CakePHP

About the Tutorial

CakePHP is an open-source framework for PHP. It is intended to make developing,
deploying and maintaining applications much easier.

CakePHP is based on an MVC-like architecture that is both powerful and easy to grasp.
Models, Views, and Controllers guarantee a strict but natural separation of business logic
from data and presentation layers.

Audience
This tutorial is meant for web developers and students who would like to learn how to
develop websites using CakePHP. It will provide a good understanding of how to use this
framework.

Prerequisites
Before you proceed with this tutorial, we assume that you have knowledge of HTML, Core
PHP, and Advance PHP. We have used CakePHP version 3.2.7 in all the examples.

Copyright & Disclaimer

 Copyright 2016 by Tutorials Point (I) Pvt. Ltd.

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Pvt. Ltd. The user of this e-book is prohibited to reuse, retain, copy, distribute or republish
any contents or a part of contents of this e-book in any manner without written consent
of the publisher.

We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely as
possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors. Tutorials Point (I) Pvt.
Ltd. provides no guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of our
website or its contents including this tutorial. If you discover any errors on our website or
in this tutorial, please notify us at [email protected]

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 CakePHP

Table of Contents
About the Tutorial .................................................................................................................................. i

Audience ................................................................................................................................................ i

Prerequisites .......................................................................................................................................... i

Copyright & Disclaimer ........................................................................................................................... i

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. ii

1. CAKEPHP — OVERVIEW ...................................................................................................... 1

CakePHP Request Cycle ......................................................................................................................... 1

2. CAKEPHP — INSTALLATION .............................................................................................. 3

3. CAKEPHP — FOLDER STRUCTURE .................................................................................. 4

4. CAKEPHP — CONFIGURATION .......................................................................................... 6

General Configuration ........................................................................................................................... 6

Databases Configuration ....................................................................................................................... 7

5. CAKEPHP — EMAIL CONFIGURATION ............................................................................ 9

6. CAKEPHP — ROUTING ....................................................................................................... 11

Connecting Routes............................................................................................................................... 11

Passed Arguments ............................................................................................................................... 13

7. CAKEPHP — GENERATING URLS .................................................................................... 16

8. CAKEPHP — REDIRECT ROUTING.................................................................................. 18

9. CAKEPHP — CONTROLLERS............................................................................................. 20

AppController ...................................................................................................................................... 20

Controller Actions................................................................................................................................ 21

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 CakePHP

Redirecting .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Loading Models ................................................................................................................................... 24

10. CAKEPHP — VIEWS ............................................................................................................. 25

View Templates ................................................................................................................................... 25

View Variables ..................................................................................................................................... 25

11. CAKEPHP — EXTENDING VIEWS .................................................................................... 28

12. CAKEPHP ─ VIEW ELEMENTS .......................................................................................... 30

13. CAKEPHP ─ VIEW EVENTS ................................................................................................ 33

14. CAKEPHP — WORKING WITH DATABASE .................................................................. 34

Insert a Record .................................................................................................................................... 34

15. CAKEPHP ─ VIEW A RECORD ........................................................................................... 37

16. CAKEPHP — UPDATE A RECORD .................................................................................... 40

17. CAKEPHP ─ DELETE A RECORD ...................................................................................... 44

18. CAKEPHP — SERVICES ....................................................................................................... 47

Authentication .................................................................................................................................... 47

19. CAKEPHP — ERRORS & EXCEPTION HANDLING ....................................................... 52

Errors and Exception Configuration ..................................................................................................... 52

20. CAKEPHP — LOGGING ........................................................................................................ 55

21. CAKEPHP — FORM HANDLING........................................................................................ 59

22. CAKEPHP — INTERNATIONALIZATION ....................................................................... 65

Email ................................................................................................................................................... 68

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 CakePHP

23. CAKEPHP — SESSION MANAGEMENT ........................................................................... 73

Accessing Session Object ..................................................................................................................... 73

Writing Session Data ........................................................................................................................... 73

Reading Session Data .......................................................................................................................... 73

Delete Session Data ............................................................................................................................. 74

Destroying a Session ............................................................................................................................ 74

Renew a Session .................................................................................................................................. 75

Complete Session ................................................................................................................................ 75

24. CAKEPHP — COOKIE MANAGEMENT ............................................................................ 80

Write Cookie........................................................................................................................................ 80

Read Cookie ........................................................................................................................................ 80

Check Cookie ....................................................................................................................................... 80

Delete Cookie ...................................................................................................................................... 81

25. CAKEPHP — SECURITY ...................................................................................................... 86

Encryption and Decryption .................................................................................................................. 86

CSRF .................................................................................................................................................... 86

Security Component ............................................................................................................................ 87

26. CAKEPHP — VALIDATION ................................................................................................ 90

Validation Methods ............................................................................................................................. 90

27. CAKEPHP — CREATING VALIDATORS .......................................................................... 93

Validating Data .................................................................................................................................... 93

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 1. CakePHP — Overview CakePHP

CakePHP is an open source MVC framework. It makes developing, deploying and

maintaining applications much easier. CakePHP has number of libraries to reduce the
overload of most common tasks. Following are the advantages of using CakePHP.

 Open Source

 MVC Framework

 Templating Engine

 Caching Operations

 Search Engine Friendly URLs

 Easy CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) Database Interactions.

 Libraries and Helpers

 Built-in Validation

 Localization

 Email, Cookie, Security, Session, and Request Handling Components

 View Helpers for AJAX, JavaScript, HTML Forms and More

CakePHP Request Cycle

The following illustration describes how a Request Lifecycle works:

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A typical CakePHP request cycle starts with a user requesting a page or resource in your
application. At a high level, each request goes through the following steps:

 The webserver rewrite rules direct the request to webroot/index.php.

 Your application’s autoloader and bootstrap files are executed.

 Any dispatch filters that are configured can handle the request, and optionally
generate a response.

 The dispatcher selects the appropriate controller & action based on routing rules.

 The controller’s action is called and the controller interacts with the required Models
and Components.

 The controller delegates response creation to the View to generate the output
resulting from the model data.

 The view uses Helpers and Cells to generate the response body and headers.

 The response is sent back to the client.

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 2. CakePHP — Installation CakePHP

Installing CakePHP is simple and easy. You can install it from composer or you can
download it from github — https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/releases. We will further
understand how to install CakePHP in WampServer. After downloading it from github,
extract all the files in a folder called “CakePHP” in WampServer. You can give custom name
to folder but we have used “CakePHP”.

Make sure that the directories logs, tmp and all its subdirectories have write permission
as CakePHP uses these directories for various operations.

After extracting it, let’s check whether it has been installed correctly or not by visiting the
following URL in browser: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/

The above URL will direct you to the screen as shown below. This shows that CakePHP has
successfully been installed.

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 3. CakePHP — Folder Structure CakePHP

Take a look at the following screenshot. It shows the folder structure of CakePHP.

The following table describes the role of each folder:

Folder
Description
Name

bin The bin folder holds the Cake console executables.

The config folder holds the (few) configuration files CakePHP uses.
config Database connection details, bootstrapping, core configuration files and
more should be stored here.

The logs folder normally contains your log files, depending on your log
logs
configuration.

plugins The plugins folder is where the Plugins your application uses are stored.

The src folder will be where you work your magic: It is where your
application’s files will be placed. CakePHP’s src folder is where you will
do most of your application development. Let’s look a little closer at the
folders inside src.

src  Console Contains the console commands and console tasks for
your application.

 Controller Contains your application’s controllers and their

components.

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 CakePHP

 Locale Stores string files for internationalization.

 Model Contains your application’s tables, entities and behaviors.

 View Presentational classes are placed here: cells, helpers, and

template files.

 Template Presentational files are placed here: elements, error

pages, layouts, and view template files.

tests The tests folder will be where you put the test cases for your application.

The tmp folder is where CakePHP stores temporary data. The actual data
it stores depends on how you have CakePHP configured, but this folder
tmp
is usually used to store model descriptions and sometimes session
information.

The vendor folder is where CakePHP and other application dependencies

vendor will be installed. Make a personal commitment not to edit files in this
folder. We can’t help you if you’ve modified the core.

The webroot directory is the public document root of your application. It

webroot
contains all the files you want to be publically reachable.

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 4. CakePHP — Configuration CakePHP

CakePHP comes with one configuration file by default and we can modify it according to
our needs. There is one dedicated folder “config” for this purpose. CakePHP comes with
different configuration options.

General Configuration
The following table describes the role of various variables and how they affect your
CakePHP application.

Variable Name Description

Changes CakePHP debugging output.

false = Production mode. No error messages, errors, or warnings

debug
shown.

true = Errors and warnings shown.

