Class Behavior

Base class for behaviors.

Behaviors allow you to simulate mixins, and create reusable blocks of application logic, that can be reused across several models. Behaviors also provide a way to hook into model callbacks and augment their behavior.

Mixin methods

Behaviors can provide mixin like features by declaring public methods. These methods will be accessible on the tables the behavior has been added to.

function doSomething($arg1, $arg2) {
  // do something
}

Would be called like $table->doSomething($arg1, $arg2);.

Callback methods

Behaviors can listen to any events fired on a Table. By default CakePHP provides a number of lifecycle events your behaviors can listen to:

  • beforeFind(Event $event, Query $query, ArrayObject $options, boolean $primary) Fired before each find operation. By stopping the event and supplying a return value you can bypass the find operation entirely. Any changes done to the $query instance will be retained for the rest of the find. The $primary parameter indicates whether or not this is the root query, or an associated query.

  • buildValidator(Event $event, Validator $validator, string $name) Fired when the validator object identified by $name is being built. You can use this callback to add validation rules or add validation providers.

  • buildRules(Event $event, RulesChecker $rules) Fired when the rules checking object for the table is being built. You can use this callback to add more rules to the set.

  • beforeRules(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options, $operation) Fired before an entity is validated using by a rules checker. By stopping this event, you can return the final value of the rules checking operation.

  • afterRules(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options, bool $result, $operation) Fired after the rules have been checked on the entity. By stopping this event, you can return the final value of the rules checking operation.

  • beforeSave(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options) Fired before each entity is saved. Stopping this event will abort the save operation. When the event is stopped the result of the event will be returned.

  • afterSave(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options) Fired after an entity is saved.

  • beforeDelete(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options) Fired before an entity is deleted. By stopping this event you will abort the delete operation.

  • afterDelete(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options) Fired after an entity has been deleted.

In addition to the core events, behaviors can respond to any event fired from your Table classes including custom application specific ones.

You can set the priority of a behaviors callbacks by using the priority setting when attaching a behavior. This will set the priority for all the callbacks a behavior provides.

Finder methods

Behaviors can provide finder methods that hook into a Table's find() method. Custom finders are a great way to provide preset queries that relate to your behavior. For example a SluggableBehavior could provide a find('slugged') finder. Behavior finders are implemented the same as other finders. Any method starting with find will be setup as a finder. Your finder methods should expect the following arguments:

findSlugged(Query $query, array $options)
Cake\ORM\Behavior implements Cake\Event\EventListenerInterface uses Cake\Core\InstanceConfigTrait

Direct Subclasses

Namespace: Cake\ORM
See: \Cake\ORM\Table::addBehavior()
See: Cake\Event\EventManager
Location: ORM/Behavior.php

Properties summary

Inherited Properties

Method Summary

Method Detail

__construct()source public 

__construct( Cake\ORM\Table $table , array $config [] )

Constructor

Merges config with the default and store in the config property

Parameters

Cake\ORM\Table $table
The table this behavior is attached to.
array $config optional []
The config for this behavior.

_reflectionCache()source protected 

_reflectionCache( )

Gets the methods implemented by this behavior

Uses the implementedEvents() method to exclude callback methods. Methods starting with _ will be ignored, as will methods declared on Cake\ORM\Behavior

Returns

array

_resolveMethodAliases()source protected 

_resolveMethodAliases( string $key , array $defaults , array $config )

Removes aliased methods that would otherwise be duplicated by userland configuration.

Parameters

string $key
The key to filter.
array $defaults
The default method mappings.
array $config
The customized method mappings.

Returns

array
A de-duped list of config data.

getTable()source public 

getTable( )

Get the table instance this behavior is bound to.

Returns

Cake\ORM\Table
The bound table instance.

implementedEvents()source public 

implementedEvents( )

Gets the Model callbacks this behavior is interested in.

By defining one of the callback methods a behavior is assumed to be interested in the related event.

Override this method if you need to add non-conventional event listeners. Or if you want your behavior to listen to non-standard events.

