Question

I have this application that directs users to Types of attractions with this function:

public function index($type=null) {
        $this->set('title','What to do when you visit Gulf Shores');

        $this->paginate['Attraction']=array(
                'limit'=>9,
                'order'=>array('Attraction.id'=>'asc'),
                'conditions'=>array(
                        'active'=>1,
                        'attr_type'=>$type
                        )
                );
        $c=$this->paginate('Attraction');
        $this->set('attractions', $c);

}

and it works great, but I’d like users to also be able to go to a front page /attractions/ that doesn’t filter out by attr_type. This function shows zero results (as obviously $type still = null) for the front page. Is there a step I’m missing or must I have a view.ctp file and function in my controller?

Answer 1

You could use an if statement to determine the conditions:

public function index($type = null) {
    $this->set('title', 'What to do when you visit Gulf Shores');

    $conditions = array();  //create $conditions outside of the if statement
    if ($type) {    //if $type is equal to anything other than null or 0
        $conditions = array(
            'active' => 1,
            'attr_type' => $type
        );
    } else {
        $conditions = array(
            'active' => 1
        );
    }

    $this->paginate['Attraction'] = array(
        'limit' => 9,
        'order' => array('Attraction.id' => 'asc'),
        'conditions' => $conditions
    );
    $c = $this->paginate('Attraction');
    $this->set('attractions', $c);
}

It’s not actually necessary to create $conditions outside of the if statement in PHP but it is in a lot of other programming languages because of scope.

If you create a variable inside a if statement is it available outside the if statement?