.5.2.4.6 pass
        • 2.5.2.4.7 url
        • 2.5.2.4.8 data
      • 2.5.2.5 Other Attributes
    • 2.5.3 Controller Methods
      • 2.5.3.1 Interacting with Views
        • 2.5.3.1.1 set
        • 2.5.3.1.2 render
      • 2.5.3.2 Flow Control
        • 2.5.3.2.1 redirect
        • 2.5.3.2.2 flash
      • 2.5.3.3 Callbacks
      • 2.5.3.4 Other Useful Methods
        • 2.5.3.4.1 constructClasses
        • 2.5.3.4.2 referrer
        • 2.5.3.4.3 disableCache
        • 2.5.3.4.4 postConditions
        • 2.5.3.4.5 paginate
        • 2.5.3.4.6 requestAction
  • 2.6 Components
    • 2.6.1 Introduction
    • 2.6.2 Creating Custom Components
      • 2.6.2.1 MVC Class Access Within Components
  • 2.7 Models
    • 2.7.1 Introduction
    • 2.7.2 Automagic Model Fields
      • 2.7.2.1 created & modified (or updated)
      • 2.7.2.2 Primary keys used as UUIDs
    • 2.7.3 Model Attributes
      • 2.7.3.1 $useDbConfig
      • 2.7.3.2 $useTable
      • 2.7.3.3 $primaryKey
      • 2.7.3.4 $displayField
      • 2.7.3.5 $recursive
      • 2.7.3.6 $order
      • 2.7.3.7 $data
      • 2.7.3.8 $_schema
      • 2.7.3.9 $validate
      • 2.7.3.10 $name
      • 2.7.3.11 $cacheQueries
      • 2.7.3.12 $belongsTo, $hasOne, $hasMany, $hasAndBelongsToMany
      • 2.7.3.13 $actsAs
    • 2.7.4 Model Methods
      • 2.7.4.1 Retrieving Your Data
        • 2.7.4.1.1 findAll
        • 2.7.4.1.2 find
        • 2.7.4.1.3 findAllBy
        • 2.7.4.1.4 findBy
        • 2.7.4.1.5 findNeighbours
        • 2.7.4.1.6 field
        • 2.7.4.1.7 findCount
        • 2.7.4.1.8 generateList
        • 2.7.4.1.9 query and execute
      • 2.7.4.2 Complex Find Conditions
      • 2.7.4.3 Saving Your Data
      • 2.7.4.4 Model Callbacks
      • 2.7.4.5 User-Defined Functions
    • 2.7.5 Associations
      • 2.7.5.1 Introduction
      • 2.7.5.2 hasOne
      • 2.7.5.3 belongsTo
      • 2.7.5.4 hasMany
      • 2.7.5.5 hasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM)
      • 2.7.5.6 Saving Related Model Data (hasOne, hasMany, belongsTo)
      • 2.7.5.7 Saving Related Model Data (HABTM)
      • 2.7.5.8 Creating and Destroying Associations on the Fly
    • 2.7.6 DataSources
    • 2.7.7 Behaviors
      • 2.7.7.1 Introduction
      • 2.7.7.2 Using Behaviors
      • 2.7.7.3 Tree Behavior
        • 2.7.7.3.1 Requirements
        • 2.7.7.3.2 Basic Usage
        • 2.7.7.3.3 Other Methods
          • 2.7.7.3.3.1 childCount
          • 2.7.7.3.3.2 children
          • 2.7.7.3.3.3 getparentnode
          • 2.7.7.3.3.4 getpath
          • 2.7.7.3.3.5 moveDown
          • 2.7.7.3.3.6 moveUp
          • 2.7.7.3.3.7 removeFromTree
          • 2.7.7.3.3.8 setparent
      • 2.7.7.4 TranslateBehavior
      • 2.7.7.5 ACLBehavior
  • 2.8 Views
    • 2.8.1 View Templates
    • 2.8.2 Layouts
    • 2.8.3 Elements
  • 2.9 Helpers
    • 2.9.1 Introduction
    • 2.9.2 CakePHP Core Helpers
    • 2.9.3 Creating Helpers
      • 2.9.3.1 Including other Helpers
      • 2.9.3.2 Using your Custom Helper
      • 2.9.3.3 Contributing
  • 2.10 Scaffolding
    • 2.10.1 Customizing Scaffold Views
  • 2.11 The CakePHP Console
    • 2.11.1 Introduction
    • 2.11.2 Creating Shells & Tasks
      • 2.11.2.1 Creating Your Own Shells
      • 2.11.2.2 Tasks
  • 2.12 Code Generation with Bake
  • 2.13 Plugins
    • 2.13.1 Creating a Plugin
      • 2.13.1.1 Plugin Controllers
      • 2.13.1.2 Plugin Models
      • 2.13.1.3 Plugin Views
      • 2.13.1.4 Plugin Tips
  • 2.14 Global Constants and Functions
    • 2.14.1 Global Functions
    • 2.14.2 Core Definition Constants
    • 2.14.3 Path Constants
• 3 Common Tasks With CakePHP
  • 3.1 Data Validation
    • 3.1.1 Simple Rules
    • 3.1.2 One Rule Per Field
      • 3.1.2.1 rule
      • 3.1.2.2 required
      • 3.1.2.3 allowEmpty
      • 3.1.2.4 on
