Is using Controller::render() in a Model::afterSave() possible with CakePHP? - php

Question

I've got some sample code that I'd like to refactor as I need it to work after a record is saved. It currently works after the record is first rendered (using the afterFilter). What it does is render the view that I want with the layout and saves it to a file.
function afterFilter() {
parent::afterFilter();
if($this->params['pass'][0] == 'contact') {
$surrenderOuput = $this->surrender($this->params['pass'][0]);
$path = WWW_ROOT . 'cache' . DS . $this->params['pass'][0] . DS . 'index.html';
$file = new File($path, true);
$file->write($surrenderOuput);
$file->close();
}
}
function surrender($action = null, $layout = null, $file = null) {
$this->beforeRender();
$viewClass = $this->view;
if ($this->view != 'View') {
if (strpos($viewClass, '.') !== false) {
list($plugin, $viewClass) = explode('.', $viewClass);
}
$viewClass = $viewClass . 'View';
App::import('View', $this->view);
}
$this->Component->beforeRender($this);
$this->params['models'] = $this->modelNames;
if (Configure::read() > 2) {
$this->set('cakeDebug', $this);
}
$View =& new $viewClass($this);
if (!empty($this->modelNames)) {
$models = array();
foreach ($this->modelNames as $currentModel) {
if (isset($this->$currentModel) && is_a($this->$currentModel, 'Model')) {
$models[] = Inflector::underscore($currentModel);
}
$isValidModel = (
isset($this->$currentModel) && is_a($this->$currentModel, 'Model') &&
!empty($this->$currentModel->validationErrors)
);
if ($isValidModel) {
$View->validationErrors[Inflector::camelize($currentModel)] =&
$this->$currentModel->validationErrors;
}
}
$models = array_diff(ClassRegistry::keys(), $models);
foreach ($models as $currentModel) {
if (ClassRegistry::isKeySet($currentModel)) {
$currentObject =& ClassRegistry::getObject($currentModel);
if (is_a($currentObject, 'Model') && !empty($currentObject->validationErrors)) {
$View->validationErrors[Inflector::camelize($currentModel)] =&
$currentObject->validationErrors;
}
}
}
}
$this->autoRender = false;
$output = $View->render($action, $layout, $file);
return $output;
}
So I'm basically rendering the view with it's layout, and returning it as output, and saving it to a file. Great. Is there any way to do something similar in a model?

Answer 1

You may consider setting a member variable in your afterSave() in the model and checking that value in your afterFilter() in your controller.

Answer 2

I found this thread while searching for how to render a view from a model. In my case I'm calling a custom method in the model, so this might not work for afterSave(), but if you're calling a custom method you can do it like this:
Controller:
$this->Model->myFunc($this);
Model
public function myFunc($object) {
$object->render();
}
Hopefully that helps someone else who comes across this thread.