Medication Adherence

Multi-language Support

2012-07-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

To allow your application to appear in multiple languages, first change all displayable text to utilize the

__() function. For example, for echoed text like the following:
echo 'This text';
Replace it with the following:
__('This text');
For variables, such as the following:
$directions = array('N' => 'North', 'S' => 'South', 'E' => 'East', 'W' => 'West');
Replace it with the following:
$directions = array('N' => __('North', true), 'S' => __('South', true), 'E' => __('East', true), 'W' => __('West', true));

Then build your /app/locale/default.pot file using the console
# cd /app
# /cake/console/cake i18n extract
Accept default options and the file is created.

Edit the /app/locale/default.pot with a program like Poedit, add your translations, then save the file in the appropriate directory as a catalog (.po file) e.g. /app/locale/spa/LC_MESSAGES/default.po

Be sure to re-extract and update the .pot and catalog files every time you add new text to your application.

To add a language to the beginning of each path add the following to your /app/config/routes.php:
  /* For internationalization */
  Router::connect('/:language/:controller/:action/*', array(), array('language' => '[a-z]{3}'));

To specify a default language, add the following to your /app/config/core.php and add the following lines:
  /* For internationalization */
  Configure::write('Config.language', 'eng');

Now to create a language switching link use the following:
  echo $this->Html->link('Español', array('language' => 'spa'));

Ensure Cookies and Session components are loaded and put the following functions in the /app/app_controller.php:
var $components = array('Session', 'Cookie');
 
function beforeFilter() {
  $this->_setLanguage();
}

function _setLanguage() {
  if ($this->Cookie->read('lang') && !$this->Session->check('Config.language')) {
    $this->Session->write('Config.language', $this->Cookie->read('lang'));
  }
  else if (isset($this->params['language']) && ($this->params['language'] !=  $this->Session->read('Config.language'))) {
    $this->Session->write('Config.language', $this->params['language']);
    $this->Cookie->write('lang', $this->params['language'], false, '20 days');
  }
}

Lastly, create the /app/app_helper.php file
params['language'])) {
      $url['language'] = $this->params['language'];
    }
    return parent::url($url, $full);
  }
}
?>



Form Helper
2012-03-12T15:00:00.005-07:00
When using the Form helper to create a form, there are some options you can utilize to make your forms better.

Radio
The following form radio selection is named 'Radio name' and lists two options, 'label1' and 'label2', with 'label1' selected by default.
echo $this->Form->input('Radio name', array('type' => 'radio', 'legend' => false, 'options' => array('value1' => 'label1', 'value2' => 'label2'), 'default' => 'value1')); 

Selection
The following form selection displays a select box with 4 directions and their corresponding single letter values and includes an empty first selection and a default selection of West.
$dirs = array('N' => 'North', 'E' => 'East', 'S' => 'South', 'W' => 'West');
echo $this->Form->input('street_dir', array('label' => __('Direction', true), 'type' => 'select', 'options' => $dirs, 'empty' => true, 'default' => 'W'));


Database Configuration for MSSQL
2011-09-23T15:41:00.007-07:00
If you are connecting to a MSSQL database, first ensure that your php-mssql package is installed. A simple command can show you this:
$ rpm -qa | grep php-mssql
The output should look something like this:
php-mssql-5.3.8-4.el6.remi.x86_64
Next check that freetds is installed.
$ rpm -qa | grep freetds
The output should look something like this:
freetds-0.82-6.el6.x86_64
You should now be able to connect to your MSSQL database directly from the command line. Make sure to replace the server, user and password with valid information.
$ /usr/bin/tsql -S [mssql.servername.or.ip] -U [ValidUser]
locale is "en-US.UTF-8"
locale charset is "UTF-8"
Password: [password]
1>
Enter "quit" to exit your successful connection. If the tsql command doesn't return the 1> prompt, verify that you can get to your MSSQL server with the following command:
ssh [mssql.servername.or.ip] -p 1433
Also verify that your username and password are valid.


At this point you can set your database configuration to connect to the database.
    var $default = array(
        'driver' => 'mssql',
        'persistent' => false,
        'host' => 'mssql.server.or.ip',
        'login' => 'username',
        'password' => 'password',
        'database' => 'database',
        'prefix' => ''
    );
Through much trial and error I've discovered that if you connect directly to the server in this manner some commands, such as mssql_bind, mssql_execute, and mssql_init don't work. Now you could setup and execute stored procedure commands through mssql_query this isn't as secure.

