Question

I have an element called userbar on every page – it tells the user if he/she is logged in or not. I created this element and echoed it in default.ctp:

<?php echo $this->element('userbar', array('text' => 'You are not logged in.')); ?>

Now it shows on every page. However, I can’t find anywhere how to change this text. For e.g., I would like to access this element from some controller and change it. How?

Answer 1

You set a view variable and then use that.

<?php
class MyController extends AppController
{
    function myaction () {
        $this->set ('my_var', 'You are not logged in');
    }
}
?>

And then in the view:

<?php echo $this->element ('userbar', array ('text' => $my_var)); ?>

Considering this is something you’d do on every page request its best to put it in the AppController::beforeFilter().

There are other ways to do this. But if you render the element in the controller you still need to set a view variable and echo that in the view.

Hope this helps.