Cook up Web sites fast with CakePHP, Part 1:

Getting started
Quick and easy PHP rapid-development aid

Skill Level: Intermediate

Duane O'Brien ([email protected])

PHP developer
Freelance

21 Nov 2006

CakePHP is a stable production-ready, rapid-development aid for building Web sites

in PHP. This "Cook up Web sites fast with CakePHP" series shows you how to build
an online product catalog using CakePHP.

Section 1. Before you start

This "Cook up Web sites fast with CakePHP" tutorial series is designed for PHP
application developers who want to start using CakePHP to make their lives easier.
In the end, you will have learned how to install and configure CakePHP, the basics
of Model-View-Controller (MVC) design, how to validate user data in CakePHP, how
to use CakePHP helpers, and how to get an application up and running quickly using
CakePHP. It might sound like a lot to learn, but don't worry -- CakePHP does most of
it for you.

About this series

• Part 1 focuses on getting CakePHP up and running, and the basics of

how to put together a simple application allowing users to register for an
account and log in to the application.
• Part 2 demonstrates how to use scaffolding and Bake to get a jump start
on your application, and using CakePHP's access control lists (ACLs).
• Part 3 shows how to use Sanitize, a handy CakePHP class, which helps

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secure an application by cleaning up user-submitted data. Part 3 also

covers the CakePHP Security component, handling invalid requests and
other advanced request authentication.
• Part 4 focuses primarily on the Session component of CakePHP,
demonstrating three ways to save session data, as well as the Request
Handler component to help you manage multiple types of requests
(mobile browsers, requests containing XML or HTML, etc).
• And Part 5 deals with caching, specifically view and layout caching, which
can help reduce server resource consumption and speed up your
application.

About this tutorial

This tutorial shows you how to get started using CakePHP. You'll go through the
installation process, then get down and dirty by building the online product gallery.
And through it all, you'll see how much time you could have saved had you been
using CakePHP all along. This part of the tutorial builds the online product
application, Tor, which includes a "request dealership username and password"
page and a login page.

CakePHP topics include:

• MVC design
• Helpers
• CakePHP data validation

Prerequisites
It is assumed that you are familiar with the PHP programming language, have a
fundamental grasp of database design, and are comfortable getting your hands dirty.
A full grasp of the MVC design pattern is not necessary, as the fundamentals will be
covered during this tutorial. More than anything, you should be eager to learn, ready
to jump in, and anxious to speed up your development time.

System requirements
Before you begin, you need to have an environment in which you can work.
CakePHP has reasonably minimal server requirements:

1. An HTTP server that supports sessions (and preferably mod_rewrite).

This tutorial was written using Apache V1.3 with mod_rewrite enabled.

2. PHP V4.3.2 or later (including PHP V5). This tutorial was written using

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PHP V5.0.4

3. A supported database engine (currently MySQL, PostgreSQL or using a

wrapper around ADODB). This tutorial was written using MySQL V4.1.15.

You'll also need a database ready for your application to use. The tutorial will
provide syntax for creating any necessary tables in MySQL.

The simplest way to download CakePHP is to visit CakeForge.org and download the
latest stable version. This tutorial was written using V1.1.8. (Nightly builds and
copies straight from Subversion are also available. Details are in the CakePHP
Manual (see Resources).)

Section 2. Installation
CakePHP wants to make your life easier, regardless of your level of experience, by
making your applications easier to maintain and quicker to write. CakePHP is full of
cool and useful features. CakePHP wants to handle your Ajax, your data validation,
your sessions. It will even slice your bread if you can write a plug-into tell it how. But
you can't use CakePHP yet. You need to install it first.

Unpack and install

For the purpose of this tutorial, the entire CakePHP installation directory should be
unpacked within the webroot of your Web server. In Listing 1, the webroot is
/webroot.

Listing 1. Unpacking the CakePHP installation directory

unzip cake_1.1.8.3544.zip
cd cake_1.1.8.3544
mv * /webroot

Type ls -la /webroot to list the contents of the webroot and verify that the files
have been moved properly. The output should look something like Listing 2.

Listing 2. Output of the ls command

-r--r--r-- 1 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 139 May 22 07:30 .htaccess

-rw-r--r-- 1 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 617 Sep 21 15:42 VERSION.txt
drwxr-xr-x 10 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 app
drwxr-xr-x 6 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 cake
-rw-r--r-- 1 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 2666 May 25 15:12 index.php
drwxr-xr-x 2 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 vendors

The directory app/tmp needs to be writable by your Web server. Confirm the

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permissions on this folder by typing ls -l app. The output will probably look
similar to Listing 3.