Instead, set up a freetds configuration for the server, connect with that instead, and the commands will now work fine.

Edit /etc/freetds.conf and add the following block:
[ServerIdentifier]
        host = [mssql.servername.or.ip]
        port = 1433
        tds version = 8.0
Then use the ServerIdentifier you chose instead of the server name or ip in the database configuration host variable and you're all set.


Multiple Applications, One Cake (or more)
2011-09-19T21:24:00.007-07:00
With running multiple CakePHP applications, keeping them all up to date with the latest security fixes can be an issue. Instead of having to update each one individually, having a shared cake installation can be beneficial.



While there are many different methods of doing this, I couldn't get any of the ones I tried to work. So I deconstructed the process and made it VERY simple and functional. Obviously since we are using symlinks this is applicable only on Linux.



Step 1: Extract CakePHP to where you want your application to reside. e.g. /var/www/html/myApp/

Step 2: Extract CakePHP to where you want your Cake to reside. For ease in updating, I named mine the same as the version number. e.g. /var/www/cakephp-1.3.11

Step 3: While unnecessary, I found it convenient to create a symlink to the cake directory named 'cake', otherwise you have to either name your cake folder the same every update, or update all your application symlinks $ ln -s /var/www/cakephp-1.3.11 /var/www/cake
Step 4: Delete the cake directory in your application. $ rm -fr /var/www/html/myApp/cake
Step 5: Create a symlink in the application folder to the shared cake folder. $ ln -s /var/www/cake/cake /var/www/html/myApp/cake

Now any application that has that symlink in it instead of the cake folder will use the shared folder. Update the shared folder once, all applications that are sharing it get updated.

Step 1: Extract new version of cake to same directory as old version of cake. e.g. /var/www/cakephp-1.3.12

Step 2: Update your shared simple symlink to the new directory $ ln -f -s /var/www/cakephp-1.3.12 /var/www/cake
That easy.



If you want to have an application use an older version of Cake, just install it in the application itself as normal, OR install it next to the other version and change the symlink in the app folder to match the different version of cake.

Step 1: Extract different version of cake for sharing. e.g. /var/www/cakephp-2.0.0-RC2

Step 2: Update your application's symlink to the new directory $ ln -f -s /var/www/cakephp-2.0.0-RC2/cake /var/www/html/my2.0App/cake


Database Configuration for Oracle
2011-09-13T14:41:00.003-07:00
If you are connecting to an Oracle database, first ensure that your php_oci8 extension is installed. A simple php page can show you this:
<?php
  phpinfo();
?>
View the page and you should see a heading "OCI8" and it should tell you the version and if it is enabled.

Next ensure you can talk to the database. Another simple php file can do this for you. This page will list all tables in the database (code from Oracle's website)
<?php
  $conn = oci_connect('username', 'password', 'host/database');
  $stid = oci_parse($conn, 'select table_name from user_tables');
  oci_execute($stid);
  echo "\n";
  while (($row = oci_fetch_array($stid, OCI_ASSOC+OCI_RETURN_NULLS)) != false) {
    echo "\n";
    foreach ($row as $item) {
      echo '  \n";
    }
    echo "\n";
  }
  echo ''.($item !== null ? htmlentities($item, ENT_QUOTES) : ' ')."';
?>

Now that you know you can access your Oracle database via php, configure your CakePHP connection. Edit /app/config/database.php
var $default = array(
  'driver' => 'oracle',
  'connect' => 'oci_connect',
  'persistent' => false,
  'host' => 'host',
  'port' => 1521,
  'login' => 'username',
  'password' => 'password',
  'database' => 'host:1521/database',
  'prefix' => '',
);

And that's all there is to it.


Reset Forgotten Password
2011-08-08T11:35:00.008-07:00
For a secure application one issue that will arise repeatedly is users forgetting their passwords. One method of correcting this is to allow users to reset their passwords by submitting their email address. Since the new password will be only be sent to a valid email address, only the appropriate user will know the new password.



For applications open to the public this method is not advised since anyone could possibly find a valid user email address and spam them with reset passwords.



