【CakePHP1.3】_CakePHP Conventions

Controller Conventions

Controller classnames are plural, CamelCased, and end in Controller. PeopleController and LatestArticlesController are both examples of conventional controller names.

You can also change the visibility of controller methods in CakePHP by prefixing controller method names
with underscores. If a controller method has been prefixed with an underscore, the method will not be
accessible directly from the web but is available for internal use. For example:

class NewsController extends AppController {
public function latest() {
$this->_findNewArticles();
}
protected function _findNewArticles() {
// Logic to find latest news articles
}
}

You can also use PHP¡¯s visibility keywords to indicate whether or not a method can be accessed from a url. Non-public methods cannot be accessed.

URL Considerations for Controller Names

As you’ve just seen, single word controllers map easily to a simple lower case URL path. For example, ApplesController (which would be defined in the file
name ‘ApplesController.php’) is accessed from http://example.com/apples.Multiple word controllers can be any ‘inflected’ form which equals the controller name so:
• /redApples
• /RedApples
• /Red_apples
• /red_apples
will all resolve to the index of the RedApples controller. However, the convention is that your urls are lowercase and underscored, therefore /red_apples/go_pick is the correct form to access the RedApplesController::go_pick action.

File and Classname Conventions

In general, filenames match the classnames, which are CamelCased. So if you have a class MyNiftyClass,then in Cake, the file should be named MyNiftyClass.php.Each file would be located in the appropriate folder in your app folder.

Model and Database Conventions

Model classnames are singular and CamelCased. Person, BigPerson, and ReallyBigPerson are all examples of conventional model names.

Table names corresponding to CakePHP models are plural and underscored. The underlying tables for the above mentioned models would be people, big_people, and really_big_people, respectively.

Field names with two or more words are underscored like, first_name.
Foreign keys in hasMany, belongsTo or hasOne relationships are recognized by default as the (singular) name of the related table followed by _id. So if a Baker hasMany Cake, the cakes table will refer to the bakers table via a baker_id foreign key. For a multiple worded table like category_types, the foreign key
would be category_type_id.
Join tables, used in hasAndBelongsToMany (HABTM) relationships between models should be named after the model tables they will join in alphabetical order (apples_zebras rather than zebras_apples).
All tables with which CakePHP models interact (with the exception of join tables), require a singular primary key to uniquely identify each row. If you wish to model a table which does not have a single-field primary key, CakePHP’s convention is that a single-field primary key is added to the table. You have to add a single-field primary key if you want to use that table’s model.
CakePHP does not support composite primary keys. If you want to directly manipulate your join table data,use direct query calls or add a primary key to act on it as a normal model. E.g.:

CREATE TABLE posts_tags (
id INT(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
post_id INT(10) NOT NULL,
tag_id INT(10) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id));

Rather than using an auto-increment key as the primary key, you may also use char(36). Cake will then use a unique 36 character uuid (String::uuid) whenever you save a new record using the Model::save method.

View Conventions

View template files are named after the controller functions they display, in an underscored form. The getReady() function of the PeopleController class will look for a view template in /app/View/People/get_ready.ctp.

By naming the pieces of your application using CakePHP conventions, you gain functionality without the hassle and maintenance tethers of configuration. Here’s a final example that ties the conventions
• Database table: “people”
• Model class: “Person”, found at /app/Model/Person.php
• Controller class: “PeopleController”, found at /app/Controller/PeopleController.php
• View template, found at /app/View/People/index.ctp

Check out CakePHP Conventions for more information, but suffice it to say that naming our table ‘posts’ automatically hooks it to our Post model, and having fields called ‘modified’ and ‘created’ will be automagically managed by Cake.