app/config/core.php

Place a salt value in Security.salt.  I suggest using the sha1 value on my password generator page.

You may want to increase Session.timeout beyond the default 2 minutes.

app/controller/users_controller.php

uses('sanitize');
class UsersController extends AppController {

    public $name = 'Users';
    public $components = array('Auth');

    function beforeFilter() {
        Security::setHash('sha1');
    }

    // The AuthComponent provides the needed functionality or login, so you can leave this function blank.
    function login() {
    }

    function logout() {
        $this->redirect($this->Auth->logout());
    }

}

Make sure you add Auth to the components array of any controller you plan to have any authentication on:

public $components = array('Auth');

Also you can specify which controller methods do not need authentication like this:

function beforeFilter() {
    $this->Auth->allow('index', 'results', 'animal', 'spotlight', 'breed');
}

app/model/

No model file is needed, but you need to create a database table with id, username, and password fields.  Any other fields will be paced in the Auth object (inside session), like this:

[Auth] => Array
        (
            [User] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 53
                    [first_name] => Aaron
                    [last_name] => Thies
                    [email] => athies@gmail.com
                    [username] => athies
                )

        )

You can find out what to set the password value in the users db table by using $this->Auth->password(’password’).  This caused me a lot of aggravation as I was just using SHA1(’password’).

You can tweak Auth using the various Auth methods outlined here: http://book.cakephp.org/view/172/authentication. These methods can be placed inside controller::beforeFilter().

app/views/users/login.ctp

if  ($session->check('Message.auth')) $session->flash('auth');

if ($session->check('Message.flash')) {
    $session->flash();
}

if ($session->check('Message.auth')) {
    $session->flash('auth');
}

echo $form->create('User', array('action' => 'login'));
echo $form->input('username');
echo $form->input('password');
echo $form->end('Login');

A Little Something More

During the course of getting Auth to work I learned this helpful hint.

If you ever produced this error, “Database table users for model User was not found.”, you can fix this by deleting everything in this folder: /app/tmp/cache/models

Usually I find the YUI components fairly easy to understand and implement. Not so with Autocomplete. After a lot of aggrivation I have it implemented. Hopefully my work here will save you the same time and hassel I experienced. The resource best resource I found was James Gardner’s YUI Autocomplete AJAX Select Dropdown with ID post.

VIEW:

link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/autocomplete/assets/skins/sam/autocomplete.css"
script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/yahoo-dom-event/yahoo-dom-event.js"
script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/get/get-min.js"
script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/connection/connection-min.js"
script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/animation/animation-min.js"
script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/json/json-min.js"
script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.5.2/build/autocomplete/autocomplete-min.js"

    label for="breed">Breed
        input id="breed_id" type="hidden" name="breed_id" />
        input id="breed" type="text" name="item" maxlength="50"/>
        div id="breedContainer">

    script type="text/javascript">
        var mySchema = ["ResultSet.Result","Name","ID"];
        var myDataSource = new YAHOO.widget.DS_XHR("/find_a_pet/breed", mySchema);
        myDataSource.responseType = YAHOO.widget.DS_XHR.TYPE_JSON;
        var myAutoComp = new YAHOO.widget.AutoComplete("breed", "breedContainer", myDataSource);

        // populate hidden field (id)
        function fnCallback(e, args) {
            YAHOO.util.Dom.get("breed_id").value = args[2][1];
         }
        myAutoComp.itemSelectEvent.subscribe(fnCallback);

        //myAutoComp.forceSelection = true;
        //myAutoComp.useIFrame = true;

CONTROLLER:

// directly execute... /find_a_pet/breed?query=labr
function breed() {
        $this->layout = null;

        $query = (ctype_print($_GET['query'])) ? $query = $_GET['query'] : $query = '';

        //if (!empty($query)) {
                $this->set('breed', $this->FindAPet->getBreed($query));
        //}
}

MODEL:

public function getBreed($query) {

    $sql = "SELECT id, name FROM breed WHERE name LIKE '" . Sanitize::escape($query) . "%' ORDER BY name";
    $model = $this->query($sql);

    $totalResultsReturned = $this->getAffectedRows(); // do this immediately after the query

    $sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM breed";
    $result = $this->query($sql);
    $totalResultsAvailable = $result[0][0]['count'];

    $json = '';

    $breed = array();
    foreach ($model as $entry) {
        $breed['Name'] = $entry['breed']['name'];
        $breed['ID'] = $entry['breed']['id'];
        $json .= json_encode($breed) . ",";
    }
    $json = substr($json, 0, strlen($json)-1);

    $json = '{"ResultSet": {"totalResultsAvailable":"' . $totalResultsAvailable . '","totalResultsReturned":' . $totalResultsReturned . ',"firstResultPosition":1,"Result": [' . $json . ']}}';

    return $json;
}

Missing data in beforeValidate()

If you are submitting a form and the data is not visible in model::beforevalidate(), then you can solve this by adding $this->Model->data = $this->data in the controller before validates(). Once you do this you can use $this->data in beforevalidate().

function admin_add() {

       if (!empty($this->data)) {

               $this->FindAPet->data = $this->data;

               if ($this->FindAPet->validates()) {
                       $this->FindAPet->save();

Routing for Static Pages

I payed extra to get a DVD of my flight. There are two rounds of flying, and then I kept in the instructor demo at the end. While waiting for the DVDs for our “flight class” to burn we sat outside a crowded In and Out Burger eating our fries (only good if you eat them soon after purchase) and the grilled cheese (a cheeseburger without the meat - it is not on the menu, but all stores know what if is if you ask). We witnessed and honest to goodness drug deal go down - do drug dealers read blogs? An expensive car, far too nice for the two punk teenagers driving, pulled up to the curb. The table next to us had three guys handing out. The table asked “are you parking?” “Yeah”, then someone from the table did the stereotypical lead on the car door and I saw his cupped hand slip over the car door, and draw back slyly. I spotted an extremely white something in his hand before it disappeared into the car. The passenger kid leaned forward for a minute before his head appeared again and settled into an extreme recline before they drove off.

