I have an existential question that I hope someone can answer.
Why is it that Cakephp controller needs to have the "controller" word attached?
I know what is the naming convention, but nowhere does it says why is it so (well, maybe it's written somewhere, but I haven't found it).
Controller classnames are plural, CamelCased, and end in Controller
We don't have PostModel.php, WhateverModel.php or viewView.ctp, addView.ctp. With models it's just Post.php or Item.php. With views is... well, anything, but there's no need of a "View" append at the end of the action. Why the difference with controllers?
I have seen a few questions where the error is that they have ItemModel.php, and I understand why the confusion if the controller is ItemsController.php (though, granted, it's not an excuse to not read the docs).
I thought maybe it was to help avoiding inflection problems, like with a Fish.php model, the controller would be also Fish.php if we didn't add the controller part. But the separation of folders is quite clear and having
/Controller
Fish.php
/Model
Fish.php
isn't really a problem... or is it?
My question is why, not how the naming convention for controllers is like that, and if there's any logical reason besides a "just because". Even a "we started like that in version 0.0.1 and then it was to late to change it" would suffice.
Models are the only classes that do not have the type appended.
Something <- model class
SomethingBehavior <- behavior class
SomethingHelper <- helper class
SomethingController <- controller class
SomethingComponent <- Component class
SomethingView <- View class
You can not do the following:
/Controller
Fish.php
/Model
Fish.php
Ever tried importing two classes into PHP with the same class name? (CakePHP expects the class name to match the file name since 2.x)
Fatal error: class `Whatever` already exists (or something similar)
Before PHP 5.3 and namespaces this is what had to be done to avoid these fatal errors. Since CakePHP 2.x and below was targeted at versions of PHP below 5.3 and namespaces this was what was done.
Also to make importing classes easier file names map to class names, this is why you can not have Fish.php with class FishController. That would avoid the Fatal error for sure, but Cake does not load classes like that.
Even though CakePHP 3.x will target PHP 5.4, the Controller/Component/Behavior etc will continue to exist for backwards compatibility (probably, its still there in the latest 3.x branch)
Related
This is for CakePHP 3.0
I want to encapsulate some nontrivial php logic to be called (reused) several times within one .ctp file for one controller action. I'm trying to figure out the most elegant way of doing it.
I have a few thoughts, none of which seem very elegant:
$this in the CTP file execution context is class View. Put methods on the View class to call as $this->function() within the .ctp file. This seems like the wrong division of labor, especially since helpers seem designed for this. Plus the functions would be exposed to all ctp files.
Create a helper. This seems like the "best" way to go, but that helper is always loaded and exposed to all .ctp files, which seems like it violates containment since the logic is only relevant to one action's view. In the absence of a better solution, this is the route I'm taking.
Create a subclass of View for this element/model and put the logic there, to be accessed as in (1). This seems like the most elegant solution, but it appears that subclassing View is intended for alternate media (eg PDF), and I can't see how to direct Cake to use that class when manufacturing the view for a given controller's action.
Shove the function inline in the .ctp file. I'm not even sure if this will work correctly, and it seems ugly to put functions in a .ctp file.
Any advice?
Well, you're not explaining what kind of super complex logic you want to use there so I would say go for 3). It is very well possible, you can load helpers in a view files:
$this->loadHelper('MyFancyLogic');
You can also checkout view cells. But again, you're not explaining what problem exactly you try to solve it's hard to recommend anything specific. So I would say it's a helper or a view cell.
I'm stuck with a very simple issue - calling functions between classes. Say I have a function (renderMap) in one of my already defined class: App.ux.MyClass (I also added this class to 'requires' in app.js). How to call the 'renderMap' function from other classes?
I tried App.ux.MyClass.renderMap() but I got 'undefined is not a function'.
I would solve the problem by creating a mixin that would contain all functions shared by many classes. See the mixins docs for details.
Then you would just call
this.renderMap()
in any class that uses that mixin.
I think it's problem in application architecture.
You can to use DI (it will be best choice), but, if you cannot, try to create Singleton or ServiceLocator patterns (yes, I know they are anti-patterns).
In ExtJS 4.x and Sencha Touch 2.x Singleton can be created via statics definition in class. Read more: http://docs-origin.sencha.com/touch/2.3.2/#!/api/Ext.Class-cfg-statics
Then, you just can to call method like App.ux.MyClass.methodName().
This is a multi part question.
Background:
I'm building my first site using CakePHP, and I like it so far. I've got a DB setup, initial data loaded, and a few models, views, and controllers to interface with the data.