      • 3.1.2.5 message
    • 3.1.3 Multiple Rules per Field
    • 3.1.4 Built-in Validation Rules
      • 3.1.4.1 alphaNumeric
      • 3.1.4.2 between
      • 3.1.4.3 blank
      • 3.1.4.4 cc
      • 3.1.4.5 comparison
      • 3.1.4.6 date
      • 3.1.4.7 decimal
      • 3.1.4.8 email
      • 3.1.4.9 equalTo
      • 3.1.4.10 extension
      • 3.1.4.11 file
      • 3.1.4.12 ip
      • 3.1.4.13 isUnique
      • 3.1.4.14 minLength
      • 3.1.4.15 maxLength
      • 3.1.4.16 money
      • 3.1.4.17 multiple
      • 3.1.4.18 numeric
      • 3.1.4.19 phone
      • 3.1.4.20 postal
      • 3.1.4.21 range
      • 3.1.4.22 ssn
      • 3.1.4.23 url
    • 3.1.5 Custom Validation Rules
      • 3.1.5.1 Custom Regular Expression Validation
      • 3.1.5.2 Custom Validation Methods
    • 3.1.6 Validating Data from the Controller
  • 3.2 Data Sanitization
    • 3.2.1 paranoid
    • 3.2.2 html
    • 3.2.3 sql
    • 3.2.4 cleanArray
  • 3.3 Error Handling
  • 3.4 Debugging
    • 3.4.1 Basic Debugging
    • 3.4.2 Using the Debugger Class
    • 3.4.3 Debugger Class
  • 3.5 Caching
  • 3.6 Logging
    • 3.6.1 Introduction
    • 3.6.2 Using the log function
  • 3.7 Testing
    • 3.7.1 Preparing for testing
      • 3.7.1.1 Installing SimpleTest
      • 3.7.1.2 Running the built-in test cases
    • 3.7.2 Testing overview - Unit testing vs. Web testing
    • 3.7.3 Preparing test data
      • 3.7.3.1 About fixtures
      • 3.7.3.2 Creating fixtures
      • 3.7.3.3 Importing table information and records
    • 3.7.4 Creating tests
    • 3.7.5 Testing models
      • 3.7.5.1 Creating a test case
      • 3.7.5.2 Creating a test method
    • 3.7.6 Testing controllers
      • 3.7.6.1 Creating a test case
      • 3.7.6.2 The testAction method
      • 3.7.6.3 Pitfalls
    • 3.7.7 Testing components
      • 3.7.7.1 Initializing the component
      • 3.7.7.2 Creating a test method
    • 3.7.8 Web testing - Testing views
      • 3.7.8.1 About CakeWebTestCase
      • 3.7.8.2 Creating a test
      • 3.7.8.3 Walking through a page
    • 3.7.9 Miscellaneous
      • 3.7.9.1 Customizing the test reporter
      • 3.7.9.2 Grouping tests
  • 3.8 Localization & Internationalization
    • 3.8.1 Localizing Your Application
    • 3.8.2 Internationalization in CakePHP
  • 3.9 Pagination
    • 3.9.1 Controller Setup
    • 3.9.2 Pagination in Views
    • 3.9.3 AJAX Pagination
      • 3.9.3.1 Layout Changes
      • 3.9.3.2 View Changes
    • 3.9.4 Custom Query Pagination
• 4 Built-in Components
  • 4.1 Access Control Lists
    • 4.1.1 Understanding How ACL Works
    • 4.1.2 Defining Permissions: Cake's INI-based ACL
    • 4.1.3 Defining Permissions: Cake's Database ACL
      • 4.1.3.1 Getting Started
      • 4.1.3.2 Creating Access Request Objects (AROs) and Access Control Objects (ACOs)
      • 4.1.3.3 Assigning Permissions
      • 4.1.3.4 Checking Permissions: The ACL Component
  • 4.2 Authentication
    • 4.2.1 AuthComponent Methods
      • 4.2.1.1 action
      • 4.2.1.2 allow
      • 4.2.1.3 deny
      • 4.2.1.4 hashPasswords
      • 4.2.1.5 login
      • 4.2.1.6 logout
      • 4.2.1.7 password
      • 4.2.1.8 user
    • 4.2.2 AuthComponent Variables
      • 4.2.2.1 userModel
      • 4.2.2.2 fields
      • 4.2.2.3 loginAction
      • 4.2.2.4 loginRedirect
      • 4.2.2.5 logoutRedirect
      • 4.2.2.6 loginError
      • 4.2.2.7 autoRedirect
      • 4.2.2.8 authorize
      • 4.2.2.9 ajaxLogin
  • 4.3 Sessions
    • 4.3.1 Methods
      • 4.3.1.1 write
      • 4.3.1.2 setFlash
      • 4.3.1.3 read
      • 4.3.1.4 check
      • 4.3.1.5 delete
      • 4.3.1.6 error
      • 4.3.1.6 destroy
    • 5 Beginning With CakePHP
      • 5.1 Preface
        • 5.1.1 Audience
      • 5.2 Introduction to CakePHP
        • 5.2.1 What is CakePHP? Why Use it?
