Category Archives: CakePHP

Security component black hole, form submit dies on a blank page with no error

CakePHP, , , ,

The problem started when i used Auth component in my current CakePHP project. Everything seemed working fine until i created an html form, submitted it and tried to retrieve this form’s data in controller action. I tried to print $this->data in controller action but it showed nothing and ended on a blank white page (which is called “blackHole” in Security component’s language). Continue reading →

Fix to jQuery plugin does not work on ajax loaded content

Ajax, CakePHP, Javascript, jQuery, , , ,

I had been loading table records through ajax pagination using jquery. Some of the urls/links (View Details, Edit and Delete) in loaded content had been using thickbox to handle respective requests. Although, if i did’t use the ajax to load records these links would work fine and thickbox would open. But once i introduced ajax they suddenly stopped working. Continue reading →

Cakephp pagination and custom named arguments handling

CakePHP, , ,

Let’s have a look at the scenario first.

I have a “contacts” controller, a “display” action in it(controller) and a view “display.ctp” to show results. As normal my “display” action lists all the contacts by calling $this->set(‘contacts’, $this->paginate(‘Contact’)) inside the controller action “display”. The view works normal. Continue reading →

Simple captcha component for CakePHP 1.x

CakePHP, ,

Updated on – April 11, 2013

Download Captcha Component for CakePHP 1.x

Download Captcha Component for Cakephp 2.x

Model validation to validate captcha field value included with examples. Functions(rules) required for model validation are also written in the model file.
———————————————————-

Follow these simple steps to make it working.

Copy attached font file (monofont) to ‘webroot’ folder.

Copy component file (captcha.php) to app/controllers/components

Create a function similar to the following in your controller. I have used “signups” controller for demonstration purpose. You should change controller name accordingly.

function captcha()	{
		$this->autoRender = false;
		$this->layout='ajax';
		if(!isset($this->Captcha))	{ //if Component was not loaded throug $components array()
			App::import('Component','Captcha'); //load it
			$this->Captcha = new CaptchaComponent(); //make instance
			$this->Captcha->startup($this); //and do some manual calling
		}
		//$width = isset($_GET['width']) ? $_GET['width'] : '120';
		//$height = isset($_GET['height']) ? $_GET['height'] : '40';
		//$characters = isset($_GET['characters']) && $_GET['characters'] > 1 ? $_GET['characters'] : '6';
		//$this->Captcha->create($width, $height, $characters); //options, default are 120, 40, 6.
		$this->Captcha->create();
	}

Call the captcha action from within your img tag in the view file as below:

echo $form->create("Signups");
echo $html->image($html->url(array('controller'=>'signups', 'action'=>'captcha'), true),array('style'=>'','vspace'=>2)); ?>
echo 'Enter the given security code:';
echo $form->input('Signup.captcha',array('autocomplete'=>'off','label'=>false,'class'=>'','error'=>__('Failed validating code',true)));
echo $form->submit(__(' Submit ',true));
echo $form->end();

And you are done. The captcha image should look like Cakephp Captcha COmponent

Also, you can re-generate the captcha by adding (replacing code in line 2 of the above) ajax code something similar to the following:

<div id="captchaID" ><?php
echo $html->image($html->url(array('controller'=>'signups', 'action'=>'captcha'), true),array('style'=>'','vspace'=>2)); ?></div>
<?php echo $ajax->link('Can not read this code? Reload.','regenerate code',array('url'=>'reload_captcha','update'=>'captchaID')); ?>

In the code above it calls a reload_captcha function of the current controller. You can place reload_captcha in current controller or preferrably in the app_controller to make it available universally. Here’s the code:

function reload_captcha()	{
		App::import('Component','Captcha'); //load it
		$this->Captcha = new CaptchaComponent(); //make instance
		$this->Captcha->startup($this); //and do some manually calling
		$this->layout='ajax';
		Configure::write('debug',0);
		$this->viewPath = 'elements'.DS;
		$this->render('reload_captcha');
	}

It renders a reload_captcha element. Create a reload_captcha.ctp file and place it in views/elements with the following code:

<?php echo $html->image($html->url(array('controller'=>'signups', 'action'=>'captcha'), true),array('style'=>'','vspace'=>2)); ?>

There is model validation code included in the files with example of how to validate it. Files include a model with new validation entry along with two rules (functions).

Download Captcha Component for Cakephp 1.x
Download Captcha Component for Cakephp 2.x

Customizing mysql query of a bound model

CakePHP, , , , , ,

I had a hasAndBelongsToMany binding in my Charity Model as i normally would need all the “Causes” available along with Charity information and vice-versa. At one place i needed a specific number of “Causes” picked randomly from the database table. To make this work i had to add following two lines just before the $this->Charity->find call in my controller action:

$this->Charity->hasAndBelongsToMany['Cause']['limit']=5;
$this->Charity->hasAndBelongsToMany['Cause']['order']='rand()';

and i was done.

Does someone has a better solution? Please suggest.