Listing 3. Confirming the folder permissions

drwxr-xr-x 3 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 config

drwxr-xr-x 3 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 controllers
-rw-r--r-- 1 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 939 May 25 15:12 index.php
drwxr-xr-x 3 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 models
drwxr-xr-x 2 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 plugins
drwxr-xr-x 7 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 vendors
drwxr-xr-x 7 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 views
drwxr-xr-x 6 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 webroot

The simplest way to accomplish this is probably the most common and least secure:
give write permissions to everyone:

chmod 777 app/tmp

ls -l app

The permissions for the tmp folder should have been updated, as shown below:

drwxrwxrwx 7 YOURUSER YOURGROUP 4096 Sep 21 22:23 tmp

Giving write permissions to everyone is not recommended for general use. Ideally,
you should change the ownership of this folder to match the used that the Web
server uses, or add the user that the Web server uses to a the group for the
directory and add group write permissions. This tutorial is intended to demonstrate
how to use CakePHP and is not designed to be a guide for building secure
applications. While security should be at the head of any application development, a
full discussion of secure PHP practices is outside the scope of this tutorial.

For a production installation, change the webroot of the Web server to app/webroot,
which will minimize the amount of code accessible via the Web browser and help
enhance the security of your installation.

Validation 1
In a browser, go to the URL that corresponds with the webroot for your Web server.
For example, if you've installed CakePHP into the webroot of your localhost, go to
http://localhost; you should see the CakePHP default home page.

Figure 1. The CakePHP default home page as it should be seen

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Note: If the default home page looks more like Figure 2, then mod_rewrite is not
working the way CakePHP requires. This can sometimes be a problem for first-time
users.

Figure 2. The incorrect-looking home page

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Here are some things to verify.

Is your .htaccess file correct?

You should have gotten an .htaccess file in the CakePHP installation directory. On
most *nix systems, this will be hidden from view by default. If you do not have the
file, check the source you downloaded or get a fresh update from CakePHP.org.
Confirm that the file exists and is valid by going to the installation directory and
running cat .htaccess. This will display the file's contents, which should look like
Listing 4.

Listing 4. Confirming the that the .htaccess file exists

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

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Is mod_rewrite enabled for the server?

Make sure that mod_rewrite is enabled for your Web server. For Apache, there
are two different lines that should appear in the httpd.conf file. In the LoadModule list
you should see the following line (or something very close): LoadModule
rewrite_module libexec/mod_rewrite.so.

In the AddModule list, you should see this line (or something very close):
AddModule mod_rewrite.c.

If you cannot find these lines in your httpd.conf file, mod_rewrite is not enabled.
Consult your server documentation for details on how to do this.

Does the server allow .htaccess override?

Make sure your Web server is configured to allow .htaccess override. For Apache,
each directory should be defined in the httpd.conf file. These definitions can look
very different from installation to installation, but you should still see the line
AllowOverride All in the definition. Your definition might look something like Listing 5.

Listing 5. Definitions in the httpd.conf file

<Directory "/webroot">
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Consult your server documentation for more details about .htaccess override.

Configuring a database connection

Now that you've got CakePHP installed and on speaking terms with your Web
server, you need to introduce CakePHP to your database. This section will cover
setting up the database configuration and verifying that CakePHP likes your
database. Tor is going to need a place to store its user and product data. You'll be
soon be creating a users table to be used to build the login and registration parts of
Tor.

Editing the database configuration file

Setting up your database configuration is pretty darn easy, but before you start,
make sure your database server is running, that you have created a database for
your application, and that you have a username and password for a user with rights
to the database.

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To start, make a copy of the app/config/database.php.default file and save it as

app/config/database.php. Do this to preserve a copy of the original template. Open
the file in your favorite text editor and look for the following section (it should be just
near the bottom of the file):

Listing 6. The app/config/database.php.default file

var $default = array('driver' => 'mysql',

'connect' => 'mysql_connect',
'host' => 'localhost',
'login' => 'user',
'password' => 'password',
'database' => 'project_name',
'prefix' => );

Modify this information to fit your installation:

driver
This can be mysql, postgres, sqlite, adodb or pear-drivername. This
tutorial assumes mysql.

connect
This field tells CakePHP whether it should use persistent database
connections. For mysql, the options are mysql_pconnect (persistent) or
mysql_connect (not persistent).

host
This is the hostname of your database server, such as localhost or
mysql.yourdomain.com.

login
This is the username for your database login, such as dbuser.

password
This is the password for your database login, such as secretsecret.

database
This is the name of the database you wish to use, such as cakedev.

prefix
Prefix is a string, such as cp_, that is prepended to table names for any
database call made by CakePHP. Using a prefix may be necessary if the
database is shared among applications to keep tables from stepping on each
other where two or more applications want a table with the same name, such
as users.