        • 5.2.2 Where to Get Help
      • 5.3 Understanding Model-View-Controller
        • 5.3.1 Overview
        • 5.3.2 Benefits
  • 4.4 Request Handling
    • 4.4.1 Obtaining Request Information
    • 4.4.2 Request Type Detection
    • 4.4.3 Obtaining Additional Client Information
    • 4.4.4 Responding To Requests
  • Security Component
    • 1 Configuration
    • 2 Methods
      • 2.1 requirePost()
      • 2.2 requireSecure()
      • 2.3 requireAuth()
      • 2.4 requireLogin()
      • 2.5 loginCredentials(string $type)
      • 2.6 loginRequest(array $options)
      • 2.7 parseDigestAuthData(string $digest)
      • 2.8 generateDigestResponseHash(array $data)
      • 2.9 blackHole(object $controller, string $error)
    • 3 Usage
    • 4 Basic HTTP Authentication
  • 4.6 Email
    • 4.6.1 Class Attributes and Variables
    • 4.6.2 Sending a basic message
      • 4.6.2.1 Setting up the Layouts
      • 4.6.2.2 Setup an email element for the message body
      • 4.6.2.3 Controller
  • 4.7 Cookies
    • 4.7.1 Introduction
    • 4.7.2 Controller Setup
    • 4.7.3 Using the Component
• 6 Built-in Helpers
  • 6.1 Forms
    • 6.1.1 Creating Forms
      • 6.1.1.1 $options[‘type’]
      • 6.1.1.2 $options[‘action’]
      • 6.1.1.3 $options[‘url’]
      • 6.1.1.4 $options[‘default’]
    • 6.1.2 Closing the Form
    • 6.1.3 Automagic Form Elements
      • 6.1.3.1 $options[‘type’]
      • 6.1.3.2 $options[‘before’], $options[‘between’] and $options[‘after’]
      • 6.1.3.3 $options[‘options’]
      • 6.1.3.4 $options[‘multiple’]
      • 6.1.3.5 $options[‘maxLength’]
      • 6.1.3.6 $options[‘div’]
      • 6.1.3.7 $options[‘label’]
      • 6.1.3.8 $options[‘id’]
      • 6.1.3.9 $options[‘error’]
      • 6.1.3.10 $options[‘selected’]
      • 6.1.3.11 $options[‘rows’], $options[‘cols’]
      • 6.1.3.12 $options[‘empty’]
      • 6.1.3.13 $options[‘timeFormat’]
      • 6.1.3.14 $options[‘dateFormat’]
    • 6.1.4 File Fields
    • 6.1.5 Form Element-Specific Methods
  • 6.2 XML
  • 6.3 HTML
    • 6.3.1 Inserting Well-Formatted elements
  • 6.4 Javascript
    • 6.4.1 Methods
  • 6.5 AJAX
    • 6.5.1 AjaxHelper Options
      • 6.5.1.1 General Options
      • 6.5.1.2 Callback Options
    • 6.5.2 Methods
  • 6.6 Cache
    • 6.6.1 General Caching
    • 6.6.2 Cache Engines in Cake
    • 6.6.3 Cache Helper Configuration
    • 6.6.4 Caching in the Controller
    • 6.6.5 Marking Non-Cached Content in Views
    • 6.6.6 Clearing the Cache
  • 6.7 Form
  • 6.8 Number
    • 6.8.1 currency
    • 6.8.2 precision
    • 6.8.3 toPercentage
    • 6.8.4 toReadableSize
    • 6.8.5 format
  • 6.9 Text
  • 6.10 Time
    • 6.10.1 Formatting
    • 6.10.2 Testing Time
• 7 Examples
• 8 The CakePHP Blog Tutorial
  • 8.1 Getting Cake
  • 8.2 Creating the Blog Database
  • 8.3 Cake Database Configuration
  • 8.4 Optional Configuration
  • 8.5 A Note on mod_rewrite
  • 8.6 Create a Post Model
  • 8.7 Create a Posts Controller
  • 8.8 Creating Post Views
  • 8.9 Adding Posts
  • 8.10 Data Validation
  • 8.11 Deleting Posts
  • 8.12 Editing Posts
  • 8.13 Routes
  • 8.14 Conclusion
• 9 Simple User Authentication
• 10 Appendices
  • 10.1 Migrating from CakePHP 1.1 to 1.2
  • 10.2 1.2 Rewrite Contributors