CakePHP 3 Component - Request Data or Query being Cleared - cakephp

Question

I have come across and issue that I need help with. I cannot figure out why this is happening.
I am creating a component in CakePHP that intercepts the data being passed to /users/login and depending on the parameter, it acts on it. However, the issue is that, when that data gets there, it is empty. To also note, is that it worked good on remote machines as well as local. The issue started happening when I used Composer to upload this plugin into another site. I wonder if the issue is because Composer installs the plugin under the vendor directory.
This is my code inside the component's startup method
public function initialize(array $config)
{
// ....
$this->Controller = $this->_registry->getController();
// ...
}
public function startup(Event $event)
{
// Here I try to get the [test] parameter that is pass in url
// http://www.domain.com/users/login?test=testing
$test = $this->Controller->request->query('test');
}
If I attempt to print the controller request inside the startup(Event $event) with debug($this->Controller->request); I get the following array:
object(Cake\Network\Request) {
params => [
'plugin' => null,
'controller' => 'Users',
'action' => 'login',
'_ext' => null,
'pass' => [],
'isAjax' => false
]
data => []
query => []
url => 'users/login'
base => ''
webroot => '/'
here => '/users/login'
trustProxy => false
[protected] _environment => [
'SCRIPT_FILENAME' => '/var/www/domain.com/website/webroot/index.php',
'SCRIPT_NAME' => '/index.php',
'REQUEST_URI' => '/users/login?test=testing',
'DOCUMENT_URI' => '/index.php',
The REQUEST_URI shows clearly that test is being passed.
What could be causing CakePHP not to take in the test parameter when it was installed using Composer? Why is params['pass'] => [], data => [] and query => [] empty?

Answer 1

After hours of trying to figure this out, it had to take my 8-year old daughter to point me out in the right direction. A simple, but time-wasting, head-scratching mistake that was causing all the issues. The issue was located inside my NGINX configuration file.
I had the following:
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$args;
}
but I should have had the following:
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
Because I had ommitted the ? after index.php, NGINX was simply not taking any parameters that were passed in the url.
Lesson learned!