Returns

array

Implementation of

Cake\Event\EventListenerInterface::implementedEvents()

implementedFinders()source public 

implementedFinders( )

implementedFinders

Provides an alias->methodname map of which finders a behavior implements. Example:

[
   'this' => 'findThis',
   'alias' => 'findMethodName'
 ]

With the above example, a call to $Table->find('this') will call $Behavior->findThis() and a call to $Table->find('alias') will call $Behavior->findMethodName()

It is recommended, though not required, to define implementedFinders in the config property of child classes such that it is not necessary to use reflections to derive the available method list. See core behaviors for examples

Returns

array

implementedMethods()source public 

implementedMethods( )

implementedMethods

Provides an alias->methodname map of which methods a behavior implements. Example:

[
   'method' => 'method',
   'aliasedmethod' => 'somethingElse'
 ]

With the above example, a call to $Table->method() will call $Behavior->method() and a call to $Table->aliasedmethod() will call $Behavior->somethingElse()

It is recommended, though not required, to define implementedFinders in the config property of child classes such that it is not necessary to use reflections to derive the available method list. See core behaviors for examples

Returns

array

initialize()source public 

initialize( array $config )

Constructor hook method.

Implement this method to avoid having to overwrite the constructor and call parent.

Parameters

array $config
The configuration settings provided to this behavior.

verifyConfig()source public 

verifyConfig( )

verifyConfig

Checks that implemented keys contain values pointing at callable.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
if config are invalid

Methods used from Cake\Core\InstanceConfigTrait

_configDelete()source protected 

_configDelete( string $key )

Deletes a single config key.

Parameters

string $key
Key to delete.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
if attempting to clobber existing config

_configRead()source protected 

_configRead( string|null $key )

Reads a config key.

Parameters

string|null $key
Key to read.

Returns

mixed

_configWrite()source protected 

_configWrite( string|array $key , mixed $value , boolean|string $merge false )

Writes a config key.

Parameters

string|array $key
Key to write to.
mixed $value
Value to write.
boolean|string $merge optional false

True to merge recursively, 'shallow' for simple merge, false to overwrite, defaults to false.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
if attempting to clobber existing config

config()source public 

config( string|array|null $key null , mixed|null $value null , boolean $merge true )

Gets/Sets the config.

Usage

Reading the whole config:

$this->config();

Reading a specific value:

$this->config('key');

Reading a nested value:

$this->config('some.nested.key');

Setting a specific value:

$this->config('key', $value);

Setting a nested value:

$this->config('some.nested.key', $value);

Updating multiple config settings at the same time:

$this->config(['one' => 'value', 'another' => 'value']);

Deprecated

3.4.0 use setConfig()/getConfig() instead.

Parameters

string|array|null $key optional null
The key to get/set, or a complete array of configs.
mixed|null $value optional null
The value to set.
boolean $merge optional true
Whether to recursively merge or overwrite existing config, defaults to true.

Returns

mixed
Config value being read, or the object itself on write operations.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
When trying to set a key that is invalid.

configShallow()source public 

configShallow( string|array $key , mixed|null $value null )

Merge provided config with existing config. Unlike config() which does a recursive merge for nested keys, this method does a simple merge.

Setting a specific value:

$this->configShallow('key', $value);

Setting a nested value:

$this->configShallow('some.nested.key', $value);

Updating multiple config settings at the same time:

$this->configShallow(['one' => 'value', 'another' => 'value']);

Parameters

string|array $key
The key to set, or a complete array of configs.
mixed|null $value optional null
The value to set.

Returns


$this

getConfig()source public 

getConfig( string|null $key null , mixed $default null )

Returns the config.

Usage

Reading the whole config:

$this->getConfig();

Reading a specific value:

$this->getConfig('key');

Reading a nested value:

$this->getConfig('some.nested.key');

Reading with default value:

$this->getConfig('some-key', 'default-value');

Parameters

string|null $key optional null
The key to get or null for the whole config.
mixed $default optional null
The return value when the key does not exist.

Returns

mixed
Config value being read.

setConfig()source public 

setConfig( string|array $key , mixed|null $value null , boolean $merge true )

Sets the config.

Usage

Setting a specific value:

$this->setConfig('key', $value);

Setting a nested value:

$this->setConfig('some.nested.key', $value);

Updating multiple config settings at the same time:

$this->setConfig(['one' => 'value', 'another' => 'value']);

Parameters

string|array $key
The key to set, or a complete array of configs.
mixed|null $value optional null
The value to set.
boolean $merge optional true
Whether to recursively merge or overwrite existing config, defaults to true.

Returns


$this

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
When trying to set a key that is invalid.

Properties detail

$_defaultConfigsource

protected array

Default configuration

These are merged with user-provided configuration when the behavior is used.

[]

$_reflectionCachesource

protected static array

Reflection method cache for behaviors.

Stores the reflected method + finder methods per class. This prevents reflecting the same class multiple times in a single process.

[]

$_tablesource

protected Cake\ORM\Table

Table instance.

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https://api.cakephp.org/3.4/class-Cake.ORM.Behavior.html