The Cache Function

CakePHP’s cache function is quite easy to use. The code snippet below shows how to use it.

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$cache_name = 'query';
$cache_data = Cache::read($cache_name);
if (empty($cache_data))
{
	$dataModel = $this->Model->find('first');
	Cache::write($cache_name, $dataModel, array('config' => 'File', 'duration' => 7200));
}
else
{
	$dataModel = $cache_data;
}

The code above attempts to read in the data from the cache, given the $cache_name. If the data is not found, the query is executed and then written to the cache. As you can see in the Cache::write I am using the File engine for caching, but you can use whichever you desire. I also set the duration to 7200 seconds (2 hours). If the cache data IS found then the query is skipped and the cache data is assigned to $dataModel. Pretty nifty eh?

I also believe that when you do a save operation on the Settings model Cake knows to automatically remove that cache data, so you don’t end up with out of sync info! If for some reason you want to manually delete the cached data you can use: Cache::delete($key) for a specific key, or Cache::clear() to delete everything in the cache.

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if (!defined('CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH')) {
	define('CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH', ROOT);
}

with this:

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if (!defined('CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH')) {
	define('CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH', DS . 'usr' . DS . 'lib' . DS . 'php' . DS . 'cake');
}

You are now using the common cake core. When a new update comes out to the library, just replace the files in /usr/lib/php/cake with the new version!

If you want to go a step further and share some of your own models, views, controllers, behaviors, helpers, or components between applications you can use a similar technique. For example create a folder in ‘/usr/lib/php/models’ and put all your common models in that folder, then in your application open up bootstrap.php and add the following:

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$modelPaths = array(
DS . 'usr' . DS . 'lib' . DS . 'php' . DS . 'models'
);

Like I said the same thing can be done with views, controllers, helpers, behaviors or components. The cookbook says how! This is pretty handy for when you find a bug in a model and you have several applications using that model!

Automagic Forms!

Using $form->input() is great, but when you have many fields or you are just creating a quick form there is a better way! The key is to set up your database table structure properly. If you follow the naming conventions creating a form is as easy as using the following code in the view (this is for a Contact model… obviously):

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<php
echo $form->create('Contact');
echo $form->inputs();
echo $form->end("Save Contact");
?>

This is pretty nice, but what happens if you have fields that you don’t want the user to fill out? Use the blacklist! The following code removes the fieldset and legend along with the fields id, created, and modified.

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<php
$inputs = array('fieldset' => false, 'legend' => false);
$blacklist = array('id', 'created', 'modified');
echo $form->create('Contact');
echo $form->inputs($inputs, $blacklist);
echo $form->end("Save Contact");
?>

Not too bad. Fully functional form in 5 lines of code! But wait… There’s more! You may still want to customize the form a little more to add certain options to some fields. This can be done with the $inputs array. Basically all you have to do is add a key in the $inputs array with the field name, and then assign the optional attributes as you would if you were using the $form->input() function. Here is an example of what the array would look like to add a hint after the “first name” field.

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$inputs = array(
	'fieldset' => false,
	'legend' => false,
	'first_name' => array('after' => 'i.e. Lane')
);

The only drawback with assigning the optional attributes is that now the $inputs array must contain a key for every input you want to have a form field for. I’m sure that there is a better way to do this, but you could do something like this in the controller:

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<php
function add()
{
	$schema = $this->Contact->schema();
	foreach($schema as &amp;$field)
		$field = array();
	unset($field);
	$this->set(compact('schema'));
}
?>

and then in the view do this:

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$inputs = array('fieldset' => false, 'legend' => false);
$inputs = array_merge($inputs, $schema);
$inputs['first_name'] = array('after' => 'i.e. Lane');

This method would get the job done, but would really only be practical if you had a whole bunch of fields. Otherwise creating each $form->input() might be the way to go if you have to assign some options. Nonetheless, I’ve found that you can bypass having to set the $options array for specific fields by following the naming conventions, and when that is the case there is nothing better than $form->inputs()!

Related Links

• The Form Helper
• Form Helper API