After the rush of indoor skydiving, the drug deal was altogether humorous, sad, and surreal.

A small additional thought.  I was recently at the DMV to obtain a CA driver’s license and register my car in CA.  I have hear several proposals for why you do not need a car for the benefit of the environment.  How about getting rid of your car for your own sanity; no longer having to deal with the DMV?

• Contact Model
• Contact View
• Contact Controller

controller:

$this->Session->setFlash('your email is coming');

view:

if ($session->check('Message.flash')) {
  $session->flash();
}

Note: You do not have to include Session in your component list in your controller for this to work. Also, you may want to place the $session->flash() code in your layout instead of in various views.

Happy Cake’n

UPDATE

It was not clear to me how to use the flash method, but here it is:

$this->flash(’The animal has been modified.’, ‘/find_a_pet/search’, 3);

The first parameter is the message.

The second parameter is the url to redirect the user.

The third paramete is the number of seconds before redirecting.

pr($this->Model->schema());
exit();

Now, in your model without a real database table you defined the schema like this:

var $_schema = array(

  'firstName' => array('type' => 'string',

        'length' => 30),

  'lastName' => array('type' => 'string',

        'length' => 30),

  'email' => array('type' => 'string',

        'length' => 30),

  'msg' => array('type' => 'text')

);

Now you can create validation rules in your model as normal (future post on this once I am confident).

One other note before I defined a schema I was given an “excessive memory” error.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 41943040 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 35 bytes) in XXX/cake/libs/debugger.php on line 414

… when adding $form->create() to my view. This error reports the problem on some line of debugger.php. Once you comment out this line (and maybe a few more it will report) you will see an error…

Warning (512): (FormHelper::create) Unable to use model field data. If you are using a model without a database table, try implementing schema() [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/form.php, line 124]
Warning (512): (Model::getColumnType) Unable to locate model field data. If you are using a model without a database table, try implementing schema() [CORE/cake/libs/model/model.php, line 959]

I hope this saves someone the time it took me to solve this issue. Happy Cake’n.

Localization and Internationalization

What is the difference? Localization refers to the ADAPTATION of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a “locale”). Internationalization is the DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT of a product, application or document content that ENABLES easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.

• http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-i18n
• “internationalization” and “localization” are often abbreviated as i18n and l10n respectively; 18 and 10 are the number of characters between the first and last character.

How to Use Localization

1. Include l10n Class

   uses('L10n');
   
   class OrderController extends AppController {
   
   ...
   
   }

2. Create Language File Specific language translations are placed here:

   locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/default.po (English)
   
   locale/fre/LC_MESSAGES/default.po (French)

   Language directories must be named with the official three-digit language code; you can find these here: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php

3. Populate Language file Create entries in the appropriate default.po file in this form:

   msgid  "close_window"
   
   msgstr "Close"
   
   msgid  "where_pin"
   
   msgstr "Where is my PIN?"

   There is a limit of 1014 characters in a single msgstr.

4. Using Use the underscore-underscore method, providing the msgid as the first parameter.

   __("closeWindow");
   
   __("closeWindow", true);

   If the msgid provided is not found, then the provided value id used, hence some people like to use the default text as the msgid:

   __("Close Window");

   With the second parameter as true the value is returns, without the second parameter is echo’d. If you see your msgid on your page instead of cooresponding msgstr, and the msgid/msgstr pair exists in the relevant default.po file, then you probably are missing dbouel quotes around the msgid or msgstr entry.

5. Selecting Language To select the language you want:

   $this->L10n = new L10n();$this->L10n->get("en");
   
   $_SESSION['Config']['language'] = "en";

   Use the first two-digits of the language code (yes, I know it is weird to use two-digits here and three-digits as the language directory name). Configure::write(’Config.language’, “en”) will work in place of $_SESSION['Config']['language'] = “en” in the future, but it does not work as of 1.2.0.4798alpha.

Real-Life Implementation Example

I created a language helper method:

public function setLang($language = 'en') {

$this->L10n = new L10n();

$this->L10n->get($language);

//Configure::write('Config.language', $language);

$_SESSION['Config']['language'] = $language;
}

Then I use it in my controller methods as needed.

function balance() {

Utility::setLang(LOCALE);

...

}

And LOCALE is a constant = “en”.

Special Characters

Save the default.po files with an encoding of ISO-8859-1 htmlentities will not render correctly if when used in $form->error() unless you turn off the espcae option:

echo $form->error('Card.cardNumber',

__("errorCardNumber", true),

array('escape' => false));