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Global Constants and Functions

While most of your day-to-day work in CakePHP will be utilizing core classes and methods, CakePHP features a number of global convenience functions that may come in handy. Many of these functions are for use with CakePHP classes (loading model or component classes), but many others make working with arrays or strings a little easier.

We’ll also cover some of the constants available in CakePHP applications. Using these constants will help make upgrades more smooth, but are also convenient ways to point to certain files or directories in your CakePHP application.

Global Functions

Here are CakePHP’s globally available functions. Many of them are convenience wrappers for long-named PHP functions, but some of them (like uses()) can be used to include code or perform other useful functions. Chances are if you’re constantly wanting a function to accomplish an oft-used task, it’s here.

__

__(string $string_id, boolean $return =  false)

This function handles localization in CakePHP applications. The $string_id identifies the ID for a translation, and the second parameter allows you to have the function automatically echo the string (the default behavior), or return it for further processing (pass a boolean true to enable this behavior).

Check out the Internationalization & Localization section for more information.

a

a(mixed $one, $two, $three...)

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

print_r(a('foo', 'bar'));

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

aa

aa(string $one, $two, $three...)

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

print_r(aa('a','b'));

// output:
array(
    'a' => 'b'
)

am

am(array $one, $two, $three...)

Merges all the arrays passed as parameters and returns the merged array.

config

Can be used to load files from your application config-folder via include_once. Function checks for existance before include and returns boolean. Takes an optional number of arguments.

Example: config('some_file', 'myconfig');

convertSlash

convertSlash(string $string)

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

countdim

countdim(array $array)

Returns the number of dimensions in the supplied array.

debug

debug(mixed $var, boolean $showHtml = false)

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

e

e(mixed $data)

Convenience wrapper for echo().

env

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.

fileExistsInPath

fileExistsInPath(string $file)

Checks to make sure that the supplied file is within the current PHP include_path. Returns a boolean result.

h

h(string $text, string $charset = null)

Convenience wrapper for htmlspecialchars().

ife

ife($condition, $ifNotEmpty, $ifEmpty)

Used for ternary-like operations. If the $condition is non-empty, $ifNotEmpty is returned, else $ifEmpty is returned.

low

low(string $string)

Convenience wrapper for strtolower().

paths

paths()

Get CakePHP basic paths as an indexed array. Resulting array will contain array of paths indexed by: Models, Behaviors, Controllers, Components, and Helpers.

This has been Deprecated and is no longer available in RC2. Use Configure::corePaths(); instead.

pr

pr(mixed $var)

Convenience wrapper for print_r(), with the addition of wrapping <pre> tags around the output.

r

r(string $search, string $replace, string  $subject)

Convenience wrapper for str_replace().

stripslashes_deep

stripslashes_deep(array $value)

Recursively strips slashes from the supplied $value. Returns the modified array.

up

up(string $string)

Convenience wrapper for strtoupper().

uses

uses(string $lib1, $lib2, $lib3...)

Used to load CakePHP’s core libraries (found in cake/libs/). Supply the name of the library’s file name without the ‘.php’ extension.

Core Definition Constants

constant

Absolute path to the application’s…

APP

root directory.

APP_PATH

app directory.

CACHE

cache files directory.

CAKE

cake directory.

COMPONENTS

components directory.

CONFIGS

configuration files directory.

CONTROLLER_TESTS

controller tests directory.

CONTROLLERS

controllers directory.

CSS

CSS files directory.

DS

Short for PHP’s DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, which is / on Linux and \ on windows.

ELEMENTS

elements directory.

HELPER_TESTS

helper tests directory.

HELPERS

helpers directory.

IMAGES

images directory.

INFLECTIONS

inflections directory (usually inside the configuration directory).

JS

JavaScript files directory (in the webroot).

LAYOUTS

layouts directory.

LIB_TESTS

CakePHP Library tests directory.

LIBS

CakePHP libs directory.

LOGS

logs directory (in app).

MODEL_TESTS

model tests directory.

MODELS

models directory.

SCRIPTS

Cake scripts directory.

TESTS

tests directory (parent for the models, controllers, etc. test directories)

TMP

tmp directory.

VENDORS

vendors directory.

VIEWS

views directory.

WWW_ROOT

full path to the webroot.