First create the form /app/views/users/forgot.ctp
<h2>Forgot Password</h2>
<p>Submit your email address and a new password will be emailed to you.</p>
<?php
    echo $form->create('User');
    echo $form->input('email');
    echo $form->end('Send Password');
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById('UserEmail').focus()
</script>
Next edit your Users controller at /app/controllers/users_controller.php and add the forgot function.
    function forgot(){
        if(!empty($this->data)){
            $user = $this->User->findByEmail($this->data['User']['email']);
            if($user){
                $user['User']['password'] = $this->__generatePassword();
                // Since my users model requires a confirm_password to match the password on update, it is required here
                // See http://drug-ed.blogspot.com/2011/08/authentication-and-passwords.html
                $user['User']['confirm_password'] = $user['User']['password'];
                if ($this->__sendEmail($user['User']['email'], 'New Password', $user['User'], 'newpass')) {
                    if ($this->User->save($user['User'], array('fieldList' => array('password')))) {
                        $this->Session->setFlash(__('An email has been sent with your new password.', true));
                        $this->redirect(array('action' => 'login'));
                    } else {
                        $this->Session->setFlash(__('The password cound not be saved. Please try again.', true));
                    }
                } else {
                    $this->Session->setFlash(__('The email could not be sent. Please try again.', true));
                }
            } else {
                $this->Session->setFlash('User could not be found.');
            }
        }
    }
My __sendEmail() function above is described in detail here.
Here is my __generatePassword function. Feel free to use it or create your own.
    function __generatePassword($length = 8){
        $characters = 'abcdefghijklmnpqrstuvwxyz';
        $numbers = '123456789'; // No 0 or O so as not to confuse
        $more = '!@#$%^&_+=-';
        $password = '';
        $alt = time();
        for($i = 0; $i <= $length; $i++){
            $alt += rand() % 10;
            if($alt % 3 == 1){
                if($alt % 2 == 1){
                    $password .= strtoupper($characters[(rand() % strlen($characters))]);
                } else {
                    $password .= $characters[(rand() % strlen($characters))];
                }
            } elseif($alt % 3 == 2){
                $password .= $numbers[(rand() % strlen($numbers))];       
            } else {
                $password .= $more[(rand() % strlen($more))];       
            }
        }
        return $password;
    }
Lastly, create your email templates. They can be quite simple. /app/views/elements/email/text/newpass.ctp
A new password has been requested for the account: <?php echo $data['username'].'.'.PHP_EOL.PHP_EOL; ?>
Your new password is: <?php echo $data['password'].PHP_EOL.PHP_EOL; ?>
Please use this password to log in, then you can change your password by clicking "Change Password."
Since the email is sent before saving, the password isn't hashed yet and will be visible to the user.



Lastly, ensure that you allow access to the /users/forgot view by editing /app/app_controller.php and add 'forgot' to your $this->Auth->allow() line.


Sending Email
2011-08-05T17:31:00.004-07:00
Sending email in CakePHP is quite simple, however, it can be simpler, especially if you want to follow the DRY methodology.

In the controller you want to send email from simply add the following function:
    function __sendEmail($to, $subject, $data, $template, $cc = false){
        $this->Email->reset();
        $this->Email->from = 'Your Name Here<your@email.here>';
        $this->Email->replyTo = 'your@email.here';
        $this->Email->additionalParams = '-fyour@email.here';
        $this->Email->sendAs = 'both';
        $this->Email->template = $template;
        $this->Email->subject = $subject;
        $this->Email->to = $to;
        if($cc) $this->Email->cc = array($cc);
        $this->set('data', $data);
        if ($this->Email->send()) {
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }    
    }
Now you can call it with a single line:
$this->__sendEmail('to@email.here', 'Subject', $data, 'templateName', 'cc@email.here'));


More Validation Tips and Tricks
2011-08-03T10:47:00.003-07:00
A good shortcut when creating Validation rules is to use the desired message as the key name. CakePHP will automatically use the key name as the error message in the absence of an explicit message.
    var $validate = array(
        'username' => array(
            'Username must contain only letters and numbers' => array(
                'rule' => '/^[a-z0-9]{3,}$/i',
                'required' => true
            ),
            'This username is already taken' => array(
                'rule' => 'isUnique'
            ),
            'Username must be at least 5 characters' => array(
                'rule' => array('minlength', 5),
            ) 
        )
    );


Authentication and Passwords
2011-08-02T17:50:00.007-07:00
One issue that will pop up is trying to add or edit users with Authentication enabled. Validation won't work properly on the password field because Authentication will hash the password BEFORE it attempts to validate. For example checking for a minimum length will always succeed regardless of the actual password because SHA1 hashed passwords will always be 40 characters.



