Top 50 Cakephp Interview Questions You Must Prepare 19.Mar.2024

To get current url in cakephp use, 

echo Router::url($this->here, true);

This will give full URL with hostname.If you want to get relative path instead of full URL,then use the following code:

echo $this->here;

This will produce absolute URL excluding hostname i.e. /controller/abc/xyz/

  • The Security.salt is used for generating hashes.we can change the default Security.salt value in /app/Config/core.php.  
  • The Security.cipherseed is used for encrypt/decrypt strings.We can change the default Security.cipherSeed value by editing /app/Config/core.php. 

var $layout = ‘layout_name’;

to overwrite for a specific action use below code in that action

$this->layout =”layout_name”;

The method requestAction is used to call a controller’s action from any location and returns data from the action.

Component is a Controller extension, Helpers are View extensions, Behavior is a Model Extension.

Element in cakephp are smaller and reusable bits of view code. Elements are usually rendered inside views.

To add scaffolding to your application,just add the $scaffold variable in the controller,

<?php
class PostsController extends AppController {
    var $scaffold;
}
?>

Assuming you’ve created Post model class file (in /app/Model/post.php).

The bindModel() and unbindModel() Model methods are used to create and destroy model associations on the fly.

If you want to display the schema of particular model then you just need to add the following single line of code.For example we have “Posts” Controller.

pr($this->Post->schema());

  1. Compatible with versions 4 and 5 of PHP
  2. MVC architecture
  3. Built-in validations
  4. Caching
  5. Scaffolding
  6. Access Control Lists and Authentication.
  7. CSRF protection via Security Component.

An advantage with first case $this->set('posts', $posts); is that it allows two different names for the view file and controller file. For example, you could write something like $this->set('postData', $posts);. Now the variable name in the view file would be $postData.

The advantage with the second approach $this->set(compact()); is easier to write, and useful especially when we are setting several variables to the view.No need to add separate line for each variable as we have with $this->set();

For example,

$this->set(compact('posts','users','reports'));

By adding the javascript files in webroot and call them in default views if needed everywhere or just in the related veiws.

bootstrap.php

yes it can be changed.Either through index.php , or through .htaccess

$this->Session->write(‘Bird.Color’, ‘Black’);
$black = $this->Session->read(‘Bird.Color’);
$this->Session->delete(‘Bird’); 

cakephp/
app/
Config/
Console/
Controller/
Lib/
  Locale/
  Model/
  Plugin/
  Test/
  tmp/
  Vendor/
  View/
  webroot/
    .htaccess
  index.php
  
 lib/
 plugins/
 vendors/
 .htaccess/
 index.php/
 README.md/

  • FormHelper
  • HtmlHelper
  • JsHelper
  • CacheHelper
  • NumberHelper
  • Paginator
  • RSS
  • SessionHelper
  • TextHelper
  • TimeHelper

The set() method is used for creating a variable in the view file.Say for example if we write,

$this->set('posts',$posts); in controller fie, then the variable $posts will be available to use in the view template file for that action.

Using $this->set(compact()) , we can pass multiple parameters to access into the view file.

For example,

$this->set(compact('posts','users','reports'));

Now all these variables will be available in respective view file.

default extension of view files is '.ctp'.

yes we can change it by writing public $ext = '.yourext'; in AppController.If you want to change it for particular controller then add it into that controller only.You can also change it for the specific action of the controller by putting it in that action of controller.

public $ext = '.yourext'; in AppController

 - you can change all the views extentions.

 public $ext = '.yourext';  in specific controller like, PostsController

- you can change all the views extentions of PostsController.

public $ext = '.yourext';  in specific controller action like, index()

- you can change the view extention of index.ctp 

Note: You cannot specify multiple extensions, however it seems like there is a fall back to .ctp if no .php file is found.

Scaffolding is a technique that allows a developer to define and create a basic application that can create, retrieve, update and delete objects.

find, findAll , findAllBy , findBy , findNeighbours and query.

Has and belongs to many is a kind of associations that can be defined in models for retrieving associated data across different entities.

Helpers in CakePHP are associated with Presentation layers of application.Helpers mainly contain presentational logic which is available to share between many views, elements, or layouts.

To understand this topic follow this post :

Recursive in cakephp

It loads full application before it starts your task. It's not recommended for small projects because of its resource-heavy structure.

step1: Go to cakephp.org and download the latest version of cakephp.

step2: Cakephp comes in a .zip file,so unzip it.

step3: Extract the files in the localhost in the desired folder (for example:cakephp).

step4: Open the browser and run the URL localhost/cakephp

step5: Just Follow the instructions display on the page.

