Imagick with MAMP + php 5.3.6 + cakephp - php

Question

I'm having an issue with imagick running on a MAMP installation within a cakephp app.
I have followed the install instructions as indicated here and the install seems to have worked in the sense that the class 'Imagick' exists for me if i test it in a php script (I can see the module is loaded in phpinfo). However any examples that I run utilising the class hang as soon as I echo any content. My view is:
<?php
/* Create a new imagick object */
$im = new Imagick();
/* Create new image. This will be used as fill pattern */
$im->newPseudoImage(50, 50, "gradient:red-black");
/* Create imagickdraw object */
$draw = new ImagickDraw();
/* Start a new pattern called "gradient" */
$draw->pushPattern('gradient', 0, 0, 50, 50);
/* Composite the gradient on the pattern */
$draw->composite(Imagick::COMPOSITE_OVER, 0, 0, 50, 50, $im);
/* Close the pattern */
$draw->popPattern();
/* Use the pattern called "gradient" as the fill */
$draw->setFillPatternURL('#gradient');
/* Set font size to 52 */
$draw->setFontSize(52);
/* Annotate some text */
$draw->annotation(20, 50, "Hello World!");
/* Create a new canvas object and a white image */
$canvas = new Imagick();
$canvas->newImage(350, 70, "white");
/* Draw the ImagickDraw on to the canvas */
$canvas->drawImage($draw);
/* 1px black border around the image */
$canvas->borderImage('black', 1, 1);
/* Set the format to PNG */
$canvas->setImageFormat('png');
/* Output the image */
header("Content-Type: image/png");
echo $canvas;
?>
This script will just hang as soon as the echo $canvas is encountered. The script works perfectly in a plain old php file i.e outside of cake but it hangs when visited via my cakephp app action. My action code is:
public function test(){
$this->layout = false;
}
Cake error log is empty.

Answer 1

Okay the issue was with how the header was set in cakephp. Cake didn't allow me to set the page header in the view that way.
I added the following code to the test action:
$this->response->type("image/png");
And it works perfectly now.