One method around this is performing the hashing manually. To do this you have to tell your users controller you want to perform your own hashing. Edit /app/controllers/users_controller.php and add the following function:
    function beforeFilter(){
        parent::beforeFilter();
        if($this->action == 'add' || $this->action == 'edit' || $this->action == 'password'){
            $this->Auth->authenticate = $this->User;
        }
    }
Now when you are using the add or edit actions authentication is done manually. You'll see why the action password is in there later.


Next edit the users model /app/model/users.php and add the following functions:
    function hashPasswords($data, $enforce=false) {
        if($enforce && isset($this->data[$this->alias]['password'])) {
            if(!empty($this->data[$this->alias]['password'])) {
                $this->data[$this->alias]['password'] = Security::hash($this->data[$this->alias]['password'], null, true);
            }
        }
        return $data;
    }

    function beforeSave() {
        $this->hashPasswords(null, true);
        return true;
    }Now your users model will hash the passwords before save, allowing validation to take place first.



Another problem, however, is when editing a user, the hashed password is used in the password field of the form and becomes hashed again on save, actually changing the password! I'm surprised this issue isn't addressed in the core of CakePHP.



One way around this is to modify your edit view to clear the password field of the hashed password. Edit /app/views/users/edit.ctp and change this
    echo $this->Form->input('password'); to this
    echo $this->Form->input('password', array('value' => '')); This will require you to enter a password every time you edit the user because your validation is set to require 5 characters in the password field.



So to get around that simply remove the password field from your edit form. You can also remove the edit action from your beforeFilter function in the users controller. Now you can edit the user without worrying about the password.



Then, to edit the password create a password function in your controller and a separate view. Edit /app/controllers/users_controller.php and add this function:
    function password($id = null){
        /* Only edit own account unless admin */
        if(!$this->Auth->user('admin')){
            $id = $this->Auth->user('id');
        }    
        if (!$id && empty($this->data)) {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('Invalid user', true));
            $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
        }
        if (!empty($this->data)) {
            if ($this->User->save($this->data, array('fieldList' => array('password')))) {
                $this->Session->setFlash(__('The password has been saved', true));
                $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
            } else {
                $this->Session->setFlash(__('The password could not be saved. Please, try again.', true));
            }
        }
        if (empty($this->data)) {
            $this->data = $this->User->read(null, $id);
            /* Don't display current hashed password */
            $this->data['User']['password'] = '';
        }
Now create /app/views/users/password.ctp
<div class="users form"> 
<?php echo $this->Form->create('User'); ?>
    <fieldset><legend>Change Password</legend>
    <?php
        echo $this->Form->hidden('id');
        echo $this->Form->input('password', array('label' => 'New Password'));
        echo $this->Form->input('confirm_password', array('type' => 'password'));
    ?>
    </fieldset>
    <?php echo $this->Form->end('Save Password'); ?>
</div>
Then modify your users model /app/models/user.php and add the following validation rules and functions:
        'password' => array(
            'Your password must be at least 5 characters' => array(
                'rule' => array('minlength', 5)
            ),
            'You must enter the same password twice' => array(
                'rule' => array('matchPasswords', 'confirm_password'),
                'on' => 'update'
            )
        ),
        'confirm_password' => array(
            'rule' => 'notEmpty'
        )

    function matchPasswords($data, $confirm_password){
        if ($data['password'] != $this->data[$this->alias][$confirm_password]) {
            $this->invalidate($confirm_password, 'You must enter the same password twice');
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }Set appropriate authentication as desired, upload the files and you should be all set.


Log Database Errors
2011-07-25T13:04:00.004-07:00
First read here: Catch database errors before it’s too late



It's as simple as adding an onError function to your app_model.php file, and whenever there is a database error, the error in the database will be logged in your CakePHP log.



