Welcome to The Cookbook

Table of Contents : The Manual

• 1 Beginning With CakePHP
  • 1.1 What is CakePHP? Why Use it?
  • 1.2 Where to Get Help
  • 1.3 Understanding Model-View-Controller
    • 1.3.1 Overview
    • 1.3.2 Benefits
• 2 Basic Principles of CakePHP
  • 2.1 CakePHP Structure
    • 2.1.1 Controller Extensions
    • 2.1.2 View Extensions
    • 2.1.3 Model Extensions
    • 2.1.4 Application Extensions
  • 2.2 A Typical CakePHP Request
  • 2.3 CakePHP File Structure
    • 2.3.1 The App Folder
  • 2.4 CakePHP Conventions
    • 2.4.1 File and Classname Conventions
    • 2.4.2 Model and Database Conventions
    • 2.4.3 Controller Conventions
    • 2.4.4 View Conventions
• 3 Developing with CakePHP
  • 3.1 Requirements
  • 3.2 Installation Preparation
    • 3.2.1 Getting CakePHP
    • 3.2.2 Permissions
  • 3.3 Installation
    • 3.3.1 Development
    • 3.3.2 Production
    • 3.3.3 Advanced Installation
      • 3.3.3.1 Additional Class Paths
    • 3.3.4 Apache and mod_rewrite
    • 3.3.5 Fire It Up
  • 3.4 Configuration
    • 3.4.1 Database Configuration
    • 3.4.2 Core Configuration
    • 3.4.3 The Configuration Class
      • 3.4.3.1 Configure Methods
        • 3.4.3.1.1 write
        • 3.4.3.1.2 read
        • 3.4.3.1.3 delete
        • 3.4.3.1.4 load
        • 3.4.3.1.5 version
      • 3.4.3.2 CakePHP Core Configuration Variables
      • 3.4.3.3 Configuration Constants
    • 3.4.4 The App Class
    • 3.4.5 Routes Configuration
    • 3.4.6 Custom Inflections
    • 3.4.7 Bootstrapping CakePHP
  • 3.5 Controllers
    • 3.5.1 Introduction
    • 3.5.2 Controller Attributes
      • 3.5.2.1 $name
      • 3.5.2.2 $components, $helpers and $uses
      • 3.5.2.3 Page-related Attributes: $layout and $pageTitle
      • 3.5.2.4 The Parameters Attribute ($params)
        • 3.5.2.4.1 form
        • 3.5.2.4.2 bare
        • 3.5.2.4.3 isAjax
        • 3.5.2.4.4 controller
        • 3.5.2.4.5 action
        • 3.5.2.4.6 pass
        • 3.5.2.4.7 url
        • 3.5.2.4.8 data
      • 3.5.2.5 Other Attributes
    • 3.5.3 Controller Methods
      • 3.5.3.1 Interacting with Views
        • 3.5.3.1.1 set
        • 3.5.3.1.2 render
      • 3.5.3.2 Flow Control
        • 3.5.3.2.1 redirect
        • 3.5.3.2.2 flash
      • 3.5.3.3 Callbacks
      • 3.5.3.4 Other Useful Methods
        • 3.5.3.4.1 constructClasses
        • 3.5.3.4.2 referer
        • 3.5.3.4.3 disableCache
        • 3.5.3.4.4 postConditions
        • 3.5.3.4.5 paginate
        • 3.5.3.4.6 requestAction
  • 3.6 Components
    • 3.6.1 Introduction
    • 3.6.2 Creating Custom Components
      • 3.6.2.1 MVC Class Access Within Components
  • 3.7 Models
    • 3.7.1 Understanding Models
    • 3.7.2 Creating Database Tables
      • 3.7.2.1 created and modified
      • 3.7.2.2 Using UUIDs as Primary Keys
    • 3.7.3 Model Attributes
      • 3.7.3.1 useDbConfig
      • 3.7.3.2 useTable
      • 3.7.3.3 tablePrefix
      • 3.7.3.4 primaryKey
      • 3.7.3.5 displayField
      • 3.7.3.6 $recursive
      • 3.7.3.7 $order
      • 3.7.3.8 $data
      • 3.7.3.9 $_schema
      • 3.7.3.10 $validate
      • 3.7.3.11 name
      • 3.7.3.12 $cacheQueries
      • 3.7.3.13 $belongsTo, $hasOne, $hasMany, $hasAndBelongsToMany