Don't forget to save the file.

Any number of database configurations can be specified in database.php provided

they have distinct names. You can specify which database configuration the
application should use in the models.

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Some notes about databases and CakePHP:

• The tables must have a primary key named id.

• If you include a created or modified column in the table, CakePHP will
automatically populate the field when appropriate.
• Table names should be plural (users, products, eggs, sodas, winners,
losers). Their corresponding models will have singular names (user,
product, egg, soda, winner, loser).
• If tables are to be related, foreign keys should follow the format
table_id with singular table names. For example, user_id,
product_id, egg_id, soda_id, winner_id and loser_id would be
foreign keys for the table's user, product, egg, soda, winner, and loser.

Validation 2
Go back to the URL you used to validate the initial installation. You should see that
the CakePHP default home page has changed to indicate the status of your
database configuration.

Figure 3. CakePHP default home page has changed to indicate status of

database configuration

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If the default home page says the database configuration file is not present, you may
have put it in the wrong place or misnamed it. Make sure the database configuration
file is app/config/database.php. If the default home page says CakePHP is unable to
connect to the database, confirm that the connection information you entered is valid
and retry.

Creating the application tables

So now CakePHP, your Web server, and your database are all on speaking terms.
Time to roll up your sleeves and get to the real work. Tor needs a users table.

This table will contain the basic information necessary to identify and interact with a
user. A simple username and password field would probably suffice, but other
information can be useful, such as an e-mail address (for sending password reset
requests), first and last name (for personalization), and last login date (to help track
inactive accounts). You probably want your username and e-mail fields to be unique.
And don't forget the primary key ID field. The SQL to create your table might look
something like Listing 5.

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Listing 5. SQL to create your table

CREATE TABLE 'users' (

'id' INT( 10 ) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
'username' VARCHAR( 40 ) NOT NULL ,
'password' VARCHAR( 40 ) NOT NULL ,
'email' VARCHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL ,
'first_name' VARCHAR( 40 ) NOT NULL ,
'last_name' VARCHAR( 40 ) NOT NULL ,
PRIMARY KEY ('id`),
UNIQUE KEY 'username' ('username'),
UNIQUE KEY 'email' ('email')
) TYPE = MYISAM ;

Notice that the username, password, first_name, and last_name fields have a
maximum character length of 40. We will enforce this character length in the user
model. The 40-character maximum length, in this case, is entirely arbitrary.

Section 3. MVC design

It's common enough at this point to jump in and start cranking out code based on
what the application is intended to do. A login page, a database, registration -- BAM!
Simple enough. And it usually is. Until you want to change how it looks, how it
interacts with the database, change validation rules, or change essentially anything
about the application at all. Then things start to get complicated.

CakePHP is designed to make writing the application as easy as possible, while

giving you something you can maintain long-term. Tor will be built using the MVC
design pattern. The tutorial will show you how. CakePHP will show you how it can be
easy. You'll see for yourself why it makes sense.

The MVC design pattern breaks an application into three distinct layers: handling
Data, UI and Logic, respectively. MVC was first described in the book Design
Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, also known as the "Gang
Of Four" book. A full discussion of design patterns and MVC is outside the scope of
this tutorial, but it will be helpful to touch on what the three pieces mean --
specifically, in the CakePHP world.

Model
Users, products, prices, messages -- when you boil it all down, it's all just data. You
make sure the data is what you want, it goes into a database, then you have to get it
back out. It will be useful for all the data-handling aspects of Tor to live in one place.
That where model comes in.

Model is primarily concerned with handling data. Getting data from a database,
inserting data into a database, validating data -- all of this takes place within the

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model.

An individual model typically is used to access a specific table in the database.

Generally, a model will associate to a database table if the table name is a plural
form of the model name. For example, a Product model will, by default, associate to
a Products table.

All user-defined models will extend the CakePHP AppModel class.

The user model

Having created a users table for Tor, you will need a user model to interact with the
table. The user model will save your user data, get it back out of the table for you,
and verify that the user data is in an acceptable format. For now, this model can be a
stub. It should be created as app/models/user.php and might look something like
Listing 6.