Edit /app/app_model.php and add the following function:
    public function onError() {
        $db = ConnectionManager::getDataSource('default');
        $err = $db->lastError();
        $this->log($err);
        $this->log($this->data);
    }


Simple Form Security
2011-07-25T12:42:00.003-07:00
First read this post: Make your CakePHP forms a lot more secure



The nuts and bolts of it is that by simply adding the Security component, it will automatically add a hash to all your forms and if someone tries modifying your form, it won't work.



And you can implment it as easy as this: Edit /app/app_controller.php and change the var $components line to include Security like this:     var $components = array('Auth', 'Security', 'Session');


Stylesheets and Print Stylesheet
2011-07-25T12:20:00.004-07:00
Adding a stylesheet to your site is as simple as changing the default layout.



Open /app/views/layouts/default.ctp and within the first 10 lines of the page is the line echo $this->Html->css('cake.generic');
 Cake comes with a default style in /app/webroot/css/cake.generic.css which you can edit until your heart's content. Or you can create your own stylesheet and put it into the same folder and change that line to direct your pages to the new style. Observe how the .css extension is not included in the cake function call.



For a Print Stylesheet, it is a little different. To set a print stylesheet you need to set the options to include the media type.
echo $this->Html->css('cake.print', 'stylesheet', array('media' => 'print'));


Validation Tips and Tricks
2011-07-14T09:58:00.005-07:00
When using validation, as mentioned previously, there are some tricks to automatically adding the class required to your form fields. Any validation rule that has minlength works. So a short, simple rule to just ensure the required class is added to the field label could look something like this:
    var $validate = array(
        'field_name' => array(
            'rule' => array('minlength', 1)
        )
    );
If you want to require user input but don't care about the required class for your labels, you can actually use something as simple as this:
    var $validate = array(
        'field_name' => 'notEmpty'
    );
If you expand that to the following code, however, you will also get the required class for your field label.
    var $validate = array(
        'field_name' => array(
            'rule' => 'notEmpty'
        )
    );
This is very useful when you want the required class for select fields.


Model: User: Display Name
2011-07-13T17:18:00.006-07:00
When adding a record that has a relationship of "belongs to" with another table as mentioned previously, CakePHP automatically lists the records of the other table using the display name of that model. By default that display name field is "name". However, if your field doesn't have a "name" field, such as the Users table, you can specify the display name manually in the model.



Edit app/models/user.php and add the following line:
    var $displayField = 'username';
This does not support multiple fields, for example if you wanted to combine first_name and last_name. In order to do this you need to use virtualFields in your model. Virtual fields allow you to access a created field, but you cannot save it.



Edit app/models/user.php and add the following line:
    var $virtualFields = array( 'full_name' => "CONCAT(User.first_name, ' ', User.last_name)");
 then change the display field from username to full_name.


Home Page
2010-11-10T17:44:00.007-07:00
While you can route your home page to a controller and action as we did previously, you may prefer to have a separate page set up as the leading page into your site. A good practice is to create a homepage controller and view to use as the main page to your site, this way all of the other controllers and views are tied specifically and only to the model to which they belong.



First create /app/controllers/homepages_controller.php
<?php
class HomepagesController extends AppController {

}
?>
Since the home page controller does not have an associated model, if we wanted to access any data we would define the models we want to access with the $uses variable. If the models are associated, such as our "User" model and "Carrier" model, it may not be necessary to include both, but if they are not related, such as the "Drug" model, but you want to include data from that table, you need to include both.
var $uses = array('User', 'Drug');
In our case we won't be using any data for the home page at this time so we need to create an empty array. We'll also need to create an index method.
var $uses = array();

function index() {
    $this->set('title_for_layout', 'Drug-Ed.com : Drug Education and Medication Adherence');
}
Next we need to create the home page view so create /app/views/homepages/index.ctp For now we'll leave this blank.



And the last thing we need to do is change our routing to go to the home page instead of the previously set up users page.



Edit /app/config/routes.php and replace
    Router::connect('/', array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'index'));
 with     Router::connect('/', array('controller'=>'homepages', 'action'=>'index'));
Now browse to http://drug-ed.com/ and verify it goes to the homepages index.


Form Focus
2010-11-10T17:00:00.003-07:00
One thing I find annoying on web pages is when there is a form you are expected to fill out, such as a login form, and the focus is not on the first field.



