CakePHP Conventions¶

Controller Conventions¶

Controller class names are plural, CamelCased, and end in Controller. PeopleController and LatestArticlesController are both examples of conventional controller names.

The first method you write for a controller might be the index() method. When a request specifies a controller but not an action, the default CakePHP behavior is to execute the index() method of that controller. For example, a request for http://www.example.com/apples/ maps to a call on the index() method of the ApplesController, whereas http://www.example.com/apples/view/ maps to a call on the view() method of the ApplesController.

You can also change the visibility of controller methods in CakePHP by prefixing controller method names with underscores. If a controller method has been prefixed with an underscore, the method will not be accessible directly from the web but is available for internal use. For example:

class NewsController extends AppController {

    public function latest() {
        $this->_findNewArticles();
    }

    protected function _findNewArticles() {
        // Logic to find latest news articles
    }
}

While the page http://www.example.com/news/latest/ would be accessible to the user as usual, someone trying to get to the page http://www.example.com/news/_findNewArticles/ would get an error, because the method is preceded with an underscore. You can also use PHP’s visibility keywords to indicate whether or not a method can be accessed from a URL. Non-public methods cannot be accessed.

File and Class Name Conventions¶

In general, filenames match the class names, which are CamelCased. So if you have a class MyNiftyClass, then in CakePHP, the file should be named MyNiftyClass.php. Below are examples of how to name the file for each of the different types of classes you would typically use in a CakePHP application:

• The Controller class KissesAndHugsController would be found in a file named KissesAndHugsController.php

• The Component class MyHandyComponent would be found in a file named MyHandyComponent.php

• The Model class OptionValue would be found in a file named OptionValue.php

• The Behavior class EspeciallyFunkableBehavior would be found in a file named EspeciallyFunkableBehavior.php

• The View class SuperSimpleView would be found in a file named SuperSimpleView.php

• The Helper class BestEverHelper would be found in a file named BestEverHelper.php

Each file would be located in the appropriate folder in your app folder.

Model and Database Conventions¶

Model class names are singular and CamelCased. Person, BigPerson, and ReallyBigPerson are all examples of conventional model names.

Table names corresponding to CakePHP models are plural and underscored. The underlying tables for the above mentioned models would be people, big_people, and really_big_people, respectively.

You can use the utility library Inflector to check the singular/plural of words. See the Inflector for more information.

Field names with two or more words are underscored: first_name.

Foreign keys in hasMany, belongsTo or hasOne relationships are recognized by default as the (singular) name of the related table followed by _id. So if a Baker hasMany Cake, the cakes table will refer to the bakers table via a baker_id foreign key. For a table like category_types whose name contains multiple words, the foreign key would be category_type_id.

Join tables, used in hasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM) relationships between models, must be named after the model tables they will join, e.g. users HABTM groups would be joined by groups_users, and should be arranged in alphabetical order, e.g. apes_zoos is better than zoos_apes.

All tables with which CakePHP models interact (with the exception of join tables) require a singular primary key to uniquely identify each row. If you wish to model a table that does not already have a single-field primary key, CakePHP’s convention is that a single-field primary key is added to the table. You must add a single-field primary key if you want to use that table’s model.

If primary key’s name is not id, then you must set the Model.primaryKey attribute.

CakePHP does not support composite primary keys. If you want to directly manipulate your join table data, use direct query calls or add a primary key to act on it as a normal model. For example:

CREATE TABLE posts_tags (
    id INT(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    post_id INT(10) NOT NULL,
    tag_id INT(10) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY(id)
);

Rather than using an auto-increment key as the primary key, you may also use char(36). CakePHP will then use a unique 36 character UUID (String::uuid) whenever you save a new record using the Model::save method.

View Conventions¶

View template files are named after the controller functions they display, in an underscored form. The getReady() function of the PeopleController class will look for a view template in /app/View/People/get_ready.ctp.

The basic pattern is /app/View/Controller/underscored_function_name.ctp.

By naming the pieces of your application using CakePHP conventions, you gain functionality without the hassle and maintenance tethers of configuration. Here’s a final example that ties the conventions together:

• Database table: “people”

• Model class: “Person”, found at /app/Model/Person.php

• Controller class: “PeopleController”, found at /app/Controller/PeopleController.php

• View template, found at /app/View/People/index.ctp

Using these conventions, CakePHP knows that a request to http://example.com/people/ maps to a call on the index() function of the PeopleController, where the Person model is automatically available (and automatically tied to the ‘people’ table in the database), and renders to a file. None of these relationships have been configured by any means other than by creating classes and files that you’d need to create anyway.

Now that you’ve been introduced to CakePHP’s fundamentals, you might try a run through the Blog Tutorial to see how things fit together.