I've created a globally accessible function to create Add/Edit/Delete type image links in various areas. It will be used across multiple views, so I need it accessible, essentially, everywhere. The function is defined in /app/config/bootstrap.php. I was hoping to use the HTML Helper's $html->image() and $html->link() methods to facilitate this, but they're not available in bootstrap.php and I'm not sure how to load/access the HTML Helper where I've defined my function.
Questions:
1) Is this a reasonable/idiomatic place to define a function of this sort?
2) If this isn't the correct place to define the function, where should I define it?
3) If this is the correct place to define the function, how can I go about loading various CakePHP helpers?
Again, I am new to CakePHP, so please let me know if my question is unclear, and forgive my ignorance. I've read/searched through a fair amount of the CakePHP documentation and while I can find plenty of references to loading helpers within Controllers via App::import(...); or $helpers = array(...);, I do not seem to have access to the App object and the $helpers member is specific to the AppController class, I assume. I assume I'm going about this incorrectly, so please help me understand the Cake way of accomplishing this.
No, that is not the correct place for such a function (or more accurately, it goes against the MVC paradigm). A better approach would be to create your own helper for the function. Depending on the complexity of the links you could also use elements.
As a rule of thumb only functions that are completely independent of anything else in the app should be in bootstrap.php, and even most of those would often be better somewhere else.
We had an outsourced engineer work on a quick feature DELETING items listed in our database. He says that the code is difficult because the "controller" is missing. Is there a pre-loaded controller for every function like that in cake, or is it weird that he is expecting a controller to be there for a feature we didn't have yet.
There is a generic AppController, but that's more of an abstract class in practice (you generally derive your other controllers from that).
It's not that weird at all that he's expecting a controller -- after all, you won't be able to call methods in the models (which is how I'm guessing you're doing delete) unless you have a point of control to call them from. In this case, the point of control is the controller.
So you can just create a controller. Here's a template to start from:
class SomeController extends AppController {
function delete() {
$this->Some->delete();
}
}
Then access /somes/delete (remember, URLs are generally /controller/action).
Now, he could be talking about the Cake Bake CLI app. That will take your DB tables, and walk you through an initial basic setup for your app. Generally it creates a basic skeleton for CRUD actions.
Either way, you need to create a controller (manually, or via Bake).
When you use the Cake bake function, it'll create all the controllers for you. When you don't use it, you'll need to create them manually. It makes no sense to make all the controllers at the begin, just make them when you really gonna write them would be good.
If you do not have a controller in CakePHP when you visit a page (http://www.youraddress.com/Newfeature) you receive a missing controller error:
Error: NewfeatureController could not be found.
Error: Create the class NewfeatureController below in file: app\controllers\newfeature_controller.php
You cannot get or delete data from the database without controllers - Understanding Model-View-Controller. You do not need the controller only for static pages in CakePHP.
I'm new to PHP and decided to use the cakePHP framework to help me get started.
I can't figure out one thing though, I want to call methods on the RequestHandlerComponent class to update a users last used IP address and other information, I figured the best place to put this would be in the beforeSave() method on the User model.
I can't figure out how to call the getClientIP method though.
The normal code that would otherwise go in the controller doesn't work. Is there another way to call this class if you're in the model and not the controller?
Class Level:
var $components = array('RequestHandler');
And in the function:
$this->data['User']['lastActiveIP'] = $this->RequestHandler->getClientIP();
Gives:
Undefined property: User::$RequestHandler
Call to a member function getClientIP() on a non-object
Components, by design, aren't available to models (without bypassing MVC convention - which you can do, of course). If you chose to force it to be available, look into ClassRegistry::init(). A better solution, I think, would be to employ the RequestHandler component in your controller (where it's meant to be used), set the lastActiveIp value in the controller (exactly as you've shown in your own example code) and pass the entire data array along to the model.
Now your component is being used where it should be and the model gets to remain ignorant about where it gets its data. At the risk of oversimplification, all the model should know is what to do with the data once it arrives; let the controller worry about collecting and packaging the data.
In addition to Rob's answer, maybe it's enough to put a bit of code together yourself that uses the general env('REMOTE_ADDR') or similar variables. Look at the RequestHandler code, it's not doing anything terrifically complicated.
You may even be able to call the component statically, which is slightly better than instantiating it in the model (still in violation of MVC though). Untested, but should work:
App::import('Component', 'RequestHandler');
RequestHandlerComponent::getClientIp();