    • 3.7.4 Model Methods
      • 3.7.4.1 User-Defined Functions
      • 3.7.4.2 Model Callbacks
      • 3.7.4.3 Saving Your Data
      • 3.7.4.4 Complex Find Conditions
    • 3.7.5 Associations
      • 3.7.5.1 Introduction
      • 3.7.5.2 hasOne
      • 3.7.5.3 belongsTo
      • 3.7.5.4 hasMany
      • 3.7.5.5 hasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM)
      • 3.7.5.6 Saving Related Model Data (hasOne, hasMany, belongsTo)
        • 3.7.5.6.1 counterCache - Cache your count()
      • 3.7.5.7 Saving Related Model Data (HABTM)
      • 3.7.5.8 Creating and Destroying Associations on the Fly
    • 3.7.6 DataSources
  • 3.8 Behaviors
    • 3.8.1 Using Behaviors
  • 3.9 Views
    • 3.9.1 View Templates
    • 3.9.2 Layouts
    • 3.9.3 Elements
    • 3.9.4 Themes
    • 3.9.5 Media Views
  • 3.10 Helpers
    • 3.10.1 Using Helpers
    • 3.10.2 Creating Helpers
      • 3.10.2.1 Including other Helpers
      • 3.10.2.2 Using your Custom Helper
    • 3.10.3 Creating Functionality for All Helpers
    • 3.10.4 Core Helpers
  • 3.11 Scaffolding
    • 3.11.1 Customizing Scaffold Views
  • 3.12 The CakePHP Console
    • 3.12.1 Introduction
    • 3.12.2 Creating Shells & Tasks
      • 3.12.2.1 Creating Your Own Shells
      • 3.12.2.2 Tasks
  • 3.13 Code Generation with Bake
  • 3.14 Plugins
    • 3.14.1 Creating a Plugin
    • 3.14.2 Plugin Controllers
    • 3.14.3 Plugin Models
    • 3.14.4 Plugin Views
    • 3.14.5 Components, Helpers and Behaviors
    • 3.14.6 Plugin Tips
  • 3.15 Global Constants and Functions
    • 3.15.1 Global Functions
    • 3.15.2 Core Definition Constants
    • 3.15.3 Path Constants
• 4 Common Tasks With CakePHP
  • 4.1 Data Validation
    • 4.1.1 Simple Rules
    • 4.1.2 One Rule Per Field
      • 4.1.2.1 rule
      • 4.1.2.2 required
      • 4.1.2.3 allowEmpty
      • 4.1.2.4 on
      • 4.1.2.5 message
    • 4.1.3 Multiple Rules per Field
    • 4.1.4 Built-in Validation Rules
      • 4.1.4.1 alphaNumeric
      • 4.1.4.2 between
      • 4.1.4.3 blank
      • 4.1.4.4 cc
      • 4.1.4.5 comparison
      • 4.1.4.6 date
      • 4.1.4.7 decimal
      • 4.1.4.8 email
      • 4.1.4.9 equalTo
      • 4.1.4.10 extension
      • 4.1.4.11 file
      • 4.1.4.12 ip
      • 4.1.4.13 isUnique
      • 4.1.4.14 minLength
      • 4.1.4.15 maxLength
      • 4.1.4.16 money
      • 4.1.4.17 multiple
      • 4.1.4.18 numeric
      • 4.1.4.19 phone
      • 4.1.4.20 postal
      • 4.1.4.21 range
      • 4.1.4.22 ssn
      • 4.1.4.23 url
    • 4.1.5 Custom Validation Rules
      • 4.1.5.1 Custom Regular Expression Validation
      • 4.1.5.2 Custom Validation Methods
    • 4.1.6 Validating Data from the Controller
  • 4.2 Data Sanitization
    • 4.2.1 paranoid
    • 4.2.2 html
    • 4.2.3 escape
    • 4.2.4 clean
  • 4.3 Error Handling
  • 4.4 Debugging
    • 4.4.1 Basic Debugging
    • 4.4.2 Using the Debugger Class
    • 4.4.3 Debugger Class
  • 4.5 Caching
  • 4.6 Logging
    • 4.6.1 Introduction
    • 4.6.2 Using the log function
  • 4.7 Testing
    • 4.7.1 Preparing for testing
      • 4.7.1.1 Installing SimpleTest
      • 4.7.1.2 Running the built-in test cases
    • 4.7.2 Testing overview - Unit testing vs. Web testing
    • 4.7.3 Preparing test data