App.namespace The namespace to find app classes under.

Un-comment this definition if you don’t plan to use Apache’s

App.baseUrl mod_rewrite with CakePHP. Don’t forget to remove your
.htaccess files too.

The base directory the app resides in. If false, this will be auto
App.base
detected.

Define what encoding your application uses. This encoding is used

App.encoding to generate the charset in the layout, and encode entities. It
should match the encoding values specified for your database.

App.webroot The webroot directory.

App.wwwRoot The file path to webroot.

The fully qualified domain name (including protocol) to your

App.fullBaseUrl
application’s root.

App.imageBaseUrl Web path to the public images directory under webroot.

App.cssBaseUrl Web path to the public css directory under webroot.

App.jsBaseUrl Web path to the public js directory under webroot.

Configure paths for non-class based resources. Supports the

App.paths plugins, templates, locales subkeys, which allow the definition
of paths for plugins, view templates and locale files respectively.

A random string used in hashing. This value is also used as the

Security.salt
HMAC salt when doing symmetric encryption.

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 CakePHP

Appends a timestamp which is last modified time of the particular

file at the end of asset files URLs (CSS, JavaScript, Image) when
using proper helpers. Valid values:

Asset.timestamp  (bool) false - Doesn’t do anything (default)

 (bool) true - Appends the timestamp when debug is true

 (string) ‘force’ - Always appends the timestamp

Databases Configuration
Database can be configured in config/app.php file. This file contains a default connection
with provided parameters which can be modified as per our choice. The below screenshot
shows the default parameters and values which should be modified as per the requirement.

Let’s understand each parameter in detail:

Key Description

The fully namespaced class name of the class that represents the
connection to a database server. This class is responsible for
className
loading the database driver, providing SQL transaction
mechanisms and preparing SQL statements among other things.

The class name of the driver used to implements all specificities

driver for a database engine. This can either be a short classname using
plugin syntax, a fully namespaced name, or a constructed driver

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instance. Examples of short classnames are Mysql, Sqlite,

Postgres, and Sqlserver.

persistent Whether or not to use a persistent connection to the database.

host The database server’s hostname (or IP address).

username Database username

password Database password

database Name of Database

port (optional) The TCP port or Unix socket used to connect to the server.

Indicates the character set to use when sending SQL statements

encoding
to the server like ‘utf8’ etc.

timezone Server timezone to set.

Used in PostgreSQL database setups to specify which schema to

schema
use.

Used by drivers that support it to connect via Unix socket files. If

unix_socket you are using PostgreSQL and want to use Unix sockets, leave
the host key blank.

ssl_key The file path to the SSL key file. (Only supported by MySQL).

The file path to the SSL certificate file. (Only supported by

ssl_cert
MySQL).

The file path to the SSL certificate authority. (Only supported by

ssl_ca
MySQL).

A list of queries that should be sent to the database server as

init
when the connection is created.

Set to true to enable query logging. When enabled queries will be

log
logged at a debug level with the queriesLog scope.

Set to true if you are using reserved words or special characters

in your table or column names. Enabling this setting will result in
quoteIdentifiers
queries built using the Query Builder having identifiers quoted
when creating SQL. It decreases performance.

An associative array of PDO constants that should be passed to

flags
the underlying PDO instance.

Either boolean true, or a string containing the cache configuration

cacheMetadata to store meta data in. Having metadata caching disable is not
advised and can result in very poor performance.

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 5. CakePHP — Email Configuration CakePHP

Email can be configured in file config/app.php. It is not required to define email

configuration in config/app.php. Email can be used without it; just use the respective
methods to set all configurations separately or load an array of configs. Configuration for
Email defaults is created using config() and configTransport().

Email Configuration Transport

By defining transports separately from delivery profiles, you can easily re-use transport
configuration across multiple profiles. You can specify multiple configurations for
production, development and testing. Each transport needs a className. Valid options
are as follows:

 Mail — Send using PHP mail function

 Smtp — Send using SMTP

 Debug — Do not send the email, just return the result

You can add custom transports (or override existing transports) by adding the appropriate
file to src/Mailer/Transport. Transports should be named YourTransport.php, where
'Your' is the name of the transport. Following is the example of Email configuration
transport.

Example
'EmailTransport' => [
'default' => [
'className' => 'Mail',
// The following keys are used in SMTP transports
'host' => 'localhost',
'port' => 25,
'timeout' => 30,
'username' => 'user',
'password' => 'secret',
'client' => null,
'tls' => null,
'url' => env('EMAIL_TRANSPORT_DEFAULT_URL', null),
],
],

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Email Delivery Profiles

Delivery profiles allow you to predefine various properties about email messages from your
application and give the settings a name. This saves duplication across your application
and makes maintenance and development easier. Each profile accepts a number of keys.
Following is an example of Email delivery profiles.

Example
'Email' => [
'default' => [
'transport' => 'default',
'from' => 'you@localhost',
],
],

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 6. CakePHP — Routing CakePHP

Routing maps your URL to specific controller’s action. In this section, we will see how you
can implement routes, how you can pass arguments from URL to controller’s action, how
you can generate URLs, and how you can redirect to a specific URL. Normally, routes are
implemented in file config/routes.php. Routing can be implemented in two ways:

 static method
 scoped route builder

Here is an example presenting both the types.

// Using the scoped route builder.

Router::scope('/', function ($routes) {
$routes->connect('/', ['controller' => 'Articles', 'action' => 'index']);
});

// Using the static method.

Router::connect('/', ['controller' => 'Articles', 'action' => 'index']);

Both the methods will execute the index method of ArticlesController. Out of the two
methods scoped route builder gives better performance.

Connecting Routes
Router::connect() method is used to connect routes. The following is the syntax of the
method:

static Cake\Routing\Router::connect($route, $defaults =[], $options =[])

There are three arguments to the Router::connect() method:

 The first argument is for the URL template you wish to match.

 The second argument contains default values for your route elements.

 The third argument contains options for the route which generally contains regular
expression rules.

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 CakePHP

Here is the basic format of a route:

$routes->connect(
'URL template',
['default' => 'defaultValue'],
['option' => 'matchingRegex']
);

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown below.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/', ['controller' => 'Tests', 'action' => 'index']);

$routes->connect('/pages/*', ['controller' => 'Pages', 'action' =>

'display']);

$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a TestsController.php file at src/Controller/TestsController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/TestsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
class TestsController extends AppController{

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 CakePHP

public function index(){

}
}
?>

Create a folder Tests under src/Template and under that folder create a View file called
index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Tests/index.ctp

This is CakePHP tutorial and this is an example of connecting routes.

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/

The above URL will yield the following output.

Passed Arguments
Passed arguments are the arguments which are passed in the URL. These arguments can
be passed to controller’s action. These passed arguments are given to your controller in
three ways.

As arguments to the action method

Following example shows how we can pass arguments to the action of the controller.

Visit the following URL: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/tests/value1/value2

This will match the following route line.

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 CakePHP

$routes->connect('tests/:arg1/:arg2', ['controller' => 'Tests', 'action' =>

'index'],['pass' => ['arg1', 'arg2']]);

Here the value1 from URL will be assigned to arg1 and value2 will be assigned to arg2.

As numerically indexed array

Once the argument is passed to the controller’s action, you can get the argument with the
following statement.

$args = $this->request->params[‘pass’]

The arguments passed to controller’s action will be stored in $args variable.

Using routing array

The argument can also be passed to action by the following statement:

$routes->connect('/', ['controller' => 'Tests', 'action' => 'index',5,6]);

The above statement will pass two arguments 5, and 6 to TestController’s index()
method.

Example
Make Changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php
use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {
$routes->connect('tests/:arg1/:arg2', ['controller' => 'Tests', 'action'
=> 'index'],['pass' => ['arg1', 'arg2']]);
$routes->connect('/pages/*', ['controller' => 'Pages', 'action' =>
'display']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});
Plugin::routes();

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 CakePHP

Create a TestsController.php file at src/Controller/TestsController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/TestsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

class TestsController extends AppController{

public function index($arg1,$arg2){

$this->set('argument1',$arg1);
$this->set('argument2',$arg2);
}
}
?>

Create a folder Tests at src/Template and under that folder create a View file called
index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Tests/index.ctp

This is CakePHP tutorial and this is an example of Passed arguments.<br/>

Argument-1: <?=$argument1?><br/>
Argument-2: <?=$argument2?><br/>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/tests/Virat/Kunal

Upon execution, the above URL will produce the following output.

