How to import/use static class with namespace - cakephp

Question

I have been at this for a couple days now. Seems like the simplest thing in the world but for the life of me I cannot get this to work.
I am trying to use this class in my Controller:
https://github.com/neitanod/forceutf8
The class is named Encoding.php and it has a namespace ForceUTF8.
I've tried all of the following:
App::uses('Encoding','Vendor'); //(copying Encoding.php directly in the Vendor dir)
App::uses('Encoding','Vendor/ForceUTF8'); //(copying Encoding.php in ForceUTF8 subdir)
App::uses('Encoding’,’Lib'); //(copying Encoding.php directly in the Lib dir)
App::uses('Encoding’,’Lib/ForceUTF8'); //(copying Encoding.php in ForceUTF8 subdir)
require_once(APP . 'Vendor' . DS . 'Encoding.php'); //(use plain old php require_once to load class from Vendor dir)
No matter what I do I get the same error: Class 'Encoding' not found.
I find the CakePHP documentation to be very confusing on this subject. On the one hand it says not to use App::uses for non-CakePHP classes because the classes might not follow CakePHP standards. Fair enough. So instead they say to use App::import. But then there are tons of posts saying that App::import is nothing more than a wrapper for require_once.
So after not being able to get App::uses or App::import to work, I tried require_once. Same error. Then I found a post here on so saying even when using require_once, you still have to 'initialize' the class in order to CakePHP to be able to see/use it. And how is that done? App::uses. So I'm back where I started.
Something tells me the namespace is causing the problem. When I use require_once the class is found (I'm pretty sure) because, for example, if I change
require_once(APP . 'Vendor' . DS . 'Encoding.php');
to
require_once(APP . 'Vendor' . DS . 'blabla.php');
it gives me an error, file not found.
But even though require_once seems to find it, CakePHP still says class not found.
How can I load a namespaced vendor file?

Answer 1

In Cakephp 2.x, follow following steps
at top of class file add
use \Dropbox as dbx;
[Dropbox is vendor directory in my case]
use \Dropbox as dbx;
App::build(array('Vendor/Dropbox' => array('%s' . 'Dropbox' . DS)), App::REGISTER);
// Autoload the classes in the 'vendors'
spl_autoload_register(function ($class) {
foreach (App::path('Vendor') as $base) {
$path = $base . str_replace('\\', DS, $class) . '.php';
if (file_exists($path)) {
include $path;
return;
}
}
});
Now call your class method.

Answer 2

Cake2.x does not support namespaces so you need write your own loader
spl_autoload_register(function ($class) {
foreach (App::path('Vendor') as $base) {
$path = $base . str_replace('\\', DS, $class) . '.php';
if (file_exists($path)) {
include $path;
return;
}
}
});
more info here:
http://www.dereuromark.de/2012/08/06/namespaces-in-vendor-files-and-cake2-x/

Answer 3

Base on this article:
http://www.dereuromark.de/2012/08/06/namespaces-in-vendor-files-and-cake2-x/comment-page-1
I'm using the paypal sdk. And this is my code.
In bootstrap.php:
// Add 'vendors' as sub-package of 'Vendor' to the application
App::build(array('Vendor/vendors' => array('%s' . 'vendors' . DS)), App::REGISTER);
// Autoload the classes in the 'vendors'
spl_autoload_register(function ($class) {
foreach (App::path('Vendor/vendors') as $base) {
$path = $base . str_replace('\\', DS, $class) . '.php';
if (file_exists($path)) {
include $path;
return;
}
}
});
In the PaypalComponent:
use PayPal\Rest\ApiContext;
use PayPal\Auth\OAuthTokenCredential;
Use those classes in function:
$this->apiContext = new ApiContext(
new OAuthTokenCredential()
);