Listing 6. The user model

<?php
class User extends AppModel
{
var $name = 'User';
}
?>

Notice the line var $name = 'User';. It is accepted as best practice to specify
the name of the model in $name.

View
Being able to save, retrieve, and validate your data is pretty useless without some
means of displaying the data. By putting all display and presentation code in one
place, you can change the look and feel of your application without having to work
around application logic and data related code.

View is primarily concerned with formatting data for presentation to the user. The
view represents any and all UI work, including all templates and HTML. CakePHP's
view files are regular HTML files embedded with PHP code.

Ultimately, a view is just a page template. Usually, the view will be named after the
Action associated with it. For example, a display() action would normally have a
display view.

Returning to the sample application, we have created a users table and a user
model to interact with this table. Now we need some views. The user will need to
register an account and log in to the application. This calls for a register and a login
view.

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The register view

Before a user can use the Tor application, he will need to register an account. This
will require a register view, which will present the registration form to the user. You
should already know what kind of user information Tor is looking for -- specifically,
you will need to collect a username, password, e-mail address, and first and last
name.

The register view should be created as app/views/users/register.thtml and might look

something like that shown in Listing 7.

Listing 7. The register view

<form action="/users/register" method="post">

<p>Please fill out the form below to register an account.</p>
<label>Username:</label><input name="username" size="40" />
<label>Password:</label><input type="password" name="password" size="40"
/>
<label>Email Address:</label><input name="email" size="40"
maxlength="255" />
<label>First Name:</label><input name="first_name" size="40" />
<label>Last Name:</label><input name="last_name" size="40" />
<input type="submit" value="register" />
</form>

It is important to note that the field names are the same as the column names in
your database. This will come into play when we get to the users controller.

Controller
With data handling all contained within in the model and the presentation layer all
contained within the view, the rest of the application is going to live in the controller.
This is where logic, decision-making, workflow, and generally anything that the
application does will happen. The model manages your data, the view shows it to
you, the controller does everything else.

The controller manages server requests. It accepts user input (URL requests, form
POSTs, GET requests, etc.), applies logic where necessary, invokes models where
data handling is required, and sends output through the appropriate view.

Generally, a controller will manage logic for a single model. A controller contains any
number of functions, referred to as Actions. An action typically applies logic and
displays a view. All user-defined controllers will need to extend the CakePHP
AppController class.

In Tor, you have created a users table, a user model to interact with the table, and
views to present registration and login forms to the user. Those forms will submit to

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the users controller, invoking the register and login actions, respectively. The users
controller should be created as app/controllers/users_controller.php and should start
out looking something like Listing 8.

Listing 8. The users controller

<?php
class UsersController extends AppController
{
}
?>

The register action

You now have a controller. But it's not doing anything yet. Before it will do anything
for you, you'll have to give it some actions to perform.

Now you are getting down to the nuts and bolts. The user has filled out a form and
submitted it to the application. We will cover data validation later. For now, we will
just push it into the database. We do this by adding the register action to the users
controller.

Listing 9. The register action

<?php
class UsersController extends AppController
{
function register()
{
if (!empty($this->params['form']))
{
if ($this->User->save($this->params['form']))
{
$this->flash('Your registration information was accepted.',
'/users/register');
} else {
$this->flash('There was a problem with your registration',
'/users/register');
}
}
}
}
?>

The register action starts by looking at the form ($this->params['form']) to

see if it was submitted. If the form was not submitted, the action will not do anything.

Once you know the form was submitted with data, the controller calls the save
method on the user model, which is an extension of AppModel. The save method
will, by default, look for a table that's a plural of the model itself. In this case, it is
looking for a users table to go with the user model. If the table is found, the save
method will turn the passed array ($this->params['form']) into an INSERT
statement, using the array keys as column names and the array values as the
INSERT values.

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In this case, $this->params['form'] will look like Listing 10.

Listing 10. The $this->params['form'] array

Array
(
[CAKEPHP] => b975a875bdba3bdff38ea0eda8c3375f
[username] => zaphod
[password] => secret
[email] => [email protected]
[first_name] => zaphod
[last_name] => beeblebrox
)

The save method will ignore the CAKEPHP session key and build an INSERT
statement from the rest. It would look something like Listing 11.

Listing 11. INSERT statement

INSERT INTO
users
(username, password, email, first_name, last_name)
VALUES
('zaphod', 'secret', '[email protected]', 'zaphod', 'beeblebrox')

It should now be apparent why you used the database column names in the register
view for the register form field names. By doing so, you simplified the process of
saving your data significantly.