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 7. CakePHP — Generating URLs CakePHP

This is a cool feature of CakePHP. Using the generated URLs, we can easily change the
structure of URL in the application without modifying the whole code.

url( string|array|null $url null , boolean $full false )

The above function will take two arguments:

 The first argument is an array specifying any of the following — 'controller',

'action', 'plugin'. Additionally, you can provide routed elements or query string
parameters. If string, it can be given the name of any valid url string.

 If true, the full base URL will be prepended to the result. Default is false.

Example
Make Changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php
use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes-
>connect('/generate',['controller'=>'Generates','action'=>'index']);
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a GeneratesController.php file at src/Controller/GeneratesController.php.

Copy the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/GeneratesController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

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 CakePHP

use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;

class GeneratesController extends AppController{

public function index(){

}
}
?>

Create a folder Generates at src/Template and under that folder create a View file
called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Generates/index.ctp

This is CakePHP tutorial and this is an example of Generating URLs.

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL:

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/generate

The above URL will produce the following output:

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 8. CakePHP — Redirect Routing CakePHP

Redirect routing is useful when we want to inform client applications that this URL has
been moved. The URL can be redirected using the following function.

static Cake\Routing\Router::redirect($route, $url, $options =[])

There are three arguments to the above function:

 A string describing the template of the route.

 A URL to redirect to.

 An array matching the named elements in the route to regular expressions which
that element should match.

Example
Make Changes in the config/routes.php file as shown below. Here, we have used
controllers that were created previously.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/generate2', ['controller' => 'Tests', 'action' =>

'index']);
$routes->redirect('/generate1','http://tutorialspoint.com/');
$routes-
>connect('/generate_url',['controller'=>'Generates','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

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 CakePHP

Execute the above example by visiting the following URLs.

 URL 1 — http://localhost:85/CakePHP/generate_url

 URL 2 — http://localhost:85/CakePHP/generate1

 URL 3 — http://localhost:85/CakePHP/generate2

Output for URL 1

Output for URL 2

You will be redirected to http://tutorialspoint.com

Output for URL 3

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 9. CakePHP — Controllers CakePHP

The controller as the name indicates controls the application. It acts like a bridge between
models and views. Controllers handle request data, makes sure that correct models are
called and right response or view is rendered. Methods in the controllers’ class are called
actions. Each controller follows naming conventions. The Controller class names are in
plural form, Camel Cased, and end in Controller — PostsController.

AppController
The AppConttroller class is the parent class of all applications’ controllers. This class
extends the Controller class of CakePHP. AppController is defined at
src/Controller/AppController.php. The file contains the following code.

<?php
namespace App\Controller;

use Cake\Controller\Controller;
use Cake\Event\Event;

class AppController extends Controller

{
public function initialize()
{
parent::initialize();

$this->loadComponent('RequestHandler');
$this->loadComponent('Flash');
}
public function beforeRender(Event $event)
{
if (!array_key_exists('_serialize', $this->viewVars) &&
in_array($this->response->type(), ['application/json', application/xml'])
) {
$this->set('_serialize', true);
}
}
}

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 CakePHP

AppController can be used to load components that will be used in every controller of
your application. The attributes and methods created in AppController will be available in
all controllers that extend it. The initialize() method will be invoked at the end of
controller’s constructor to load components.

Controller Actions
The methods in the controller class are called Actions. Actions are responsible for sending
appropriate response for browser/user making the request. View is rendered by the name
of action, i.e., the name of method in controller.

Example

class RecipesController extends AppController

{
public function view($id)
{
// Action logic goes here.
}
public function share($customerId, $recipeId)
{
// Action logic goes here.
}
public function search($query)
{
// Action logic goes here.
}
}

As you can see in the above example, the RecipesController has 3 actions — View,
Share, and Search.

Redirecting
For redirecting a user to another action of the same controller, we can use the setAction()
method. The following is the syntax for the setAction() method:

Cake\Controller\Controller::setAction($action, $args...)

The following code will redirect the user to index action of the same controller.

$this->setAction('index');

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 CakePHP

The following example shows the usage of the above method.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/redirect-
controller',['controller'=>'Redirects','action'=>'action1']);
$routes->connect('/redirect-
controller2',['controller'=>'Redirects','action'=>'action2']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a RedirectsController.php file at src/Controller/RedirectsController.php. Copy

the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/RedirectsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;

class RedirectsController extends AppController{

public function action1(){

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 CakePHP

public function action2(){

echo "redirecting from action2";
$this->setAction('action1');
}
}
?>

Create a directory Redirects at src/Template and under that directory create a View
file called action1.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Redirects/action1.ctp

This is an example of how to redirect within controller.

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/redirect-controller

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

Now, vist

Now, visit the following URL: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/redirect-controller2

The above URL will give you the following output.

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 CakePHP

Loading Models
In CakePHP, a model can be loaded using the loadModel() method. The following is the
syntax for the loadModel() method.

Cake\Controller\Controller::loadModel(string $modelClass, string $type)

There are two arguments to the above function:

 The first argument is the name of model class.

 The second argument is the type of repository to load.

Example
If you want to load Articles model in a controller, then it can be loaded by writing the
following line in controller’s action.

$this->loadModel('Articles');

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 10. CakePHP — Views CakePHP

The letter “V” in the MVC is for Views. Views are responsible for sending output to user
based on request. View Classes is a powerful way to speed up the development process.

View Templates
The View Templates file of CakePHP has default extension .ctp (CakePHP Template). These
templates get data from controller and then render the output so that it can be displayed
properly to the user. We can use variables, various control structures in template.

Template files are stored in src/Template/, in a directory named after the controller that
uses the files, and named after the action it corresponds to. For example, the View file
for the Products controller’s “view()” action, would normally be found in
src/Template/Products/view.ctp.

In short, the name of the controller (ProductsController) is same as the name of the folder
(Products) but without the word Controller and name of action/method (view()) of the
controller (ProductsController) is same as the name of the View file(view.ctp).

View Variables
View variables are variables which get the value from controller. We can use as many
variables in view templates as we want. We can use the set() method to pass values to
variables in views. These set variables will be available in both the view and the layout
your action renders. The following is the syntax of the set() method.

Cake\View\View::set(string $var, mixed $value)

This method takes two arguments — the name of the variable and its value.

Example
Make Changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

25
 CakePHP

$routes->connect('template',['controller'=>'Products','action'=>'view']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a ProductsController.php file at src/Controller/ProductsController.php.

Copy the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/ProductsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

class ProductsController extends AppController{

public function view(){

$this->set('Product_Name','XYZ');
}
}
?>

Create a directory Products at src/Template and under that folder create a View file
called view.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Products/view.ctp

Value of variable is: <?php echo $Product_Name; ?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/template

26
 CakePHP

Output
The above URL will produce the following output.

27
 11. CakePHP — Extending Views CakePHP

Many times, while making web pages, we want to repeat certain part of pages in other
pages. CakePHP has such facility by which one can extend view in another view and for
this, we need not repeat the code again. The extend() method is used to extend views in
View file. This method takes one argument, i.e., the name of the view file with path. Don’t
use extension .ctp while providing the name of the View file.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('extend',['controller'=>'Extends','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a ExtendsController.php file at src/Controller/ExtendsController.php. Copy

the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/ExtendsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

class ExtendsController extends AppController{

28
 CakePHP

public function index(){

}
}
?>

Create a directory Extends at src/Template and under that folder create a View file
called header.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Extends/header.ctp

<div align="center">
<h1>Common Header</h1>
</div>
<?= $this->fetch('content') ?>

Create another View under Extends directory called index.ctp. Copy the following code
in that file. Here we are extending the above view header.ctp.

src/Template/Extends/index.ctp

<?php $this->extend('header'); ?>

This is an example of extending view.

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/extend

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

29
 12. CakePHP ─ View Elements CakePHP

Certain parts of the web pages are repeated on multiple web pages but at different
locations. CakePHP can help us reuse these repeated parts. These reusable parts are called
Elements — help box, extra menu etc. An element is basically a mini-view. We can
also pass variables in elements.

Cake\View\View::element(string $elementPath, array $data, array $options =[])

There are three arguments to the above function:

 The first argument is the name of the template file in the

/src/Template/Element/ folder.

 The second argument is the array of data to be made available to the rendered
view.

 The third argument is for the array of options. e.g. cache.

Out of the 3 arguments, the first one is compulsory while, the rest are optional.