Default file name is database.php.default.

Its located at "/app/config/database.php.default".To connect with database it should be renamed to database.php

By calling ajax helper and then using it in controller for rendering.

CakePHP is a free, open-source, rapid development framework for PHP. It’s a foundational structure for programmers to create web applications. CakePHP goal is to enable developers to work in a structured and rapid manner–without loss of flexibility. CakePHP takes the monotony out of web development.

A controller is used to manage the logic for a part of your application. Most commonly, controllers are used to manage the logic for a single model. Controllers can include any number of methods which are usually referred to as actions. Actions are controller methods used to display views. An action is a single method of a controller.

There will be two vendor folders available in cakephp frame work.

one in ” app ” folder and one in root folder

The vendor folder in the app folder is used to place the third-party libraries which are application specific.

The vendor folder in the root folder is used to place the third-party libraries which are used for multiple applications.

To set a custom page title, copy-paste following code anywhere in your static page (.ctp) file:

$this->set("title_for_layout", "My page title");

Layout in cakephp are used to display the views that contain presentational code. In simple views are rendered inside a layout.

A typical CakePHP request cycle starts with a user requesting a page or resource in your application. At a high level, each request goes through the following steps −

  • The webserver rewrite rules direct the request to webroot/index.php.
  • Your application’s autoloader and bootstrap files are executed.
  • Any dispatch filters that are configured can handle the request, and optionally generate a response.
  • The dispatcher selects the appropriate controller & action based on routing rules.
  • The controller’s action is called and the controller interacts with the required Models and Components.
  • The controller delegates response creation to the View to generate the output resulting from the model data.
  • The view uses Helpers and Cells to generate the response body and headers.
  • The response is sent back to the client.

public $helpers = array(‘Form’, ‘Html’, ‘Js’, ‘Time’);

to in specific action use below code in that action

$this->helper[] =”helper_name”;

It's an automatic task that is done by cakephp.

public $components = array(‘Emails’, ‘ImageUploader’, ‘Sms’);

Components are packages of logic that are shared between controllers. They are useful when a common logic or code is required between different controllers.

Here are the requirements for setting up a server to run CakePHP:

  • An HTTP server (like Apache) with the following enabled: sessions, mod_rewrite (not absolutely necessary but preferred)
  • PHP 4.3.2 or greater. Yes, CakePHP works great in either PHP 4 or @
  • A database engine (right now, there is support for MySQL 4+, PostgreSQL and a wrapper for ADODB).

  1. Security
  2. Sessions
  3. Access control lists
  4. Emails
  5. Cookies
  6. Authentication
  7. Request handling
  8. Scaffolding

Email can be configured in file config/app.php. It is not required to define email configuration in config/app.php. Email can be used without it; just use the respective methods to set all configurations separately or load an array of configs. Configuration for Email defaults is created using config() and configTrport().

'email' => array(
    'rule' => array(
        'rule' => 'notEmpty',
        'message' => 'Please Enter Email address.'
    ),
    'rule' => array(
        'rule' => 'email',
        'message' => 'Entered Email address is invalid.'
    )
)

The problem is the first rule notEmpty will never be called because email rule will overwrite it.While using multiple validation rules for the same field you must keep the rule key "unique". In this case if we want to use multiple rules then, we can simple change the rule key names like,

'email' => array(
    'rule1' => array(
        'rule' => 'notEmpty',
        'message' => 'Please Enter Email address.'
    ),
    'rule2' => array(
        'rule' => 'email',
        'message' => 'Entered Email address is invalid.'
    )
)

Behaviors in CakePHP are associated with Models.Behaviors are used to change the way models behaves and enforcing model to act as something else.

Model view controller (MVC) is an architectural pattern used in software engineering.

Model      : Database functions exist in the model
View        : Design parts written here
Controller : Business Logic goes here

Table names are plural and lowercased,model names are singular and CamelCased: ModelName, model filenames are singular and underscored: model_name.php, controller names are plural and CamelCased with *Controller* appended: ControllerNamesController, controller filenames are plural and underscored with *controller* appended: controller_names_controller.php.

CakePHP started in April 2005.When a Polish programmer Michal Tatarynowicz wrote a minimal version of a Rapid Application Framework in PHP, dubbing it Cake.CakePHP version 1.0 released in May 2006.