To continue, if the data inserts successfully, the register action calls the Flash
method. Flash presents a basic message to the user (in this case, a success or
failure message) with a link away from the message (in this case, back to the
register view, since nothing else has been defined.

Now that you have a user model to interface with your users table, and a register
view to show a registration form, and a users controller with a register action, you
can actually see your application in action.

Try it out
All the pieces have fallen into place. It's time to bring Tor to life. Fire up your browser
and jump in.

Load the register view by going to http://localhost/users/register. You should see

something like Figure 4.

Figure 4. Loading the register view

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Fill out and submit the form. You should see your success message.

Figure 5. Success message

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If you look in your database, you should see a record corresponding to your form
submission, complete with a plaintext password (a terribly bad idea, which we will fix
later).

Try to fill out the form again, using the same information. You should see the failure
message.

Figure 6. Register failure

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If you are using a database that supports the UNIQUE field restraint, the registration
will fail. During the creation of the users table, the username and e-mail fields were
defined as UNIQUE, meaning values for those fields cannot be duplicated. CakePHP
recognizes the error when the database throws it and displays an error.

Section 4. Helpers
Helpers in CakePHP exist primarily to help speed up the development of your views.
There are helpers for HTML, Ajax, JavaScript and more. Helpers make it easier to
insert pieces of HTML code you find yourself writing multiple times.

Making tables easier

Users of Tor should be able to see who else is registered to use the application.
CakePHP has a number of helpers in place to assist with creating tables. These
helpers include many useful bits of functionality, some of which you have probably
written more than once. To demonstrate this capability, you will create a view to
display registered users.

Creating a knownusers action

Start by creating a knownusers action in the users controller.

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Listing 12. Creating a knownusers action

function knownusers()
{
$this->set('knownusers',
$this->User->findAll(null, array('id', 'username', 'first_name',
'last_name'), 'id DESC')
);
}

This calls the built in findAll function on the user model. The findAll function
takes a field containing conditions (in this case, you passed null conditions, which
will return all all users), an array of fields to be returned (we don't want all of the user
information, just what you would want everyone to see), and a sort field and order (in
this case, id DESC to sort the fields in descending order by ID). You can also
specify a limit (maximum rows to return), page (if you are paging the data), and a
recursive option, which can be specified to return models associated with the data
(for example, if you were querying a groups table and several users belong to each
group).

The output from findAll is put into the knownusers variable. The data can now
be accessed from a view.

Creating the knownusers view

Create the file app/views/users/knownusers.thtml in a text editor. To see what the
data returned by findAll looks like, output the knownusers variable using
var_dump.

Listing 13. Output the knownusers variable using var_dump

<pre>
<?php var_dump($knownusers) ?>
</pre>

Visit the view at http://localhost/users/knownusers. You should see an array of user

data.

Figure 7. The results

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If you only have one user listed, go back to http://localhost/users/knownusers and

register a few more. The end result will be more impressive.

Got a nice big array of users? Good! Time to turn that into a table. Replace the
contents of knownusers.thtml with the following.

Listing 14. Creating a table

<table>
<?php
echo $html->tableHeaders(array_keys($knownusers[0]['User']));
foreach ($knownusers as $thisuser)
{
echo $html->tableCells($thisuser['User'], array('bgcolor' => '#ddd'));
}
?>
</table>

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The first helper will create a set of table headers from an array of data -- in this case,
the list of keys for our users.

The second helper will create a set of table cells, wrapped in table row tags, from an
array of data -- in this case, the values for each user. The second parameter,
array('bgcolor' => '#ddd'), tells CakePHP to set the background color for
every odd table for. You could also specify a third parameter containing options for
every even table row.

That's it! Save it, then visit http://localhost/users/knownusers to see the results.

Figure 8. The results

By using the tableCells helper, you have eliminated the need to write your own
code to iterate through the array of user data, and adding different background
colors for the table rows was as simple as specifying the color in the helper. This is
just one example of how to use helpers to make it easier to work with HTML in
CakePHP.

Form generation
Building a Web application without using forms is like milking a chicken: It's
extremely complicated and rarely works. Well-built and maintainable forms are a
foundation to any well-built application. Given how often you will need to build forms,
it only seems natural to look for ways to make the process easier without cutting
corners.

Using helpers in the registration form

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Helpers are especially useful when generating forms. You can use them to generate
the HTML for your input fields, as well as placeholders to hold validation error
messages. Using helpers to generate the form fields and error message holders for
Tor, the register view might look more like Listing 15.