Example
Create an element file at src/Template/Element directory called helloworld.ctp. Copy
the following code in that file.

src/Template/Element/helloworld.ctp

<p>Hello World</p>

Create a folder Elems at src/Template and under that directory create a View file called
index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Elems/index.ctp

Element Example: <?php echo $this->element('helloworld'); ?>

Make Changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

30
 CakePHP

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/element-
example',['controller'=>'Elems','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create an ElemsController.php file at src/Controller/ElemsController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/ElemsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;

class ElemsController extends AppController{

public function index(){

}
}
?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/element-example

31
 CakePHP

Output
Upon execution, the above URL will give you the following output.

32
 13. CakePHP ─ View Events CakePHP

There are several callbacks/events that we can use with View Events. These events are
helpful to perform several tasks before something happens or after something happens.
The following is a list of callbacks that can be used with CakePHP.

Event Function Description

The beforeRender method is called after

the controller’s beforeRender method but
Helper::beforeRender(Event $event,
before the controller renders view and
$viewFile)
layout. This receives the file being rendered
as an argument.

This method is called before each view file is

Helper::beforeRenderFile(Event $event,
rendered. This includes elements, views,
$viewFile)
parent views and layouts.

This method is called after each View file is

rendered. This includes elements, views,
Helper::afterRenderFile(Event $event, parent views and layouts. A callback can
$viewFile, $content) modify and return $content to change how
the rendered content will be displayed in the
browser.

This method is called after the view has been

Helper::afterRender(Event $event,
rendered but before the layout rendering has
$viewFile)
started.

This method is called before the layout

Helper::beforeLayout(Event $event,
rendering starts. This receives the layout
$layoutFile)
filename as an argument.

This method is called after the layout

Helper::afterLayout(Event $event,
rendering is complete. This receives the
$layoutFile)
layout filename as an argument.

33
 14. CakePHP — Working with Database CakePHP

Working with database in CakePHP is very easy. We will understand the CRUD (Create,
Read, Update, Delete) operations in this chapter. Before we proceed, we need to create
the following users’ table in the database.

CREATE TABLE `users` (

`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`username` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`password` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=7 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

Further, we also need to configure our database in config/app.php file.

Insert a Record
To insert a record in database, we first need to get hold of a table using TableRegistry
class. We can fetch the instance out of registry using get() method. The get() method
will take the name of the database table as an argument.

This new instance is used to create new entity. Set necessary values with the instance of
new entity. We now have to call the save() method with TableRegistry class’s instance
which will insert new record in database.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/users/add', ['controller' => 'Users', 'action' => 'add']);

$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});
Plugin::routes();

34
 CakePHP

Create a UsersController.php file at src/Controller/UsersController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/controller/UsersController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;
use Cake\Auth\DefaultPasswordHasher;

class UsersController extends AppController{

public function add(){

if($this->request->is('post')){
$username = $this->request->data('username');
$hashPswdObj = new DefaultPasswordHasher;
$password = $hashPswdObj->hash($this->request-
>data('password'));
$users_table = TableRegistry::get('users');
$users = $users_table->newEntity();
$users->username = $username;
$users->password = $password;
if($users_table->save($users))
echo "User is added.";
}
}
}
?>

Create a directory Users at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called add.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Users/add.ctp

<?php
echo $this->Form->create("Users",array('url'=>'/users/add'));
echo $this->Form->input('username');
echo $this->Form->input('password');

35
 CakePHP

echo $this->Form->button('Submit');
echo $this->Form->end();
?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/users/add

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

36
 15. CakePHP ─ View a Record CakePHP

To view records of database, we first need to get hold of a table using the TableRegistry
class. We can fetch the instance out of registry using get() method. The get() method
will take the name of the database table as argument. Now, this new instance is used to
find records from database using find() method. This method will return all records from
the requested table.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/users', ['controller' => 'Users', 'action' => 'index']);

$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});
Plugin::routes();

Create a UsersController.php file at src/Controller/UsersController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/controller/UsersController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;

class UsersController extends AppController{

37
 CakePHP

public function index(){

$users = TableRegistry::get('users');
$query = $users->find();
$this->set('results',$query);
}
}
?>

Create a directory Users at src/Template, ignore if already created, and under that
directory create a View file called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Users/index.ctp

<a href="add">Add User</a>

<table>
<tr>
<td>ID</td>
<td>Username</td>
<td>Password</td>
<td>Edit</td>
<td>Delete</td>
</tr>
<?php
foreach ($results as $row):
echo "<tr><td>".$row->id."</td>";
echo "<td>".$row->username."</td>";
echo "<td>".$row->password."</td>";
echo "<td><a href='".$this->Url->build(["controller" => "Users","action"
=> "edit",$row->id])."'>Edit</a></td>";
echo "<td><a href='".$this->Url->build(["controller" => "Users","action"
=> "delete",$row->id])."'>Delete</a></td></tr>";
endforeach;
?>
</table>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

38
 CakePHP

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/users

Output
Upon execution, the above URL will give you the following output.

39
 16. CakePHP — Update a Record CakePHP

To update a record in database we first need to get hold of a table using TableRegistry
class. We can fetch the instance out of registry using the get() method. The get() method
will take the name of the database table as an argument. Now, this new instance is used
to get particular record that we want to update.

Call the get() method with this new instance and pass the primary key to find a record
which will be saved in another instance. Use this instance to set new values that you want
to update and then finally call the save() method with the TableRegistry class’s instance
to update record.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/users/edit', ['controller' => 'Users', 'action' =>

'edit']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});
Plugin::routes();

Create a UsersController.php file at src/Controller/UsersController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/controller/UsersController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;

40
 CakePHP

use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;

class UsersController extends AppController{

public function index(){

$users = TableRegistry::get('users');
$query = $users->find();
$this->set('results',$query);
}

public function edit($id){

if($this->request->is('post')){
$username = $this->request->data('username');
$password = $this->request->data('password');

$users_table = TableRegistry::get('users');
$users = $users_table->get($id);
$users->username = $username;
$users->password = $password;
if($users_table->save($users))
echo "User is udpated";
$this->setAction('index');
}else{
$users_table = TableRegistry::get('users')->find();
$users = $users_table->where(['id'=>$id])->first();
$this->set('username',$users->username);
$this->set('password',$users->password);
$this->set('id',$id);
}
}
}
?>

41
 CakePHP

Create a directory Users at src/Template, ignore if already created, and under that
directory create a view called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Users/index.ctp

<a href="add">Add User</a>

<table>
<tr>
<td>ID</td>
<td>Username</td>
<td>Password</td>
<td>Edit</td>
<td>Delete</td>
</tr>
<?php
foreach ($results as $row):
echo "<tr><td>".$row->id."</td>";
echo "<td>".$row->username."</td>";
echo "<td>".$row->password."</td>";
echo "<td><a href='".$this->Url->build(["controller" => "Users","action"
=> "edit",$row->id])."'>Edit</a></td>";
echo "<td><a href='".$this->Url->build(["controller" => "Users","action"
=> "delete",$row->id])."'>Delete</a></td></tr>";
endforeach;
?>
</table>

Create another View file under the Users directory called edit.ctp and copy the following
code in it.

src/Template/Users/edit.ctp

<?php
echo $this->Form->create("Users",array('url'=>'/users/edit/'.$id));
echo $this->Form->input('username',['value'=>$username]);
echo $this->Form->input('password',['value'=>$password]);
echo $this->Form->button('Submit');
echo $this->Form->end();
?>

42
 CakePHP

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL and click on Edit link to edit
record.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/users

Output
After visiting the above URL and clicking on the Edit link, you will receive the following
output where you can edit record.

43
 17. CakePHP ─ Delete a Record CakePHP

To delete a record in database, we first need to get hold of a table using the TableRegistry
class. We can fetch the instance out of registry using the get() method. The get() method
will take the name of the database table as an argument. Now, this new instance is used
to get particular record that we want to delete.

Call the get() method with this new instance and pass the primary key to find a record
which will be saved in another instance. Use the TableRegistry class’s instance to call the
delete method to delete record from database.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('/users/delete', ['controller' => 'Users', 'action' =>

'delete']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});
Plugin::routes();

Create a UsersController.php file at src/Controller/UsersController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/controller/UsersController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;

44
 CakePHP

use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;

class UsersController extends AppController{

public function index(){

$users = TableRegistry::get('users');
$query = $users->find();
$this->set('results',$query);
}

public function delete($id){

$users_table = TableRegistry::get('users');
$users = $users_table->get($id);
$users_table->delete($users);
echo "User deleted successfully.";
$this->setAction('index');
}
}
?>

Just create an empty View file under Users directory called delete.ctp.

src/Template/Users/delete.ctp

Create a directory Users at src/Template, ignore if already created, and under that
directory create a View file called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Users/index.ctp

<a href="add">Add User</a>

<table>
<tr>
<td>ID</td>
<td>Username</td>
<td>Password</td>
<td>Edit</td>
<td>Delete</td>
</tr>
<?php
foreach ($results as $row):

45
 CakePHP

echo "<tr><td>".$row->id."</td>";
echo "<td>".$row->username."</td>";
echo "<td>".$row->password."</td>";
echo "<td><a href='".$this->Url->build(["controller" => "Users","action"
=> "edit",$row->id])."'>Edit</a></td>";
echo "<td><a href='".$this->Url->build(["controller" => "Users","action"
=> "delete",$row->id])."'>Delete</a></td></tr>";
endforeach;
?>
</table>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL and click on Delete link to delete
record.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/users

Output
After visiting the above URL and clicking on the Delete link, you will receive the following
output where you can delete record.

