Cake’s Global Constants And Functions¶

Global Functions¶

Here are Cake’s globally available functions. Many of them are convenience wrappers for long-named PHP functions, but some of them (like vendor() and uses()) can be used to include code, or perform other useful functions. Chances are if you’re wanting a nice little function to do something annoying over and over, it’s here.

• config

Loads Cake’s core configuration file. Returns true on success.

• uses

• string $lib1

• string $lib2…

Used to load Cake’s core libaries (found in cake/libs/). Supply the name of the lib filename without the ‘.php’ extension:

uses('sanitize', 'security');

• vendor

• string $lib1

• string $lib2…

Used to load external libraries found in the /vendors directory. Supply the name of the lib filename without the ‘.php’ extension:

vendor('myWebService', 'nusoap');

• debug

• mixed $var

• boolean $showHtml = false

If the application’s DEBUG level is non-zero, the $var is printed out. If $showHTML is true, the data is rendered to be browser-friendly.

• a

Returns an array of the parameters used to call the wrapping function:

function someFunction()
{
    echo print_r(a('foo', 'bar'));
}

someFunction();

// output:

array(
    [0] => 'foo',
    [1] => 'bar'
)

• aa

Used to create associative arrays formed from the parameters used to call the wrapping function:

echo aa('a','b'); // output: array( 'a' => 'b' )

• e

• string $text

Convenience wrapper for echo().

• low

Convenience wrapper for strtolower().

• up

Convenience wrapper for strtoupper().

• r

• string $search

• string $replace

• string $subject

Convenience wrapper for str_replace().

• pr

• mixed $data

Convenience function equivalent to:

echo “<pre>” . print_r($data) . “</pre>”;

Only prints out information if DEBUG is non-zero.

• am

• array $array1

• array $array2…

Merges and returns the arrays supplied in the parameters.

• env

• string $key

Gets an environment variable from available sources. Used as a backup if $_SERVER or $_ENV are disabled.

This function also emulates PHP_SELF and DOCUMENT_ROOT on unsupporting servers. In fact, it’s a good idea to always use env() instead of $_SERVER or getenv() (especially if you plan to distribute the code), since it’s a full emulation wrapper.

• cache

• string $path

• string $expires

• string $target = ‘cache’

Writes the data in $data to the path in /app/tmp specified by $path as a cache. The expiration time specified by $expires must be a valid strtotime() string. The $target of the cached data can either be ‘cache’ or ‘public’.

• clearCache

• string $search

• string $path = ‘views’

• string $ext

Used to delete files in the cache directories, or clear contents of cache directories.

If $search is a string, matching cache directory or file names will be removed from the cache. The $search parameter can also be passed as an array of names of files/directories to be cleared. If empty, all files in /app/tmp/cache/views will be cleared.

The $path parameter can be used to specify which directory inside of /tmp/cache is to be cleared. Defaults to ‘views’.

The $ext param is used to specify files with a certain file extention you wish to clear.

• stripslashes_deep

• array $array

Recursively strips slashes from all values in an array.

• countdim

• array $array

Returns the number of dimensions in the supplied array.

• fileExistsInPath

• string $file

Searches the current include path for a given filename. Returns the path to that file if found, false if not found.

• convertSlash

• string $string

Converts forward slashes to underscores and removes first and last underscores in a string.

CakePHP Core Definition Constants¶

ACL_CLASSNAME

the name of the class currently performing and managing ACL for CakePHP. This constant is in place to allow for users to integrate third party classes.

ACL_FILENAME

the name of the file where the class ACL_CLASSNAME can be found inside of.

AUTO_SESSION

if set to false, session_start() is not automatically called during requests to the application.

CACHE_CHECK

if set to false, view caching is turned off for the entire application

CAKE_SECURITY

determines the level of session security for the application in accordance with CAKE_SESSION_TIMEOUT. Can be set to ‘low’, ‘medium’, or ‘high’. Depending on the setting, CAKE_SESSION_TIMEOUT is multiplied according to the following:

1. low: 300

2. medium: 100

3. high: 10

CAKE_SESSION_COOKIE

the name of session cookie for the application.

CAKE_SESSION_SAVE

set to ‘php’, ‘file’, or ‘database’.

1. php: Cake uses PHP’s default session handling (usually defined in php.ini)

2. file: Session data is stored and managed in /tmp

3. database: Cake’s database session handling is used (see Chapter “The Cake Session Component” for more details).

CAKE_SESSION_STRING

a random string used in session mangement

CAKE_SESSION_TABLE

the name of the table for storing session data (if CAKE_SESSION_SAVE == ‘database’). Do not include a prefix here if one has already been specified for the default database connection.

CAKE_SESSION_TIMEOUT

number of seconds until session timeout. This figure is multiplied by CAKE_SECURITY.

COMPRESS_CSS

if set to true, CSS style sheets are compressed on output. This requires a /var/cache directory writable by the webserver. To use, reference your style sheets using /ccss (rather than /css) or use Controller::cssTag().

DEBUG

defines the level of error reporting and debug output the CakePHP application will render. Can be set to an integer from 0 to 3.

1. 0: Production mode. No error output, no debug messages shown.

2. 1: Development mode. Warnings and errors shown, along with debug messages.

3. 2: Same as in 1, but with SQL output.

4. 3: Same as in 2, but with full dump of current object (usually the Controller).

LOG_ERROR

Error constant. Used for differentiating error logging and debugging. Currently PHP supports LOG_DEBUG.

MAX_MD5SIZE

The maximum size (in bytes) to perform an md5() hash upon.

WEBSERVICES

If set to true, Cake’s bulit in webservices functionality is turned on.

CakePHP Path Constants¶

CakePHP Webroot Configuration Paths¶