Edit /app/views/users/login.ctp and add to the bottom of the page:
<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById('UserUsername').focus() 
</script>
Save and upload the file then browse to http://drug-ed.com/users/login and verify the username field has focus.


More Authentication
2010-11-10T16:17:00.009-07:00
While most of the default settings for the Auth component are good enough, there are many things you can add and change to allow more flexibility. If the default setting (as seen in the examples below) is good enough, you don't need to add the code at all.



By default the Auth component uses the Security class for hashing the password and the Security class uses SHA1 for hashing. The Auth component automatically performs the hashing for password verification and user creation as long as there are both username and password fields.



As mentioned previously, these settings can go into the specific controllers, or in the app controller for use with all controllers.



You can use change the hashing method for the Security class as follows:
Security::setHash('md5'); // or sha256 or sha1 (default)
For the error message on invalid login use loginError.
$this->Auth->loginError = "Login failed. Invalid username or password.";
For the error message when trying to access a protected page use authError.
$this->Auth->authError = "You are not authorized to access that location.";
While the Auth component remembers what page you were trying to access before logging in, if you enter the site from an external link for example you can set what URL the user goes to after login, you can also set the URL after logout.
$this->Auth->loginRedirect = array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'index');
$this->Auth->logoutRedirect = array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'login');


Authentication
2010-11-10T15:21:00.017-07:00
To set up a user login system for your CakePHP application, Cake comes with an authentication component built in. The Auth component requires a "user" table in the database with at least the fields of "username" and "password". Though they don't have to be named exactly that, it makes everything easier.



The first thing you need to do is to add the Auth component to your controllers. Since typically you want all your controllers to utilize the Auth component, it is best to create an App controller and include it in there.



Create /app/app_controller.php
<?php
class AppController extends Controller{
    var $components = array('Auth');
}
?>If at any time you encounter trouble with your authentication, comment out this line to turn it off.



NOTE: When you explicitly define your components, you disable the default components in CakePHP, such as Session so if you want to use the session component, be sure to explicitly define it in your array.
    var $components = array('Auth','Session');
The next requirement is to have login() and logout methods in your users controller.



Exit /app/controllers/users_controller.php and add the login and logout methods as below.
    function login() {
        $this->set('title_for_layout', 'Login');
        /* If user is already logged in, redirect */
        if ($this->Auth->user()) {
            $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirect());
        }
    }

    function logout() {
        $this->redirect($this->Auth->logout());
    }
The last requirement is the view for the login action of the users controller.



Create /app/views/users/login.ctp
<?php
    echo $session->flash('auth');
    echo $form->create('User', array('action' => 'login'));
    echo $form->input('username');
    echo $form->input('password');
    echo $form->end('Login');
?>
The login view uses the form helper to create a form allowing entry of the username and password.



In a controller, the beforeFilter() method is called automatically before any other controller action. This is where you define the settings for your Auth component.



Edit /app/app_controller.php and add the beforeFilter method below.
function beforeFilter() {
    /* Set username and password fields if not using default 'username' and 'password' */
    $this->Auth->fields = array('username' => 'email', 'password' => 'password');
    /* What actions are allowed without authentication */
    $this->Auth->allow('*'); // Allow all defined methods
}
By default, the Auth component only allows the login and logout methods. Allowing all actions will allow you to create a user and set the password so you will be able to login once you lock the site down.



If you are still using scaffolding at this point however, scaffold methods are not allowed without being explicitly defined.



Edit /app/app_controller.php and change the $this->Auth->allow() command as follows:
    $this->Auth->allow('*', 'add');
Browse to http://drug-ed.com/users/add/ and create a new user with a properly hashed password so you can login.



Edit /app/app_controller.php and comment out the $this->Auth->allow() command to prevent all access to the site unless signed in. Browse to any page then login it verify it works.



If you are not allowing all actions and are explicitly defining the actions you are allowing, remember that for static pages the default action is 'display' and is required for authorization to view those pages.


Pagination
2010-11-09T20:55:00.006-07:00
With a short list of records, the basic view is good enough, however, once the number of records exceeds 50 or so, it is helpful to use CakePHP's built in pagination to display pages on multiple pages.

