Question

I want to check if an email/username is unique from a controller. I wrote model validation for isUnique and it works. But I also want a way to use it in controller. Some thing like

$this->User->validates(array('email'=>'[e-mail]'));

or

$this->User->checkunique();
//is this the right way to write a different function again.

I know I can use findByEmail from controller and check if it returns empty result set. But I feel that there is a simpler approach or already available way cakephp offers. Please correct me if I am wrong and let me point out the correct approach in this context.

Thanks,
kiran

Answer 1

Have you had a look at the Cook Book already? There’s a nice explanation on how to do it:

http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/models/data-validation/validating-data-from-the-controller.html

To sum it up. First set the data to validate:

$this->User->set($data);

Then validate it and pass a list of fields to restrict validation to if neccessary:

$this->User->validates(array('fieldList' => array('email')));

Whether you wrap this up in a custom model method is totally up to you, though from a DRY point of view it’s a good idea to do so.