46
 18. CakePHP — Services CakePHP

Authentication
Authentication is the process of identifying the correct user. CakePHP supports three types
of authentication.

 FormAuthenticate — It allows you to authenticate users based on form POST

data. Usually this is a login form that users enter information into. This is default
authentication method.

 BasicAuthenticate — It allows you to authenticate users using Basic HTTP

authentication.

 DigestAuthenticate — It allows you to authenticate users using Digest HTTP

authentication.

Example for FormAuthentication

Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {
$routes->connect('/auth',['controller'=>'Authexs','action'=>'index']);
$routes->connect('/login',['controller'=>'Authexs','action'=>'login']);
$routes->connect('/logout',['controller'=>'Authexs','action'=>'logout']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Change the code of AppController.php file as shown in the following program.

47
 CakePHP

src/Controller/AppController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;

use Cake\Controller\Controller;
use Cake\Event\Event;
use Cake\Controller\Component\AuthComponent;

class AppController extends Controller

{
public function initialize()
{
parent::initialize();

$this->loadComponent('RequestHandler');
$this->loadComponent('Flash');
$this->loadComponent('Auth', [
'authenticate' => [
'Form' => [
'fields' => [
'username' => 'username',
'password' => 'password'
]
]
],
'loginAction' => [
'controller' => 'Authexs',
'action' => 'login'
],
'loginRedirect' => [
'controller' => 'Authexs',
'action' => 'index'
],
'logoutRedirect' => [
'controller' => 'Authexs',
'action' => 'login'
]

48
 CakePHP

]);
$this->Auth->config('authenticate', [
AuthComponent::ALL => ['userModel' => 'users'],
'Form'
]);
}

public function beforeRender(Event $event)

{
if (!array_key_exists('_serialize', $this->viewVars) &&
in_array($this->response->type(), ['application/json', 'application/xml'])
) {
$this->set('_serialize', true);
}
}
}

Create AuthexsController.php file at src/Controller/AuthexsController.php. Copy

the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/AuthexsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\Datasource\ConnectionManager;
use Cake\Event\Event;
use Cake\Auth\DefaultPasswordHasher;

class AuthexsController extends AppController{

var $components = array('Auth');

public function index(){

}

49
 CakePHP

public function login(){

if($this->request->is('post'))
{
$user = $this->Auth->identify();
if($user){
$this->Auth->setUser($user);
return $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirectUrl());
}else
$this->Flash->error('Your username or password is
incorrect.');
}
}

public function logout(){

return $this->redirect($this->Auth->logout());
}
}
?>

Create a directory Authexs at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called login.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Authexs/login.ctp

<?php
echo $this->Form->create();
echo $this->Form->input('username');
echo $this->Form->input('password');
echo $this->Form->button('Submit');
echo $this->Form->end();
?>

Create another View file called logout.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Authexs/logout.ctp

You are successfully loggedout.

50
 CakePHP

Create another View file called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Authexs/index.ctp

You are successfully logged in. <?php echo $this->Html-

>link('logout',["controller" => "Authexs","action" => "logout"]); ?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/auth

Output
As the authentication has been implemented so once you try to visit the above URL, you
will be redirected to the login page as shown below.

After providing the correct credentials, you will be logged in and redirected to the screen
as shown below.

After clicking on the logout link, you will be redirected to the login screen again.

51
19. CakePHP — Errors & Exception Handling CakePHP

Failure of system needs to be handled effectively for smooth running of the system.
CakePHP comes with default error trapping that prints and logs error as they occur. This
same error handler is used to catch Exceptions. Error handler displays errors when debug
is true and logs error when debug is false. CakePHP has number of exception classes and
the built in exception handling will capture any uncaught exception and render a useful
page.

Errors and Exception Configuration

Errors and Exception can be configured in file config\app.php. Error handling accepts a
few options that allow you to tailor error handling for your application:

Option Data Type Description

The level of errors you are interested in

capturing. Use the built-in php error
errorLevel int
constants, and bitmasks to select the level
of error you are interested in.

Include stack traces for errors in log files.

Stack traces will be included in the log after
trace bool
each error. This is helpful for finding
where/when errors are being raised.

The class responsible for rendering uncaught

exceptions. If you choose a custom class,
exceptionRenderer string you should place the file for that class in
src/Error. This class needs to implement a
render() method.

When true, exceptions + their stack traces

log bool
will be logged to Cake\Log\Log.

An array of exception classnames that

should not be logged. This is useful to
skipLog array
remove NotFoundExceptions or other
common, but uninteresting logs messages.

Set to the number of megabytes to increase

the memory limit by when a fatal error is
extraFatalErrorMemory int
encountered. This allows breathing room to
complete logging or error handling.

52
 CakePHP

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes-
>connect('/exception/:arg1/:arg2',['controller'=>'Exps','action'=>'index'],['pa
ss' => ['arg1', 'arg2']]);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create ExpsController.php file at src/Controller/ExpsController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/ExpsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\Core\Exception\Exception;

class ExpsController extends AppController{

public function index($arg1,$arg2){

try{
$this->set('argument1',$arg1);
$this->set('argument2',$arg2);
if(($arg1 < 1 || $arg1 > 10) || ($arg2 < 1 || $arg2 > 10))
throw new Exception("One of the number is out of range
[1-10].");

53
 CakePHP

}catch(\Exception $ex){
echo $ex->getMessage();
}
}
}
?>

Create a directory Exps at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Exps/index.ctp

This is CakePHP tutorial and this is an example of Passed arguments.<br/>

Argument-1: <?=$argument1?><br/>
Argument-2: <?=$argument2?><br/>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/exception/5/0

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

54
 20. CakePHP — Logging CakePHP

Logging in CakePHP is a very easy task. You just have to use one function. You can log
errors, exceptions, user activities, action taken by users, for any background
process like cronjob. Logging data in CakePHP is easy - the log() function is provided by
the LogTrait, which is the common ancestor for almost all CakePHP classes.

Logging Configuration
We can configure the log in file config/app.php. There is a log section in the file where
you can configure logging options as shown in the following screenshot.

By default, you will see two log levels — error and debug already configured for you.
Each will handle different level of messages.

CakePHP supports various logging levels as shown below:

 Emergency: System is unusable

 Alert: Action must be taken immediately

 Critical: Critical conditions

 Error: Error conditions

 Warning: Warning conditions

 Notice: Normal but significant condition

 Info: Informational messages

55
 CakePHP

 Debug: Debug-level messages

Writing to Log file

There are two ways by which we can write in a Log file.

The first is to use the static write() method. The following is the syntax of the static
write() method .

write( integer|string $level , mixed $message , string|array $context

Syntax
[] )

The severity level of the message being written. The value must be an
integer or string matching a known level.

Message content to log.

Parameters Additional data to be used for logging the message. The special scope
key can be passed to be used for further filtering of the log engines to
be used. If a string or a numerically index array is passed, it will be
treated as the scope key. See Cake\Log\Log::config() for more
information on logging scopes.

Returns boolean

Writes the given message and type to all of the configured log
Description adapters. Configured adapters are passed both the $level and
$message variables. $level is one of the following strings/values.

The second is to use the log() shortcut function available on any using the LogTrait
Calling log() will internally call Log::write():

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('logex',['controller'=>'Logexs','action'=>'index']);

56
 CakePHP

$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a LogexController.php file at src/Controller/LogexController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/LogexController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\Log\Log;

class LogexsController extends AppController{

public function index(){

/*The first way to write to log file.*/
Log::write('debug',"Something didn't work.");
/*The second way to write to log file.*/
$this->log("Something didn't work.",'debug');
}
}
?>

Create a directory Logexs at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Logexs/index.ctp

Something is written in log file. Check log file logs\debug.log

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/logex

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 CakePHP

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

58
 21. CakePHP — Form Handling CakePHP

CakePHP provides various in built tags to handle HTML forms easily and securely. Like
many other PHP frameworks, major elements of HTML are also generated using CakePHP.
Following are the various functions used to generate HTML elements.