      • 3.7.4.5 Retrieving Your Data
        • 3.7.4.5.1 findAllBy
        • 3.7.4.5.2 findBy
        • 3.7.4.5.3 findNeighbours
        • 3.7.4.5.4 query and execute
        • 3.7.4.5.5 generateList
        • 3.7.4.5.6 findCount
        • 3.7.4.5.7 field
      • 4.7.3.1 About fixtures
      • 4.7.3.2 Creating fixtures
      • 4.7.3.3 Importing table information and records
        • 3.7.4.5.8 find
        • 3.7.4.5.9 findAll
    • 4.7.4 Creating tests
    • 4.7.5 Testing models
      • 4.7.5.1 Creating a test case
      • 4.7.5.2 Creating a test method
    • 4.7.6 Testing controllers
      • 4.7.6.1 Creating a test case
      • 4.7.6.2 The testAction method
      • 4.7.6.3 Pitfalls
    • 4.7.7 Testing components
      • 4.7.7.1 Initializing the component
      • 4.7.7.2 Creating a test method
    • 4.7.8 Web testing - Testing views
      • 4.7.8.1 About CakeWebTestCase
      • 4.7.8.2 Creating a test
      • 4.7.8.3 Walking through a page
    • 4.7.9 Testing plugins
    • 4.7.10 Miscellaneous
      • 4.7.10.1 Customizing the test reporter
      • 4.7.10.2 Grouping tests
  • 4.8 Localization & Internationalization
    • 4.8.1 Localizing Your Application
    • 4.8.2 Internationalization in CakePHP
  • 4.9 Pagination
    • 4.9.1 Controller Setup
    • 4.9.2 Pagination in Views
    • 4.9.3 AJAX Pagination
      • 4.9.3.1 Layout Changes
      • 4.9.3.2 View Changes
    • 4.9.4 Custom Query Pagination
  • 4.10 REST
    • 4.10.1 The Simple Setup
    • 4.10.2 Custom REST Routing
• 5 Built-in Components
  • 5.1 Access Control Lists
    • 5.1.1 Understanding How ACL Works
    • 5.1.2 Defining Permissions: Cake's INI-based ACL
    • 5.1.3 Defining Permissions: Cake's Database ACL
      • 5.1.3.1 Getting Started
      • 5.1.3.2 Creating Access Request Objects (AROs) and Access Control Objects (ACOs)
      • 5.1.3.3 Assigning Permissions
      • 5.1.3.4 Checking Permissions: The ACL Component
  • 5.2 Authentication
    • 5.2.1 AuthComponent Methods
      • 5.2.1.1 action
      • 5.2.1.2 allow
      • 5.2.1.3 deny
      • 5.2.1.4 hashPasswords
      • 5.2.1.5 login
      • 5.2.1.6 logout
      • 5.2.1.7 password
      • 5.2.1.8 user
    • 5.2.2 AuthComponent Variables
      • 5.2.2.1 userModel
      • 5.2.2.2 fields
      • 5.2.2.3 userScope
      • 5.2.2.4 loginAction
      • 5.2.2.5 loginRedirect
      • 5.2.2.6 logoutRedirect
      • 5.2.2.7 loginError
      • 5.2.2.8 autoRedirect
      • 5.2.2.9 authorize
      • 5.2.2.10 ajaxLogin
  • 5.3 Cookies
    • 5.3.1 Introduction
    • 5.3.2 Controller Setup
    • 5.3.3 Using the Component
  • 5.4 Email
    • 5.4.1 Class Attributes and Variables
    • 5.4.2 Sending a basic message
      • 5.4.2.1 Setting up the Layouts
      • 5.4.2.2 Setup an email element for the message body
      • 5.4.2.3 Controller
    • 5.4.3 Sending A Message Using SMTP
  • 5.5 Request Handling
    • 5.5.1 Obtaining Request Information
    • 5.5.2 Request Type Detection
    • 5.5.3 Obtaining Additional Client Information
    • 5.5.4 Responding To Requests
  • 5.6 Security Component
    • 5.6.1 Configuration
    • 5.6.2 Methods
      • 5.6.2.1 requirePost()
      • 5.6.2.2 requireSecure()
      • 5.6.2.3 requireAuth()
      • 5.6.2.4 requireLogin()
