cakePHP: optional URL parameters

Question

probably this is a quick one, but I can't get my head around right now.

I have the following problem using unnamed optional parameters. Let's say I have the following a action in a controller with two fixed and two optional parameters:

function action ($param1, $param2, $param3=NULL, $param4=NULL) {
//any code
}

$param3 and $param4 can exist both, none or one of the two. Everything works fine if either none, all four or the first three parameters are set. e.g.

www.domain.com/controller/action/value1/value2/value3/

The problem comes up, if param3 is left out

www.domain.com/controller/action/value1/value2//value4/

Is there are way to tell Cake to handle the // between param2 und param4 as a unset param3? Currently the paramters are assigned to "wrong" variables.

$param1= value1
$param2= value2
$param3= value4
$param4= NULL

What I want to have is the following

$param1= value1
$param2= value2
$param3= NULL
$param4= value4

Any help here is highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot guys..

Best, Sebastian

it should be "public function action()" - and why are you using passed params like this if you cannot guarantee the order? use named/query params instead then. — mark

Pierre Lechelle Pierre Lechelle · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-19T11:35:46

You can't do that with CakePHP, and even more in PHP. When you define param's order, every parameters needs to have a value.

I suggest you use named parameters, you'll be able to have:

http://www.example.com/controller/action/param1:value1/param2:value2/param4:value4/

See the documentation for named parameters for more informations.

Edit: I'm not sure, but you should also be able to do this :

www.domain.com/controller/action/value1/value2//value4/

But the option of named parameters is definitely better !

cakePHP: optional URL parameters

2 Answers