The following functions are used to generate select options.

_selectOptions( array $elements array(), array $parents array(),

Syntax
boolean $showParents null, array $attributes array() )

 Elements to format

 Parents for OPTGROUP

Parameters
 Whether to show parents

 HTML attributes

Returns array

Description Returns an array of formatted OPTION/OPTGROUP elements

The following functions are used to generate HTML select element.

select( string $fieldName , array $options array() , array $attributes

Syntax
array() )

Name attribute of the SELECT

Array of the OPTION elements (as 'value'=>'Text' pairs) to be used in

Parameters
the SELECT element

The HTML attributes of the select element.

Returns Formatted SELECT element

Description Returns a formatted SELECT element

The following functions are used to generate button on HTML page.

Syntax Button (string $title, array $options array() )

 The button's caption. Not automatically HTML encoded.

Parameters
 Array of options and HTML attributes.

Returns HTML button tag.

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 CakePHP

Creates a <button> tag. The type attribute defaults to

Description type="submit". You can change it to a different value by using
$options['type'].

The following functions are used to generate checkbox on HTML page.

Syntax Checkbox (string $fieldName, array $options array() )

 Name of a field, like this "Modelname.fieldname"

Parameters
 Array of HTML attributes. Possible options are value, checked,
hiddenField, disabled, default.

Returns An HTML text input element.

Description Creates a checkbox input widget.

The following functions are used to create form on HTML page.

Syntax create( mixed $model null , array $options array() )

 The model name for which the form is being defined. Should
include the plugin name for plugin models. e.g.
ContactManager.Contact. If an array is passed and $options
argument is empty, the array will be used as options. If false no
Parameters
model is used.

 An array of html attributes and options. Possible options are type,

action, url, default, onsubmit, inputDefaults, encoding

Returns A formatted opening FORM tag.

Description Returns an HTML FORM element.

The following functions are used to provide file uploading functionality on HTML page.

Syntax file(string $fieldName, array $options array() )

 Name of a field, in the form "Modelname.fieldname"

Parameters
 Array of HTML attributes.

Returns A generated file input.

Description Creates file input widget.

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 CakePHP

The following functions are used to create hidden element on HTML page.

Syntax hidden( string $fieldName , array $options array() )

 Name of a field, in the form of "Modelname.fieldname"

Parameters
 Array of HTML attributes.

Returns A generated hidden input

Description Creates a hidden input field

The following functions are used to generate input element on HTML page.

Syntax Input (string $fieldName , array $options array() )

 This should be "Modelname.fieldname"

Parameters
 Each type of input takes different options

Returns Completed form widget

Description Generates a form input element complete with label and wrapper div

The following functions are used to generate radio button on HTML page.

Radio (string $fieldName , array $options array() , array $attributes

Syntax
array() )

 Name of a field, like this "Modelname.fieldname"

Parameters  Radio button options array.

 Array of HTML attributes, and special attributes above.

Returns Completed radio widget set

Creates a set of radio widgets. Will create a legend and fieldset by

Description
default. Use $options to control this.

The following functions are used to generate submit button on HTML page.

Syntax Submit (string $caption null, array $options array() )

 The label appearing on the button OR if string contains :// or the

extension .jpg, .jpe, .jpeg, .gif, .png use an image if the extension
exists, AND the first character is /, image is relative to webroot,
Parameters
OR if the first character is not /, image is relative to webroot/img.

 Array of options. Possible options are div, before, after, type etc.

Returns An HTML submit button

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 CakePHP

Creates a submit button element. This method will generate <input

/> elements that can be used to submit, and reset forms by using
Description
$options. Image submits can be created by supplying an image path
for $caption.

The following functions are used to generate textarea element on HTML page.

Syntax Textarea (string $fieldName , array $options array() )

 Name of a field, in the form "Modelname.fieldname"

Parameters
 Array of HTML attributes, special option like escape

Returns A generated HTML text input element

Description Creates a textarea widget

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes-
>connect('register',['controller'=>'Registrations','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

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 CakePHP

Create a RegistrationController.php file at src/Controller/RegistrationController.php.

Copy the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/RegistrationController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

class RegistrationsController extends AppController{

public function index(){

$country = array('India','United State of America','United
Kingdom');
$this->set('country',$country);
$gender = array('Male','Female');
$this->set('gender',$gender);
}
}
?>

Create a directory Registrations at src/Template and under that directory create a

View file called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Registrations/index.ctp

<?php
echo $this->Form->create("Registrations",array('url'=>'/register'));
echo $this->Form->input('username');
echo $this->Form->input('password');
echo $this->Form->input('password');
echo '<label for="country">Country</label>';
echo $this->Form->select('country',$country);
echo '<label for="gender">Gender</label>';
echo $this->Form->radio('gender',$gender);
echo '<label for="address">Address</label>';
echo $this->Form->textarea('address');
echo $this->Form->file('profilepic');
echo '<div>'.$this->Form->checkbox('terms').'<label for="country">Terms &
Conditions</label></div>';
echo $this->Form->button('Submit');

63
 CakePHP

echo $this->Form->end();
?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL:

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/register

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

64
 22. CakePHP — Internationalization CakePHP

Like many other frameworks, CakePHP also supports Internationalization. We need to

follow these steps to go from single language to multiple language.

Step 1: Create a separate Locale directory src\Locale.

Step 2: Create subdirectory for each language under the directory src\Locale. The name
of the subdirectory can be two letter ISO code of the language or full locale name like
en_US, fr_FR etc.

Step 3: Create separate default.po file under each language subdirectory. This file
contains entry in the form of msgid and msgstr as shown in the following program.

msgid "msg"
msgstr "CakePHP Internationalization example."

Here, the msgid is the key which will be used in the View template file and msgstr is the
value which stores the translation.

Step 4: In the View template file, we can use the above msgid as shown below which will
be translated based on the set value of locale.

<?php echo __('msg'); ?>

The default locale can be set in the config/bootstrap.php file by the following line.

'defaultLocale' => env('APP_DEFAULT_LOCALE', 'en_US')

To change the local at runtime we can use the following lines.

use Cake\I18n\I18n;
I18n::locale('de_DE');

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

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 CakePHP

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');

Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes-
>connect('locale',['controller'=>'Localizations','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a LocalizationsController.php file at

src/Controller/LocalizationsController.php. Copy the following code in the controller
file.

src/Controller/LocalizationsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\I18n\I18n;

class LocalizationsController extends AppController{

public function index(){

if($this->request->is('post')){
$locale = $this->request->data('locale');
I18n::locale($locale);
}
}
}
?>

Create a Locale directory at src\Locale. Create 3 directories called en_US, fr_FR,

de_DE under the Locale directory. Create a file under each directory called default.po.
Copy the following code in the respective file.

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 CakePHP

src/Locale/en_US/default.po

msgid "msg"
msgstr "CakePHP Internationalization example."

src/Locale/fr_FR/default.po

msgid "msg"
msgstr "Exemple CakePHP internationalisation."

src/Locale/de_DE/default.po

msgid "msg"
msgstr "CakePHP Internationalisierung Beispiel."

Create a directory Localizations at src/Template and under that directory create a

View file called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Localizations/index.ctp

<?php
echo $this->Form->create("Localizations",array('url'=>'/locale'));
echo $this->Form->radio("locale",
[
['value'=>'en_US','text'=>'English'],
['value'=>'de_DE','text'=>'German'],
['value'=>'fr_FR','text'=>'French'],
]
);
echo $this->Form->button('Change Language');
echo $this->Form->end();
?>
<?php echo __('msg'); ?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/locale

67
 CakePHP

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

Email
CakePHP provides Email class to manage email related functionalities. To use email
functionality in any controller, we first need to load the Email class by writing the following
line.

use Cake\Mailer\Email;

The Email class provides various useful methods which are described below.

Syntax From (string|array|null $email null , string|null $name null )

 String with email

Parameters
 Name

Returns array|$this

Description It specifies from which email address; the email will be sent

Syntax To (string|array|null $email null, string|null $name null)

 String with email

Parameters
 Name

Returns array|$this

Description It specifies to whom the email will be sent

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 CakePHP

Syntax Send (string|array|null $content null)

Parameters  String with message or array with messages.

Returns array

Description Send an email using the specified content, template and layout

Syntax Subject (string|null $subject null)

Parameters  Subject string

Returns array|$this

Description Get/Set Subject.

