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();
Related
Is there a function like unloadModel in cakePHP that should be called to unload a model that was loaded using loadModel() function?
I found an unload method,
http://api20.cakephp.org/file/Cake/Model/BehaviorCollection.php#method-BehaviorCollectionunload
But it seems to be used for Behavior. Im new to cake. Is there a function like that or does it get automatically unloaded when the called action loses scope?
One more doubt; is using loadModel against MVC's normal conventions? Does it have any adverse effects?
You do not need to unload your model. If you're going to use the model throughout the entire Controller, then use the $uses variable:
public $uses = array('MyModel', 'AnotherModel');
If you're going to just use it in a specific action(s), use loadModel:
$this->loadModel('MyModel');
That's it - no unloading necessary.
And no, it's not against MVC imo and I have seen no adverse effects.
It's VERY common to load a model. Example - most of my projects require a few "homepages" that have greatly-varying data from nearly ever model. In that case, I create a "DashboardsController", which doesn't even have a table - then I load each model when I need to access it's data. (Or with $uses if I'm going to use it's data in all the actions).
no, behaviors and models are two different things.
behaviors add functionality through hooks. Meaning: they alter the way other methods in models work. So if you want to geocode your data automatically, you use a geocoder behavior. Or if you want your results to be decrypted upon find, you add the decrypt behavior.
So there you NEED the option to detach/unload behaviors because you might not want this functionality there at some point.
Models are just access to the database or provide wrapper methods. They don't have to be removed in order for the rest of the site to function as they do not alter the way other methods work.
loadModel is just a way to dynamically load models that are not automatically related. its totally fine to do that from controller actions where you need those models.
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.
I have a small calendar widget-type thing on many pages throughout my site. The goal is for it to retrieve events from X category that fall between Y and Z dates.
My assumption (I'm new to CakePHP) was that I should create a component, and have it do the query. Something like this:
class CalendarComponent extends Object {
var $uses = array('Event');
function getEvents($category = null, $date = null, $limit = null) {
$events = $this->Event->find('list', //conditions to get correct events
return $events;
}
}
BUT, according to this CakeBook page:
To access/use a model in a component
is not generally recommended
So - where would I store this logic / model call if not in a component? I've admittedly not used a component yet (or not created one anyway) due to lack of really understanding how I should use them - any snippet of advice on this is also VERY welcome.
Great question in my opinion and I imagine one that comes up quite often. I was actually dealing with a similar problem where I wanted some site-wide data gathering or functionality shoved into a component.
The first thing to keep in mind:
The book is a guideline.
These 'rules' aren't rules. If there's a good reason for breaking the rule and you understand why the rule is being broken then break the damn thing! Cake itself breaks this rule quite often.
Core components that require/use models:
Acl
Auth
Sessions (fairly positive you can save session data to a model)
So, clearly there are use cases where you need to use a model inside a component. How do you do it though?
Well, there's a couple different ways. What I wound up going with? Something like this:
<?php
ModelLoadingComponent extends Object {
public function startup($controller) {
$controller->loadModel('Model');
$this->Model = $controller->Model;
}
}
?>
That's it! Your component is now setup to use $this->Model...just like you would in a controller.
Edit:
Sorry, to clarify: no, you don't have to setup a new component to load models. I was showing an example for how you could load a component in any model. The startup function I used is a component-specific callback, there's a whole slew of them http://book.cakephp.org/view/998/MVC-Class-Access-Within-Components. These callback methods make components a lot easier to work with. I highly recommend looking at this part of the components tutorial if nothing else.
If you were working inside an AppController object you could call $this->loadModel() but we aren't working an AppController! We're working with a component, really an Object. There is no Object::loadModel() so we have to come up with a different way to get that model. This is where $controller comes into play in our startup callback.
When the startup method is invoked by Cake it will pass the $controller object it's working with on this dispatch as the first parameter. With this we're able to access controller methods...like loadModel().
Why do we do it this way?
Well, we could use ClassRegistry::init('Model') in each of our component methods that need to use the model. If you have 10 methods in your component and only 1 of them uses the model this might work. However, what if you have 10 methods in your component and all 10 of them use the model? Well, you'd be calling ClassRegistry::init('Model') 10 times! That's a lot of overhead when what you really want is just 1 model object. With this method the component is creating one model object. The one we create in startup.
I hope this clarifies your questions and provides some insight into why I use this method for models in components.
Edit: Added a code clarification after I did some experimenting.
I think writing a component is overkill in this case and it would be cleaner to put the getEvents method into the Event model.
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.
Say I got two Controllers like this Table1sController, and Table2sController.
With corresponding models: Table1sModel, Table2sModel.
In the Table1sController, I got this:
$this->Table1sModel->action();
Say I want to access some data in Table2sModel.
How is it possible to do something like this in Table1sController?
I have tried this in Table1sController:
$this->Table2sModel->action();
But I received an error message like this:
Undefined property: Table1sController::$Table2sModel
There are a few ways to go here.
If your models have defined associations (hasMany, etc.), then you can access that model's methods (assuming you're in Model1Controller) with:
$this->Model1->Model2->method();
If there is no model association between the two models, but you want to be able to use the Model2's methods, you can add an entry in the $uses attribute of model1Controller. See http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/controllers.html#components-helpers-and-uses
Finally, if it's a transitory connection (you don't want the overhead of loading other models every time, because you're only rarely going to access model2), check out the manual's section on creating / destroying associations on the fly, at http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/associations-linking-models-together.html
Something is inherently wrong with what you are doing.
In any controller, you can specify $uses = array('Table1sModel', 'Table2sModel', 'LolModel') and use each Model you need in your controller. You are not calling another controller to access a Model. Models are for data access, you access the needed ones directly from any controller.
I understand, that many MVC examples are almost always show you one page of one controller with one model which is horribly wrong as 99% of the cases you have one site from one controller using many different parts of different models.
(If you really need to call an action, use $this-requestAction())