Question

I am building an application using cakePHP. Do we have a method where we can allow public users access to certain pages without logging in. There would be a few pages such as about us regarding the whole organisation or a contact us page. Is there a method to avoid login access, something similar to how we have ways to add components or set layouts.

Answer 1

As Martin Bean says, you can use ACL. For a sophisticated site, that would be my choice. You do not have to be logged in to access the public pages. http://multiheadweighers.co.uk is an example of a site that uses ACL. There is a fully featured CMS behind the public pages.

For a simple site I would allow access to, for instance, the view action using

function beforeFilter() {
    parent::beforeFilter;
    $this->Auth->allow('view');
}

see: http://book.cakephp.org/view/1257/allow

It really isn’t a big deal – try it and you’ll see how easy it is.

EDIT:

From the book @ http://book.cakephp.org/view/1550/Setting-up-permissions

Now we want to take out the references
to Auth->allowedActions in your users
and groups controllers. Then add the
following to your posts and widgets
controllers:

function beforeFilter() 
{    
    parent::beforeFilter();     
    $this->Auth->allowedActions = array('index', 'view');
}

This removes the ‘off switches’ we put in earlier on the users and groups controllers, and gives public access on the index and view actions in posts and widgets controllers. In AppController::beforeFilter() add the following:

 $this->Auth->allowedActions = array('display');

This makes the ‘display’ action public. This will keep our PagesController::display() public. This is important as often the default routing has this action as the home page for you application.

EDIT 2:

    $user = ($this->Auth->user())?$this->Auth->user():'Anonymous';
    if(!$this->Acl->check($user,"{$url}"))
        $this->redirect($this->referer()); // or whatever action you want to take.