Syntax Attachments (string|array|null $attachments null)

Parameters  String with the filename or array with filenames

Returns array|$this

Description Add attachments to the email message

Syntax Bcc (string|array|null $email null, string|null $name null)

 String with email

Parameters
 Name

Returns array|$this

Description Bcc

Syntax cc( string|array|null $email null , string|null $name null )

 String with email

Parameters
 Name

Returns array|$this

Description Cc

69
 CakePHP

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {
$routes->connect('/email',['controller'=>'Emails','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create an EmailsController.php file at src/Controller/EmailsController.php. Copy

the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/EmailsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\Mailer\Email;

class EmailsController extends AppController{

public function index(){

$email = new Email('default');
$email->to('[email protected]')
->subject('About')
->send('My message');
}
}
?>

70
 CakePHP

Create a directory Emails at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Emails/index.ctp

Email Sent.

Before we send any email, we need to configure it. In the below screenshot, you can see
that there are two transports, default and Gmail. We have used Gmail transport. You need
to replace the “GMAIL USERNAME” with your Gmail username and “APP PASSWORD” with
your applications password. You need to turn on 2-step verification in Gmail and create a
new APP password to send email.

config/app.php

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL:

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/email

71
 CakePHP

Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

72
 23. CakePHP — Session Management CakePHP

Session allows us to manage unique users across requests and stores data for specific
users. Session data can be accessible anywhere anyplace where you have access to
request object, i.e., sessions are accessible from controllers, views, helpers, cells, and
components.

Accessing Session Object

Session object can be created by executing the following code.

$session = $this->request->session();

Writing Session Data

To write something in session, we can use the write() session method.

Session::write($key, $value)

The above method will take two arguments, the value and the key under which the value
will be stored.

Example
$session->write('name', 'Virat Gandhi');

Reading Session Data

To retrieve stored data from session, we can use the read() session method.

Session::read($key)

The above function will take only one argument that is the key of the value which was
used at the time of writing session data. Once the correct key was provided then the
function will return its value.

Example
$session->read('name');

When you want to check whether particular data exists in the session or not, then you can
use the check() session method.

Session::check($key)

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 CakePHP

The above function will take only key as the argument.

Example
if ($session->check('name')) {
// name exists and is not null.
}

Delete Session Data

To delete data from session, we can use the delete() session method to delete the data.

Session::delete($key)

The above function will take only key of the value to be deleted from session.

Example
$session->delete('name');

When you want to read and then delete data from session then, we can use the
consume() session method.

static Session::consume($key)

The above function will take only key as argument.

Example
$session->consume('name');

Destroying a Session
We need to destroy a user session when the user logs out from the site and to destroy the
session the destroy() method is used.

Session::destroy()

Example
$session->destroy();

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 CakePHP

Destroying session will remove all session data from server but will not remove session
cookie.

Renew a Session
In a situation where you want to renew user session then we can use the renew() session
method.

Session::renew()

Example
$session->renew();

Complete Session
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {
$routes->connect('/session-
object',['controller'=>'Sessions','action'=>'index']);
$routes->connect('/session-
read',['controller'=>'Sessions','action'=>'retrieve_session_data']);
$routes->connect('/session-
write',['controller'=>'Sessions','action'=>'write_session_data']);
$routes->connect('/session-
check',['controller'=>'Sessions','action'=>'check_session_data']);
$routes->connect('/session-
delete',['controller'=>'Sessions','action'=>'delete_session_data']);
$routes->connect('/session-
destroy',['controller'=>'Sessions','action'=>'destroy_session_data']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});
Plugin::routes();

75
 CakePHP

Create a SessionsController.php file at src/Controller/SessionsController.php.

Copy the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/SessionsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

class SessionsController extends AppController{

public function retrieveSessionData(){

//create session object
$session = $this->request->session();
//read data from session
$name = $session->read('name');
$this->set('name',$name);
}
public function writeSessionData(){
//create session object
$session = $this->request->session();
//write data in session
$session->write('name','Virat Gandhi');
}
public function checkSessionData(){
//create session object
$session = $this->request->session();
//check session data
$name = $session->check('name');
$address = $session->check('address');
$this->set('name',$name);
$this->set('address',$address);
}
public function deleteSessionData(){
//create session object
$session = $this->request->session();
//delete session data
$session->delete('name');
}

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 CakePHP

public function destroySessionData(){

//create session object
$session = $this->request->session();
//destroy session
$session->destroy();
}
}
?>

Create a directory Sessions at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called write_session_data.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Sessions/write_session_data.ctp

The data has been written in session.

Create another View file called retrieve_session_data.ctp under the same Sessions
directory and copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Sessions/retrieve_session_data.ctp

Here is the data from session.

Name: <?=$name;?>

Create another View file called check_session_data.ctp under the same Sessions
directory and copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Sessions/check_session_data.ctp

<?php if($name): ?>

name exists in the session.<br>
<?php else: ?>
name doesn't exist in the database<br>
<?php endif;?>
<?php if($address): ?>
address exists in the session.<br>
<?php else: ?>
address doesn't exist in the database<br>
<?php endif;?>

Create another View file called delete_session_data.ctp under the same Sessions
directory and copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Sessions/delete_session_data.ctp

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 CakePHP

Data deleted from session.

Create another View file called destroy_session_data.ctp under the same Sessions
directory and copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Sessions/destroy_session_data.ctp

Session Destroyed.

Output
Execute the above example by visiting the following URL. This URL will help you write data
in session.

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/session-write

Visit the following URL to read session data: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/session-read

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 CakePHP

Visit the following URL to check session data: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/session-

check

Visit the following URL to delete session data: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/session-

delete

Visit the following URL to destroy session data: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/session-

destroy

79
 24. CakePHP — Cookie Management CakePHP

Handling Cookie with CakePHP is easy and secure. There is a CookieComponent class which
is used for managing Cookie. The class provides several methods for working with Cookies.

Write Cookie
The write() method is used to write cookie. Following is the syntax of the write() method.

Cake\Controller\Component\CookieComponent::write(mixed $key, mixed $value =

null)

The write() method will take two arguments, the name of cookie variable ($key), and
the value of cookie variable ($value).

Example
$this->Cookie->write('name', 'Virat');

We can pass array of name, values pair to write multiple cookies.

Read Cookie
The read() method is used to read cookie. Following is the syntax of the read() method.

Cake\Controller\Component\CookieComponent::read(mixed $key = null)

The read() method will take one argument, the name of cookie variable ($key).

Example
echo $this->Cookie->read('name');

Check Cookie
The check() method is used to check whether a key/path exists and has a non-null value.
Following is the syntax of the check() method.

Cake\Controller\Component\CookieComponent::check($key)

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 CakePHP

Example
echo $this->Cookie->check(‘name’);

Delete Cookie
The delete() method is used to delete cookie. Following is the syntax of the delete()
method.

Cake\Controller\Component\CookieComponent::delete(mixed $key)

The delete() method will take one argument, the name of cookie variable ($key) to delete.

Example 1
$this->Cookie->delete('name');

Example 2
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes-
>connect('cookie/write',['controller'=>'Cookies','action'=>'write_cookie']);
$routes-
>connect('cookie/read',['controller'=>'Cookies','action'=>'read_cookie']);
$routes-
>connect('cookie/check',['controller'=>'Cookies','action'=>'check_cookie']);
$routes-
>connect('cookie/delete',['controller'=>'Cookies','action'=>'delete_cookie']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

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 CakePHP

Plugin::routes();

Create a CookiesController.php file at src/Controller/CookiesController.php. Copy

the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/Cookies/CookiesController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\Controller\Component\CookieComponent;

class CookiesController extends AppController{

public $components = array('Cookie');

public function writeCookie(){

$this->Cookie->write('name', 'Virat');
}

public function readCookie(){

$cookie_val = $this->Cookie->read('name');
$this->set('cookie_val',$cookie_val);
}

public function checkCookie(){

$isPresent = $this->Cookie->check('name');
$this->set('isPresent',$isPresent);
}

public function deleteCookie(){

$this->Cookie->delete('name');
}
}
?>

Create a directory Cookies at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called write_cookie.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

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 CakePHP

src/Template/Cookie/write_cookie.ctp

The cookie has been written.

Create another View file called read_cookie.ctp under the same Cookies directory and
copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Cookie/read_cookie.ctp

The value of the cookie is: <?php echo $cookie_val; ?>

Create another View file called check_cookie.ctp under the same Cookies directory and
copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Cookie/check_cookie.ctp

<?php
if($isPresent):
?>
The cookie is present.
<?php
else:
?>
The cookie isn't present.
<?php
endif;
?>

Create another View file called delete_cookie.ctp under the same Cookies directory and
copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Cookie/delete_cookie.ctp

The cookie has been deleted.

