Undefined index: action in /cake/dispatcher.php line 144

$aInfo = $this->requestAction('/tours/GetAgentInfo/' . $property["Listing"]["agent"] . '/' . $property["Listing"]["listingoffice"]);
?>

The problem turned out to be that one of the values in $property["Listing"] was returning a value which included a space. Something like this: “396 “. Since the requestAction method uses a URL to get it’s parameters, it was bombing when the URL looked like this: ‘/tours/GetAgentInfo/396 /94′. I used the php trim() function to remove spaces, and presto… problem solved!

$aInfo = $this->requestAction('/tours/GetAgentInfo/' . trim($property["Listing"]["agent"]) . '/' . trim($property["Listing"]["listingoffice"]));
?>

Parameters

selectTag ($fieldName, $optionElements, $selected=null, $selectAttr=array(), $optionAttr=null, $showEmpty=true, $return=false)

$fieldName will typically be the name of your model in the singular slash (‘/’) the primary key: 'Post/post_id'.

$optionElements is an array of ‘value’ =>’text’ pairs. The generateList method is very useful for creating this array.

$selected defaults to null and can be used to set the selected option.

$selectAttr is an array. It is used to define HTML attributes for the opening select element: array('onclick' => 'myfunction();', 'class' => 'cssclassname')

$optionAttr serves the same purpose that $selectAttr does, except it applies to the option elements.

$showEmpty is used to set whether or not the list has an empty option at the top. The default is true. If changed to false, the first option element will be the first value/text pair in your $optionElements array.

$return default is false and it defines whether or not this method should return a value. I don’t know of any reason why this would ever be set to true. If someone knows of a scenario where this is useful, please share!

Application

Like other HtmlHelpers, the selectTag can be used in a View within the CakePHP MVC framework including Layouts and Helpers. Typically you would load some data to an array in a 'value' =>'text' pair arrangement before calling the selectTag method (example 1). However, the array can be built “on the fly” as well (example 2).

Example 1


<?php $agentArray = $this->requestAction('/agents/select'); ?>
<?=$html->selectTag('Agent/agent_id', $agentArray, null, array(), null, true, false);?>


Example 2


<?=$html->selectTag('Listing/price',
array(
'0' => 'no min',
'50000' => '50,000',
'100000' => '100,000',
'125000' => '125,000',
'150000' => '150,000',
'175000' => '175,000',
'200000' => '200,000'), '0', array(), null, false, false); ?>


This is by no means comprehensive, but hopefully useful. The CakePHP Google Group and CakePHP IRC Channel are super when trying to wrap you head around something new.

Let’s assume we have two tables, colors and products. Our model states that products hasAndBelongsToMany colors. Also, colors hasAndBelongsToMany products.

Add the following code to app_controller.php:

function getSelectedItems($data)
{
$return = array();
foreach ($data as $row)
{
$return[$row['id']] = $row['name'];
}
return $return;
}


Our edit function in the products_controller.php will look something like this:

function admin_edit($id = null)
{
if (empty($this->data))
{
$this->set('colors', $this->requestAction('/colors/select'));
// get data for colors DropDownList
$this->Product->id = $id;
$this->data = $this->Product->read();
$this->set('selected_colors', $this->getSelectedItems($this->data['Color']));
}
else
{
if ($this->Product->save($this->data))
{
$this->flash("Your product has been updated.", '/admin/products');
}
else
{
$this->flash("Unable to update your product.", '/admin/products');
}
}
}


And finally, the code for the multi-select:

selectTag("Color/Color", $colors, $selected_colors, array('multiple' => 'multiple'))?>


If the associations are set up correctly, Cake will automagically save the updated colors when $this->Product->save($this->data) is called in the products controller. I hope this is helpful to someone, I spent a lot of time digging it up!

Pre-requisite: CakePHP

First, download Shuro’s component, sd_auth. Copy and paste the code into a file called sd_auth.php and put it inside app/controllers/components.

Now, create app_controller.php in app/ and paste the code below:

class AppController extends Controller
{
var $components = array('SdAuth');
function adminAuth()
{
// Auth Check.
if($this->SdAuth->isloggedin() == FALSE)
{
$this->layout = "admin_login";
} else {
$this->layout = "admin";
}
}
}

Next, uncomment the following line in app/config/core.php:

define('CAKE_ADMIN', 'admin');

Now, if you pre-pend a function in any of your controllers with “admin_” (eg: admin_add) it will now be accessed via the path /admin/add. Insert the authentication call at the beginning of each one of those functions:

function admin_add()
{
$this->adminAuth();
}

…and that method will be authenticated before continuing! Thanks for the tip Shunro.

Almost two years ago I jumped into ASP.NET and C# headfirst. This was my first exposure to OOP. I love it, and I don’t plan on turning back. However, for personal projects and freelancing I prefer to use PHP. PHP was my first “server-side” language (not counting a really small ASP email script I wrote leveraged on my very first freelance development gig). I love it for it’s straight forward nature, low cost, and great support.

Many of the conveniences that ASP.NET offers are not inherently available with PHP. This, and the chest-beating of many RoR developers, has led me on a quest for a useful Framework for PHP.

The Quest Begins

I began by simply googling “php frameworks”. This returned a plethora of comparisons and reviews which I began to peruse. Along the way I learned some new terminology: Model-View-Controller. Four frameworks stood out to me based on feature set, community, support, and cost (free!).

The Frameworks

Prado

I was initially impressed by several things about Prado:

1. Currently on version 3 and has a two year track record
2. It has an active community
3. It’s methodology is very similar to ASP.NET
4. The majority of the Framework is very well documented
5. Native development for PHP 5

Based on these strengths I decided to try Prado first. I found it easy to install and begin building applications. I built a simple login and used their templating system. Overall, I found the entire environment very friendly familiar. However, Prado suffers from some performance hits because of it’s architecture when using complicated dynamic templates. For this reason I decided to continue my quest. However, I would recommend Prado to anyone coming from ASP.NET who is developing small to medium sized applications.

Symfony

Symfony seemed like the next logical progression. It is well documented, highly reviewed, and seems to be very robust and efficient. I spent about an hour tooling around the documentation. I decided to abandon Symfony and move on after reading the installation documentation Please don’t judge me, I just get nervous when I have to do that much jockeying around with the command line.

CakePHP

It looks like I’m probably going to stick with Cake.

1. Easy to install
2. Active, enthusiastic community
3. Good beginner tutorials (unfortunately the remainder of the documentation is still under development and leaves a lot to be desired)

I was up and running and had built my first basic application in under an hour using the easy to follow blog tutorial. However, as I’ve tried to dig deeper I’ve had to dive into google groups, irc, and other sites for help figuring out the subtleties of Cake.

Code Igniter

I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks interesting. If Cake doesn’t work out, it’s next on the list.