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Flash

class FlashComponent(ComponentCollection $collection, array $config = array())

FlashComponent provides a way to set one-time notification messages to be displayed after processing a form or acknowledging data. CakePHP refers to these messages as “flash messages”. FlashComponent writes flash messages to $_SESSION, to be rendered in a View using FlashHelper.

The FlashComponent replaces the setFlash() method on SessionComponent and should be used instead of that method.

Setting Flash Messages

FlashComponent provides two ways to set flash messages: its __call magic method and its set() method.

To use the default flash message handler, you can use the set() method:

$this->Flash->set('This is a message');

New in version 2.10.0: Flash messages now stack. Successive calls to set() or __call() with the same key will append the messages in the $_SESSION. If you want to keep the old behavior (one message even after consecutive calls), set the clear option to true when setting messages.

To create custom Flash elements, FlashComponent’s __call magic method allows you use a method name that maps to an element located under the app/View/Elements/Flash directory. By convention, camelcased methods will map to the lowercased and underscored element name:

// Uses app/View/Elements/Flash/success.ctp
$this->Flash->success('This was successful');

// Uses app/View/Elements/Flash/great_success.ctp
$this->Flash->greatSuccess('This was greatly successful');

FlashComponent’s __call and set() methods optionally take a second parameter, an array of options:

  • key Defaults to ‘flash’. The array key found under the ‘Flash’ key in the session.

  • element Defaults to null, but will automatically be set when using the __call() magic method. The element name to use for rendering.

  • params An optional array of keys/values to make available as variables within an element.

  • clear Set to true to remove any existing flash messages of the given key/element. (Added in 2.10.0).

An example of using these options:

// In your Controller
$this->Flash->success('The user has been saved', array(
    'key' => 'positive',
    'params' => array(
        'name' => $user['User']['name'],
        'email' => $user['User']['email']
    )
));

// In your View
<?php echo $this->Flash->render('positive') ?>

<!-- In app/View/Elements/Flash/success.ctp -->
<div id="flash-<?php echo h($key) ?>" class="message-info success">
    <?php echo h($message) ?>: <?php echo h($params['name']) ?>, <?php echo h($params['email']) ?>.
</div>

If you are using the __call() magic method, the element option will always be replaced. In order to retrieve a specific element from a plugin, you should set the plugin parameter. For example:

// In your Controller
$this->Flash->warning('My message', array('plugin' => 'PluginName'));

The code above will use the warning.ctp element under plugins/PluginName/View/Elements/Flash for rendering the flash message.

Note

By default, CakePHP does not escape the HTML in flash messages. If you are using any request or user data in your flash messages, you should escape it with h when formatting your messages.

For more information about rendering your flash messages, please refer to the FlashHelper section.