Question

I am using cakephp 2.1.0

I have a Post Controller that basically creates a Post that has id as integer, title, image as string

I have a controller action that can work with a view that allows me to upload a file and create a new Post record. The action is called admin_add

This is working.

However, I want to expose this action admin_add such that a desktop app built in Adobe Flex can call it.

Preferably I want to use RESTful actions.

Basically I want to create this action as a web service.

Most tutorials I see online tend to be for READ-only actions such as view and index.

What changes do I need to add to the cakephp application code?

Answer 1

I figured it out after sometime.

Assuming the following setup

• Cakephp 2.x
• the action here is public for anonymous users

Step 1. Install Webservice Plugin by josegonzalez.

Step 1.1. Setup Router::parseExtensions for json

Step 1.2. Add ‘Webservice.Webservice’ to the components of PostController

Step 1.3. Load the Plugin

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Step 2. You need to change the following action for PostController

    public function add() { 
    
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {

        // create new Post -- this will grab the file from the request data
        $newPost = $this->Post->createNew($this->request->data);
    
        if ($newPost) {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('Your Post has been saved'));
            // for normal webpage submission
            if (empty($this->request->params['ext'])) {
                $this->redirect('/');                   
            } else {        
                // for json response to Flex client 
                $result = $newPost;
                $error = null;
                $id = null;
            }
        } else {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('Your Post could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
            // for json response for failure to create
            if (!empty($this->request->params['ext'])) {
            
                    
                    $result = null;
                    $error = 'Your Post could not be saved.';
                    $id = null;
            
            }
            
        }
        // this is for json response via Webservice.Webservice
        $this->set(compact('result', 'error', 'id'));
        
    }

    }

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Step 3. Setup your Flex code as stated in this answer here. This is how you then retrieve the JSON response in Flex Actionscript.

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Step 4. You should expect to get back a json response consisting of the 3 variables result, error, and id and the cake validationErrors. You may choose to blacklist validationErrors as stated in the plugin.