Listing 15. Using helpers to generate the registration form

<?php echo $html->formTag('/users/register') ?>

<p>Please fill out the form below to register an account.</p>
<label>Username:</label>
<?php echo $html->inputTag('User/username', array('size' => '40')) ?>
<?php echo $html->tagErrorMsg('User/username', 'username is required') ?>
<label>Password:</label>
<?php echo $html->passwordTag('User/password', array('size' => '40')) ?>
<?php echo $html->tagErrorMsg('User/password', 'password is required') ?>
<label>Email Address:</label>
<?php echo $html->inputTag('User/email', array('size' =>
'40','maxlength'=>'255')) ?>
<?php echo $html->tagErrorMsg('User/email', 'email is invalid') ?>
<label>First Name:</label>
<?php echo $html->inputTag('User/first_name', array('size' => '40')) ?>
<?php echo $html->tagErrorMsg('User/first_name', 'first_name is required') ?>
<label>Last Name:</label>
<?php echo $html->inputTag('User/last_name', array('size' => '40')) ?>
<?php echo $html->tagErrorMsg('User/last_name', 'last_name is required') ?>
<?php echo $html->submitTag('register') ?>
</form>

You may be looking at this code and comparing it to the hand-built registration form,
and thinking to yourself, "This looks like more code." And it is a little more code. The
real question is what do you gain by doing it this way? And right now, the answer is
nothing -- until you start leveraging the helpers. So, how do you make the most of
them?

Making the most of your helpers

To start getting the payoff from your controllers, you'll need to do two things: update
your users controller and introduce a little data validation.

Open controllers/users_controller.php and change your register function to match

the one below.

Listing 16. Updating the users controller

function register()
{
if (!empty($this->data))
{
if ($this->User->validates($this->data))
{
$this->User->save($this->data);
$this->flash('Your registration information was accepted.',
'/users/register');
} else {

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$this->validateErrors($this->User);
}
}
}

Note that the occurrences of $this->params['form'] have changed to

$this->data.

Now open the user model and add a little data validation (covered in detail later). For
now, modify your user model to look like the one below.

Listing 17. Modifying your user model

<?php
class User extends AppModel
{
var $name = 'User';
var $validate = array(
'username' => VALID_NOT_EMPTY,
'password' => VALID_NOT_EMPTY,
'email' => VALID_EMAIL
);
}
?>
</code>

To break this down briefly, the $validate array contains entries for validation,
consisting of a key (the form field name) and a regular expression used to evaluate
the data. It is not necessary to validate all of the form fields. In Listing 17, last_name
and first_name were left options. CakePHP comes with several predefined regular
expressions for data validation. VALID_NOT_EMPTY is used just to make sure the
field is not empty. VALID_EMAIL is used to verify that a string looks more or less
like an e-mail address.

Now take it for a spin. Try submitting the form with no data, with one or two required
fields empty, with an invalid e-mail address. What do you see?

Figure 9. Data validation first try

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Now try it a second time.

Figure 10. Data validation second try

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One thing you should notice is that the CakePHP is turning on and turning off your
error messages for you on the fly. Another thing you should notice is that CakePHP
is remembering and populating the values for the form fields, without you having to
do anything.

That's where the big payoff comes in. What didn't you have to do?

For one thing, you didn't have to tell the form fields to repopulate their information
from the _POST array. CakePHP did that for you. You didn't have to check each field
for an error and conditionally display each message individually. CakePHP did that
for you. You didn't have to make sure you formatted your tags into valid xhtml.
CakePHP did that for you, too.

Helper notes
This tutorial barely scratches the surface of helpers. A whole tutorial could probably
be written on the subject. Learning how to use helpers well will go a long way toward
helping speed up your development in CakePHP. To get you started, here are some

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additional notes.

The core configuration for CakePHP, located in app/config/core.php contains the

following line: define('AUTO_OUTPUT', false);. By setting this value to true,
helpers will output the tag, rather than returning the value. For example, to generate
an input field for username, with AUTO_OUTPUT set to false, you would type echo
$html->input('Users/username').

With AUTO_OUTPUT set to true, you would type

$html->input('Users/username'). And CakePHP would echo the input field
automatically.

If all you are ever doing is echoing the output of your helpers, setting AUTO_OUTPUT
to true will help speed things along.

CakePHP uses the file cake/config/tags.ini.php when generating HTML tags. This
file contains template for most common HTML elements. For example, tags.ini.php
contains a template for an input field.

