Question

I am new to CakePHP.

I would like to use the model validate mechanism, but I’m having trouble overriding the errors that are displayed. I am building an API where all the views need to be rendered in JSON and I have a JSON format that all errors need to output as. I’ve defined a custom AppError class and I have successfully be able to define custom errors in this format there.

Is there a way to use the AppError class to override the output of the error messages coming from validation?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I came up with a solution by adding these methods to my AppModel class:

function validates($options = array()) {
    $result = parent::validates($options);
    if (!$result) {
        $this->_validateErrors();
    }

    return $result;
}

function _validateErrors() {
    foreach ($this->validationErrors as $code) {
            $this->cakeError('apiError', array('code' => $code)); // Custom JSON error.
            return;
    }
}

I then manually call $this->Model->validates() before a Model::save() call in my controller. This seems to be working well.