Rendering controller to a different view in CakePHP

Question

Is there a way to render a controller to a different view then normal? I'm trying to pass some data from the controller to a non-default view. Meaning my controller is called:

class StocksRealtimeController extends AppController {
    var $uses               = 'StockRealtime';
    function index(){
        $action = '/TestView';
        $this->set('stocksRT', $this->StockRealtime->find('all'));
        //$this -> viewPath = 'Pages';
        $this -> render('/TestView/index');
    }
}

... and My view is in views->TestView->index.ctp

Another question I have is, how to pass that value to a PHP and not a ctp file outside of the CakePHP framework?

I have tried everything from here with no luck.

Answer 1

The right way:

$this -> render('TestView/index');

As the answer above mentions, you can use $this -> set to pass a variable to the View.

However, if that doesn't give you what you want. I'm guessing that you also want the action to display another layout (non-default layout). You can try doing $this -> layout = 'layoutname'; (Layouts are in the layout folder, default on is default.ctp).

Note: CakePHP's controller isn't designed to pass data to a non-view file (like .php). CakePHP's views should be ending with .ctp.

Answer 2

I would rather use:

$this->view = 'file';

because any $this->set('var', $val) you'll have after $this->render('file') will not reach your view.

In CakePHP 3.x use:

$this->viewBuilder()->template('file');

Deprecated in CakePHP 3.7. Use this instead (as Kuldeep Choudhary suggested in comments)

ViewBuilder::setTemplate('file');

Answer 3

Try to put the name of the view without .ctp extension.

$this->render('file');

Answer 4

class StocksRealtimeController extends AppController
{
   var $uses = 'StockRealtime';

   function index( )
   {
     $this->layout     = NULL;
     $this->autoRender = false;

     $this->set('stocksRT', $this->StockRealtime->find('all'));

     return $this -> render('/TestView/index');
     /*
        $this -> render('/TestView/index');
        Here 'TestView' must be a Folder named same as "public $name" variable value        
        in Controller and an "index.ctp" must be situated under TestView Folder.
       'index'
     */
   }
}

Give it a try, return 'KEYWORD' must be there to render view page successfully. Sorry about 2nd question as i didn't get it. According to CakePHP, variable [stocksTR] which is set using $this -> set( ) , also will be available at manually render view page [ 'index.ctp' ].

Answer 5

 $this->view  = '/TestView/index';
 $this->set('stocksRT', $this->StockRealtime->find('all'));

Answer 6

public function admin_index() { 

    $this->layout = 'admin/table';

    $action = '/Vendors';

    $this->Prg->commonProcess('Vendor');

    $this->paginate = array('conditions' => array($this->Vendor->parseCriteria($this->passedArgs)), 'order' => 'Vendor.created_on DESC', 'limit' => 15);

    $this->set('vendor', $this->paginate('Vendor'));

    $this->render('/vendors/admin_items');
}

Answer 7

class StocksRealtimeController extends AppController {
var $uses               = 'StockRealtime';

    function index(){

       $this->layout = NULL;
       $this->autoRender = false;

       $this->set('stocksRT', $this->StockRealtime->find('all'));

       $this -> render(`/TestView/index`);

    }
}