; Tag template for an input type='text' tag.

input = "<input name="data[%s][%s]" %s/>"
</code>

To customize tags.ini.php, simply copy the file to app/config/tags.ini.php and add

your customizations. CakePHP will recognize the file and call your custom helpers.

This isn't the end of helpers by a longshot. CakePHP includes helpers for Ajax
(using prototype.js), JavaScript, number conversion, text handling, dates, times, and
more. Review the manual (see Resources) to get more familiar with some of these
helpers.

Section 5. CakePHP data validation

You now have a brief look at CakePHP data validation by putting in some basic
validation for users based on defined regular expressions. By defining your own
regular expressions for data validation, you can exercise more control over the
pass/fail criteria for individual form fields within Tor.

The Tor user model

Take another look at the user model.

Listing 18. The user model

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<?php
class User extends AppModel
{
var $name = 'User';
var $validate = array(
'username' => VALID_NOT_EMPTY,
'password' => VALID_NOT_EMPTY,
'email' => VALID_EMAIL
);
}
?>

This is a good start, but it's not enough. You'll want to make sure the field lengths
are honored and that the username does not already exist. You will accomplish this
by defining your own regular expressions for validation and defining a function to
check the users table for a username before saving the user.

Regular expressions (briefly)

A full discussion about how regular expressions is outside the scope of this tutorial.
The PHP Manual contains information about regular expressions in PHP and should
be reviewed before going too far in rolling your own data validation regular
expressions. See Resources for some helpful links.

A regular expression is basically a pattern of characters used for comparing one

string to another. For example, the character * in a regular expression will match
any character, any number of times. If you don't know anything about regular
expressions, don't worry. The example below should help get you started.

Roll your own validation

CakePHP provides four built-in data validation regular expressions:
VALID_NOT_EMPTY, VALID_NUMBER, VALID_EMAIL, and VALID_YEAR. These
constants are defined in cake/libs/validators.php and shouldn't be modified. You may
find it helpful to review them.

For the username and password fields, you need to validate that the submitted data
is no longer than 40 characters. Though you have specified a maximum length for
the username and password fields in the HTML, it is never safe to assume that the
user is following your rules. For this reason, any client-side data validation should be
verified before use.

It is also helpful to verify that the username and password are at least six characters.
A regular expression to match strings with a length between six and 40 characters
would look something like this: /^.{6,40}$/.

Reading that regular expression from left to right:

• / -- Marks the beginning of the regular expression

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• ^ -- Says from the beginning of the string

• . -- Says any one character
• {6,40} -- Says at least six times, but no more than 40 times
• $ -- Says and the string ends
• / -- Marks the end of the regular expression
So, read altogether, this regular expression says "from the beginning of the string,
one or more characters, at least six but not more than 40, and the string ends."

To put the regular expression to use, replace the instances of VALID_NOT_EMPTY

with the regular expression, in single quotes (to prevent PHP from trying to interpret
any of the special characters).

Listing 19. Regular expression in PHP script

<?php
class User extends AppModel
{
var $name = 'User';
var $validate = array(
'username' => '/^.{6,40}$/',
'password' => '/^.{6,40}$/',
'email' => VALID_EMAIL
);
}
?>

It is also helpful to edit the register view (app/views/users/register.thtml) and change

the error messages to be more intelligent. For example, the replace username is
required with username and must be between six and 40 characters.

Make sure you've saved all your files, go back to http://localhost/users/register, and
try to register a user with a four-character username. You should see something like
Figure 11.

Figure 11. Data validation

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Regular expressions are versatile, but they can't do things like tell you if a username
has already been registered.

Taking validation further

Sometimes you can't tell if data is valid just by looking at it. For example, the
username may be between six and 40 characters, but you will have to check the
database to see if the username is already taken. CakePHP provides the ability to
manually mark a field as invalid.

Take a look at the register action in Listing 20.

Listing 20. Validate the data

function register()
{
$this->set('username_error', 'Username must be between 6 and 40 characters.');
if (!empty($this->data))
{
if ($this->User->validates($this->data))
{

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if ($this->User->findByUsername($this->data['User']['username']))
{
$this->User->invalidate('username');
$this->set('username_error', 'User already exists.');
} else {
$this->User->save($this->data);
$this->flash('Your registration information was accepted.',
'/users/register');
}
} else {
$this->validateErrors($this->User);
}
}
}

This starts by defining a default value for the username error. You will need to
modify the register view in order to use this.