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 CakePHP

Output
Execute the above example by visiting the following URL:
http://localhost:85/CakePHP/cookie/write

This will help you write data in cookie.

Visit the following URL to read cookie data: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/cookie/read

Visit the following URL to check cookie data: http://localhost:85/CakePHP/cookie/check

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Visit the following URL to delete cookie data:

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/cookie/delete

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 25. CakePHP — Security CakePHP

Security is another important feature while building web applications. It assures the users
of the website that their data is secured. CakePHP provides some tools to secure your
application.

Encryption and Decryption

Security library in CakePHP provides methods by which we can encrypt and decrypt data.
Following are the two methods which are used for the same purpose.

static Cake\Utility\Security::encrypt($text, $key, $hmacSalt = null)

static Cake\Utility\Security::decrypt($cipher, $key, $hmacSalt = null)

The encrypt method will take text and key as the argument to encrypt data and the return
value will be the encrypted value with HMAC checksum.

To hash a data hash() method is used. Following is the syntax of the hash() method.

static Cake\Utility\Security::hash($string, $type = NULL, $salt = false)

CSRF
CSRF stands for Cross Site Request Forgery. By enabling the CSRF Component, you
get protection against attacks. CSRF is a common vulnerability in web applications. It
allows an attacker to capture and replay a previous request, and sometimes submit data
requests using image tags or resources on other domains. The CSRF can be enabled by
simply adding the CsrfComponent to your components array as shown below.

public function initialize()

{
parent::initialize();
$this->loadComponent('Csrf');
}

The CsrfComponent integrates seamlessly with FormHelper. Each time you create a form
with FormHelper, it will insert a hidden field containing the CSRF token.

While this is not recommended, you may want to disable the CsrfComponent on certain
requests. You can do so by using the controller’s event dispatcher, during the
beforeFilter() method.

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public function beforeFilter(Event $event)

{
$this->eventManager()->off($this->Csrf);
}

Security Component
Security Component applies tighter security to your application. It provides methods for
various tasks like:

 Restricting which HTTP methods your application accepts: You should

always verify the HTTP method being used before executing side-effects. You
should check the HTTP method or use Cake\Network\Request::allowMethod()
to ensure the correct HTTP method is used.

 Form tampering protection: By default, the SecurityComponent prevents users

from tampering with forms in specific ways. The SecurityComponent will prevent
the following things:
o Unknown fields cannot be added to the form.
o Fields cannot be removed from the form.
o Values in hidden inputs cannot be modified.

 Requiring that SSL be used: all actions to require a SSL-secured.

 Limiting cross controller communication: We can restrict which controller can

send request to this controller. We can also restrict which actions can send request
to this controller’s action.

Example
Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('login',['controller'=>'Logins','action'=>'index']);
$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

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Plugin::routes();

Create a LoginsController.php file at src/Controller/LoginsController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/LoginsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;

class LoginsController extends AppController{

public function initialize()

{
parent::initialize();
$this->loadComponent('Security');
}

public function index(){

}
}
?>

Create a directory Logins at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Logins/index.ctp

<?php
echo $this->Form->create("Logins",array('url'=>'/login'));
echo $this->Form->input('username');
echo $this->Form->input('password');
echo $this->Form->button('Submit');
echo $this->Form->end();
?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL:

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/login

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Output
Upon execution, you will receive the following output.

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 26. CakePHP — Validation CakePHP

Often while making websites we need to validate certain things before processing data
further. CakePHP provides validation package to build validators that can validate data
with ease.

Validation Methods
CakePHP provides various validation methods in the Validation Class. Some of the most
popular of them are listed below.

Add (string $field , array|string $name ,

Syntax
array|Cake\Validation\ValidationRule $rule [] )

 The name of the field from which the rule will be added.

Parameters  The alias for a single rule or multiple rules array.

 The rule to add

Returns $this

Adds a new rule to a field's rule set. If second argument is an array,

Description then rules list for the field will be replaced with second argument and
third argument will be ignored.

allowEmpty (string $field , boolean|string|callable $when true ,

Syntax
string|null $message null)

 The name of the field.

 Indicates when the field is allowed to be empty. Valid values are

Parameters true (always), 'create', 'update'. If a callable is passed, then
the field will be left empty only when the callback returns true.

 The message to show if the field is not.

Returns $this

Description Allows a field to be empty.

alphanumeric (string $field, string|null $message null,

Syntax
string|callable|null $when null)

 The field you want to apply the rule to.

Parameters
 The error message when the rule fails.

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 Either 'create' or 'update' or a callable that returns true when

the validation rule should be applied.

Returns $this

Description Add an alphanumeric rule to a field.

creditCard (string $field , string $type 'all', string|null $message null,

Syntax
string|callable|null $when null)

 The field you want to apply the rule to.

 The type of cards you want to allow. Defaults to 'all'. You can also
supply an array of accepted card types, for example,
['mastercard', 'visa', 'amex'].
Parameters

 The error message when the rule fails.

 Either 'create' or 'update' or a callable that returns true when the

validation rule should be applied.

Returns $this

Description Add a credit card rule to a field.

Email (string $field , boolean $checkMX false , string|null $message

Syntax
null , string|callable|null $when null)

 The field you want to apply the rule to.

 Whether or not to check the MX records.

Parameters
 The error message when the rule fails.

 Either 'create' or 'update' or a callable that returns true when the

validation rule should be applied.

Returns $this

Description Add an email validation rule to a field.

maxLength (string $field , integer $max , string|null $message null ,

Syntax
string|callable|null $when null)

 The field you want to apply the rule to.

Parameters  The maximum length allowed.

 The error message when the rule fails.

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 Either 'create' or 'update' or a callable that returns true when

the validation rule should be applied.

Returns $this

Description Add a string length validation rule to a field.

minLength (string $field , integer $min , string|null $message null ,

Syntax
string|callable|null $when null)

 The field you want to apply the rule to.

 The maximum length allowed.

Parameters
 The error message when the rule fails.

 Either 'create' or 'update' or a callable that returns true when

the validation rule should be applied.

Returns $this

Description Add a string length validation rule to a field.

notBlank (string $field , string|null $message null , string|callable|null

Syntax
$when null)

 The field you want to apply the rule to.

 The error message when the rule fails.

Parameters
 Either 'create' or 'update' or a callable that returns true when
the validation rule should be applied.

Returns $this

Description Add a notBlank rule to a field.

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 27. CakePHP — Creating Validators CakePHP

Validator can be created by adding the following two lines in the controller.

use Cake\Validation\Validator;
$validator = new Validator();

Validating Data
Once we have created validator, we can use the validator object to validate data. The
following code explains how we can validate data for login webpage.

$validator->notEmpty('username', 'We need username.')->add('username',

'validFormat', ['rule' => 'email','message' => 'E-mail must be valid']);

$validator->notEmpty('password', 'We need password.');

$errors = $validator->errors($this->request->data());

Using the $validator object we have first called the notEmpty() method which will ensure
that the username must not be empty. After that we have chained the add() method to
add one more validation for proper email format.

After that we have added validation for password field with notEmpty() method which will
confirms that password field must not be empty.

Example
Make Changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following program.

config/routes.php

<?php

use Cake\Core\Plugin;
use Cake\Routing\RouteBuilder;
use Cake\Routing\Router;

Router::defaultRouteClass('DashedRoute');
Router::scope('/', function (RouteBuilder $routes) {

$routes->connect('validation',['controller'=>'Valids','action'=>'index']);

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$routes->fallbacks('DashedRoute');
});

Plugin::routes();

Create a ValidsController.php file at src/Controller/ValidsController.php. Copy the

following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/ValidsController.php

<?php
namespace App\Controller;
use App\Controller\AppController;
use Cake\Validation\Validator;

class ValidsController extends AppController{

public function index(){

$validator = new Validator();
$validator->notEmpty('username', 'We need username.')-
>add('username', 'validFormat', ['rule' => 'email','message' => 'E-mail must be
valid']);

$validator->notEmpty('password', 'We need password.');

$errors = $validator->errors($this->request->data());
$this->set('errors',$errors);
}
}
?>

Create a directory Valids at src/Template and under that directory create a View file
called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Valids/index.ctp

<?php
if($errors)
{
foreach($errors as $error)
foreach($error as $msg)
echo '<font color="red">'.$msg.'</font><br>';

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 CakePHP

}else{
echo "No errors.";
}
echo $this->Form->create("Logins",array('url'=>'/validation'));
echo $this->Form->input('username');
echo $this->Form->input('password');
echo $this->Form->button('Submit');
echo $this->Form->end();
?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL:

http://localhost:85/CakePHP/validation

Output
Click on the submit button without entering anything. You will receive the following output.

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