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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'));

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() {
        return $this->Comment->find('all', array('order' => 'Comment.created DESC', 'limit' => 10));
    }
}

1. // controllers/comments_controller.php
2. class CommentsController extends AppController {
3. function latest() {
4. return $this->Comment->find('all', array('order' => 'Comment.created DESC', 'limit' => 10));
5. }
6. }

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'];
}

1. // views/elements/latest_comments.ctp
2. $comments = $this->requestAction('/comments/latest');
3. foreach($comments as $comment) {
4. echo $comment['Comment']['title'];
5. }

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

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

1. 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'));

1. 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'));

1. 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 params in your url then the requestAction url array must wrap the named params in the key 'named'. This is because requestAction only merges the named args array into the Controller::params member array and does not place the named args in the key 'named'.

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

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

This as an array in the requestAction would then be:

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

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