The action goes on to validate the data using the data validation regular expressions
defined in the model. If any of those validations fail, the form is rejected. If those
validations pass, the built in findByUsername function is called from the user
model. This function will query the User table looking for a value that matches the
passed string (in this case, the value of the username form field) in the username
field. If findByUsername does not find a matching user, a false value will be
returned. In that case, save the data as you normally do.

If a matching user is found, however, the user will be returned. In that case, the
action does two things: $this->User->invalidate('username');.

This invalidates the username field in the form. The tagErrorMsg will then be
automatically triggered: $this->set('username_error', 'User already
exists.');.

This sets the username_error to a value more meaningful to the user.

The register view will need to be modified to use the value username_error for the
username's tagErrorMsg. Replace the tagErrorMsg line for the username field
with the following.

<?php echo $html->tagErrorMsg('User/username', $username_error) ?>

Save your files, and try it out. First, go to http://localhost/user/knownusers to get a

list of existing users. Then go to http://localhost/user/register and try to create one
with the same username. You should see the following.

Figure 12. Data validation successful

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Good data validation is an important step in creating any secure application. As you
build the Tor application, look for opportunities to improve the data validation. Don't
be afraid to put in more data validation than this tutorial demonstrates. Never
assume your users are sending you the data you asked for. Validate everything.
CakePHP makes it easy.

Section 6. Filling in the gaps

So far, users can register for your application and see who has already registered.
The application needs some filling in. Using the skills you've learned so far, try filling
in some more functionality. Check out Part 2 for examples of the following.

Login

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The login view should gather the user login information and submit it to the users
controller. The users controller should look to see if the user is in the database and
verify that the password is correct. If the user has correctly logged in, write the
username to session and send the user to the index action.

Hints:

• Use the built in

$this->User->findByUsername($your_username_variable_here)
to search for the user in the database
• Write the user's name to Session with
$this->Session->write('user',
$your_username_variable_here)

Index action
The index action should check to see if the user's name has been written to the
session. If the user's name has been written to the session, pull that information from
the database and present the user with a customized greeting. If the user has not
logged in, direct him to the login action.

Logout
The Logout Action should delete the user's username from the session and forward
the user to the login action.

Bonus
Modify the register action to automatically log the user into the system and forward
the user to the index action. Modify the register and login actions to use hashed
passwords, rather than saving your passwords in the database as plaintext.

Don't worry too much if you get stuck. Part 2 provides sample solutions to these
problems. Then you'll jump right in and build out the Tor application product gallery.

Happy coding!

Section 7. Summary
This tutorial has taught you how to install and configure CakePHP, the basics of
MVC design, how to validate user data in CakePHP, how to use CakePHP helpers,
and how to get an application up and running quickly using CakePHP. Part 2 covers

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writing plug-ins for your application and using CakePHP's access control lists
(ACLs).

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Downloads
Description Name Size Download method
Part 1 source code os-php-cake1.source.zip
2KB HTTP

Information about download methods

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Resources
Learn
• Visit CakePHP.org to learn more about it.
• The CakePHP API has been thoroughly documented. This is the place to get
the most up-to-date documentation for CakePHP.
• There's a ton of information available at The Bakery, the CakePHP user
community.
• CakePHP Data Validation uses PHP Perl-compatible regular expressions.
• Read a tutorial titled "How to use regular expressions in PHP."
• Want to learn more about design patterns? Check out Design Patterns:
Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software , also known as the "Gang Of
Four" book.
• Check out some Source material for creating users.
• Check out the Wikipedia Model-View-Controller.
• Here is more useful background on the Model-View-Controller.
• Here's a whole list of different types of software design patterns.
• Read about Design Patterns.
• Visit IBM developerWorks' PHP project resources to learn more about PHP.
• Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts.
• Check out upcoming conferences, trade shows, webcasts, and other Events
around the world that are of interest to IBM open source developers.
• Visit the developerWorks Open source zone for extensive how-to information,
tools, and project updates to help you develop with open source technologies
and use them with IBM's products.
• To listen to interesting interviews and discussions for software developers, be
sure to check out developerWorks podcasts.
Get products and technologies
• Innovate your next open source development project with IBM trial software,
available for download or on DVD.
Discuss
• The developerWorks PHP Developer Forum provides a place for all PHP
developer discussion topics. Post your questions about PHP scripts, functions,
syntax, variables, PHP debugging and any other topic of relevance to PHP
developers.
• Get involved in the developerWorks community by participating in

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developerWorks blogs.

About the author

Duane O'Brien
Duane O'Brien has been a technological Swiss Army knife since the Oregon Trail
was text only. His favorite color is sushi. He has never been to the moon.

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