First edit /app/controllers/users_controller.php and replace this line
$this->set('users',$this->User->find('all'));with this one
$this->set('users', $this->paginate());
Save and upload the file. Now if you browse to http://drug-ed.com/ it still works because the data pulled from the database is the same, we just haven't taken advantage of the pagination features yet.

Edit /app/views/users/index.ctp and replace
    <th>ID</th>
    <th>Username</th>
    <th>First Name</th>
    <th>Last Name</th>
    <th>Email</th>with
    <th><?php echo $this->Paginator->sort('id');?></th>
    <th><?php echo $this->Paginator->sort('username');?></th>
    <th><?php echo $this->Paginator->sort('first_name');?></th>
    <th><?php echo $this->Paginator->sort('last_name');?></th>
    <th><?php echo $this->Paginator->sort('email');?></th>Then after the users table within the users division add
    <p>
    <?php
        echo $this->Paginator->counter(array('format' => __('Page %page% of %pages%, showing %current% records out of %count% total, starting on record %start%, ending on %end%', true)));
    ?>
    </p>
    <div class="paging">
        <?php echo $this->Paginator->prev('<< ' . __('previous', true), array(), null, array('class'=>'disabled'));?>
        | <?php echo $this->Paginator->numbers();?>
        | <?php echo $this->Paginator->next(__('next', true) . ' >>', array(), null, array('class' => 'disabled'));?>
    </div>
Save and upload the file then browse to http://drug-ed.com/ to verify that it works. You can now click on the headers of each column to sort the users, as well as view them on multiple pages, though it requires more than 20 records for a new page.


Elements
2010-11-09T20:43:00.010-07:00
Elements are HTML elements that you will use repeatedly within different views. You create the element then include it within your view code. They are stored within the /app/views/elements/ directory.



Create /app/views/elements/banner.ctp
<?php
echo "<div class=\"clear centerText\">
<script type=\"text/javascript\"><!--
google_ad_client = \"pub-9280152324836673\";
google_ad_slot = \"5630351766\";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
</script>
<script type=\"text/javascript\"
src=\"http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js\">
</script></div>";
?>
Save and upload the file then edit /app/views/users/index.ctp
Add the following line at the bottom of the file:
<?php echo $this->element('banner'); ?>
Save and upload the file then browse to http://drug-ed.com/ to verify it works. Since the element only exists on the /app/views/users/index.ctp page, it will only appear on that page. If you include the element on the /app/views/layouts/default.ctp page, it will display on every page.



Remove that line from the bottom of /app/views/users/index.ctp and add it to the "footer" div of the /app/views/layouts/default.ctp page.


Static Pages
2010-11-09T20:02:00.009-07:00
Not all pages in your site will be dynamic. Some pages, such as an "About" page, will be static and CakePHP has a Pages controller for just that purpose. The pages controller is located by default in /cake/libs/controllers/pages_controller.php If you need to edit it for any reason, copy the file to /app/controllers/



Static pages are stored in /app/views/pages/ and displayed using the display action. By default they are addressed using site root/pages/page name.



Create any static pages with the .ctp extension and include any html formatting you want in your page.



Create /app/views/pages/about.ctp
<?php $this->set("title_for_layout", 'About Drug-ed.com'); ?>
<h2>About Drug-Ed.com</h2>
<p>Drug-Ed.com is a free drug education and medication reminder service for your daily medication needs. Set up your drug schedule online and have reminders emailed to you or texted to your mobile phone daily. We want to make taking your medication as easy and hassle free as possible.</p>
Remember when I said we should change the page title in the controller? Well with static pages it is easier to just set them in the page itself.



Save and upload the file then browse to http://drug-ed.com/pages/about



When using the HTML helper to create links to static pages remember that pages is the controller and display is the action so they either must be explicitly declared, or create a hard link instead.
<?php echo $this->Html->link('Downloads', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action'=>'display', 'downloads')); ?>
<?php echo $this->Html->link('Downloads', '/pages/downloads'); ?>


Layout: Default
2010-11-09T18:56:00.006-07:00
Further changes to the default layout that we created previously will affect all page views, so develop your default layout with that in mind, putting elements on the page that you would like to be on every page of your site, such as a site logo, main navigation, and copyright notice.



First though, a word about images. Static image files for the site should go into the directory /app/webroot/img/ as this directory allows direct access to the images without processing through a controller and when using the HTML helper (see below) you don't have to remember the beginning path to the image.