      • 5.6.2.5 loginCredentials(string $type)
      • 5.6.2.6 loginRequest(array $options)
      • 5.6.2.7 parseDigestAuthData(string $digest)
      • 5.6.2.8 generateDigestResponseHash(array $data)
      • 5.6.2.9 blackHole(object $controller, string $error)
    • 5.6.3 Usage
    • 5.6.4 Basic HTTP Authentication
  • 5.7 Sessions
    • 5.7.1 Methods
      • 5.7.1.1 write
      • 5.7.1.2 setFlash
      • 5.7.1.3 read
      • 5.7.1.4 check
      • 5.7.1.5 delete
      • 5.7.1.6 destroy
      • 5.7.1.7 error
• 6 Built-in Behaviors
  • 6.1 ACL
  • 6.2 Containable
  • 6.3 Translate
  • 6.4 Tree
    • 6.4.1 Requirements
    • 6.4.2 Basic Usage
    • 6.4.3 Other Methods
      • 6.4.3.1 childCount
      • 6.4.3.2 children
      • 6.4.3.3 getparentnode
      • 6.4.3.4 getpath
      • 6.4.3.5 moveDown
      • 6.4.3.6 moveUp
      • 6.4.3.7 removeFromTree
      • 6.4.3.8 setparent
• 7 Built-in Helpers
  • 7.1 AJAX
    • 7.1.1 AjaxHelper Options
      • 7.1.1.1 General Options
      • 7.1.1.2 Callback Options
    • 7.1.2 Methods
  • 7.2 Cache
    • 7.2.1 General Caching
    • 7.2.2 Cache Engines in Cake
    • 7.2.3 Cache Helper Configuration
    • 7.2.4 Caching in the Controller
    • 7.2.5 Marking Non-Cached Content in Views
    • 7.2.6 Clearing the Cache
  • 7.3 Form
    • 7.3.1 Creating Forms
      • 7.3.1.1 $options[‘type’]
      • 7.3.1.2 $options[‘action’]
      • 7.3.1.3 $options[‘url’]
      • 7.3.1.4 $options[‘default’]
    • 7.3.2 Closing the Form
    • 7.3.3 Automagic Form Elements
      • 7.3.3.1 $options[‘type’]
      • 7.3.3.2 $options[‘before’], $options[‘between’] and $options[‘after’]
      • 7.3.3.3 $options[‘options’]
      • 7.3.3.4 $options[‘multiple’]
      • 7.3.3.5 $options[‘maxLength’]
      • 7.3.3.6 $options[‘div’]
      • 7.3.3.7 $options[‘label’]
      • 7.3.3.8 $options[‘id’]
      • 7.3.3.9 $options[‘error’]
      • 7.3.3.10 $options[‘selected’]
      • 7.3.3.11 $options[‘rows’], $options[‘cols’]
      • 7.3.3.12 $options[‘empty’]
      • 7.3.3.13 $options[‘timeFormat’]
      • 7.3.3.14 $options[‘dateFormat’]
      • 7.3.3.15 $options['minYear'], $options['maxYear']
    • 7.3.4 File Fields
    • 7.3.5 Form Element-Specific Methods
  • 7.4 HTML
    • 7.4.1 Inserting Well-Formatted elements
  • 7.5 Javascript
    • 7.5.1 Methods
  • 7.6 Number
    • 7.6.1 currency
    • 7.6.2 precision
    • 7.6.3 toPercentage
    • 7.6.4 toReadableSize
    • 7.6.5 format
  • 7.7 Paginator
  • 7.8 RSS
    • 7.8.1 Creating an RSS feed with the RssHelper
  • 7.9 Session
  • 7.10 Text
  • 7.11 Time
    • 7.11.1 Formatting
    • 7.11.2 Testing Time
  • 7.12 XML
• 8 Built-in Utility Libraries
  • 8.1 Inflector
  • 8.2 String
• 9 Example Applications
  • 9.1 Blog
    • 9.1.1 Getting Cake
    • 9.1.2 Creating the Blog Database
    • 9.1.3 Cake Database Configuration
    • 9.1.4 Optional Configuration
    • 9.1.5 A Note on mod_rewrite
    • 9.1.6 Create a Post Model
    • 9.1.7 Create a Posts Controller
    • 9.1.8 Creating Post Views
    • 9.1.9 Adding Posts
    • 9.1.10 Data Validation
    • 9.1.11 Deleting Posts
    • 9.1.12 Editing Posts
    • 9.1.13 Routes
    • 9.1.14 Conclusion
  • 9.2 Simple User Authentication
• 10 Appendices
  • 10.1 Migrating from CakePHP 1.1 to 1.2