The site "favicon.ico" file should go in the /app/webroot/ directory. There is a default file already there, so when you have an image for your site simply replace it.



Edit /app/views/layouts/default.ctp



Inside the "header" div at the top remove the line beginning with "<h1>" and add the following:
    <div class="logo"><?php echo $this->Html->link($this->Html->image('drug-ed-logo.png', array("alt" => "Drug-Ed.com")), Router::url('/'), array('escape' => false)); ?></div>
The Html Helper is included in CakePHP to make creating links and other Html elements easier to code dynamically. The default format for using a helper is with $this->HelperName. Observe in the above code that an image element is contained within an link element. Since the image is stored within the /app/webroot/img/ directory as mentioned above, the path to the image is not required since the helper automatically includes it.



If your Html helper link includes html entities, such as the above image, by default the code is escaped out. To turn that feature off and allow the html in the title to be displayed properly add the options array to the link function as above.



Save and upload the file then browse to site root to observe the changes.


Page Title
2010-11-09T18:16:00.008-07:00
From your home page observe the page title, it should be something like this:
"CakePHP: the rapid development php framework: Users"



The first part of the title is defined in the default layout. The layout predefines the wrapper HTML code of every page. This file is located in /cake/libs/view/layouts/default.ctp and before editing it you should move it to /app/views/layouts/default.ctp



Next, edit the page and remove the following line:
<?php __('CakePHP: the rapid development php framework:'); ?>
Upload the file and test it and your home page title should just read "Users".



Now click on the username and the title will read "Scaffold :: View :: Users"
While the default titles can be helpful, you will want to change them to reflect your site's method.



Edit /app/controllers/users_controller.php and for the first line in the index() method add the following:
$this->set("title_for_layout", 'Drug-ed.com : Drug Education and Medication Adherence');
Save the changes upload the file and test it at site root. This command will also work if you add it to /app/views/users/index.ctp, however, since you are modifying variables it is best practice to do it within the controller.


Routing
2010-11-09T17:57:00.005-07:00
By default, requests to your site root are routed by CakePHP to a home view, /apps/views/pages/home.ctp. By changing the routing, you can direct the request to any controller and action you choose.



Edit /app/config/routes.php
Comment out     Router::connect('/', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display', 'home'));Then add
    Router::connect('/', array('controller'=>'users', 'action'=>'index'));
Now browse to http://drug-ed.com/ and verify it goes to the users index.


Validate Model: User
2010-11-04T18:31:00.011-07:00
Rule 1: Never trust user input

Rule 2: When in doubt, see rule 1



For every model you should create a validate variable which will be used to validate input fields. For our user model we need to verify that username and email are unique on creation.



Since validation can be quite complex, building the validation variable one field at a time can be helpful. For full details on data validation see http://book.cakephp.org/view/1143/Data-Validation



Edit /app/models/user.php and add
    var $validate = array(
        'username' => array(
            'alphanumeric' => array(
                'rule' => '/^[a-z0-9]{3,}$/i',
                'required' => true,
                'message' => 'Username must contain only letters and numbers.'
            ),
            'unique' => array(
                'rule' => 'isUnique',
                'message' => 'This username is already taken.'
            ),
            'minlength' => array(
                'rule' => array('minlength', 5),
                'message' => 'Username must be at least 5 characters.'
            ) 
        )
    );
Upload the file then browse to http://drug-ed.com/users/add and observe how the "Username" field label is bolded and followed by a red asterisk helping to identify the required aspect of that field. Test your validation rule by trying a 2 letter username, or one composed of special characters.



Now that you are sure that field validation is working properly, add the next field.
Edit /app/models/user.php and add at the end of the validate array
        ),
        'email' => array(
            'email' => array(
                'rule' => 'email',
                'required' => true,
                'message' => 'You must enter a valid email address.'
            ),
            'unique' => array(
                'rule' => 'isUnique',
                'on' => 'create',
                'message' => 'This email address is already on record.'
            )
        )
    );
Notice the line 'on' => 'create' in the email validation. When editing a user the isUnique rule will fail because the user's email is already in the database! Changing it to only verify when you create an new user will prevent this problem.



Upload the file then browse to http://drug-ed.com/users/add to again verify it works as intended.