CakePHP Architecture

Question

I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to share controllers, models, and views for multiple CakePHP apps, but override specific methods within them if necessary. So, for example, if I had the following structure...

/my_cool_app
  /core
    /app
      /Model
        Person.php
        ->findPerson();
        ->mapPerson();
  /orgs
    /org_1
     /app
       /Model
         Person.php
         ->mapPerson();

What I would like to do is have the CakePHP app in org_1/app use all of the controllers, models, views, etc. from /core/app, but provide the ability to override any specific method if the file exists in that structure (for example, org_1/app/Model/Person.php).

Is this doable?

Answer 1

Definitely possible. Your directory as such:

/your_cool_app
    /base
        /app
            /Model
                AppModel.php
                BasePerson.php
    /inherited
        /app
            /Model
                InherietdPerson.php

Then inside of the inherited directory's bootstrap.php you can use App::build() to tell the application where to look for the base models:

App::build(array(
    'Model' => array(
        //Path to the base models
        $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . DS 
            ."your_cool_app" . DS 
                . "base" . DS 
                    . "app" . DS 
                        . "model"
    )
));

The BasePerson will extend AppModel:

<?php

    App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');

    class BasePerson extends AppModel {

    }

?>

And the InheritedPerson extends the BasePerson:

<?php

    App::uses('AppModel', 'Model');

    class InheritedPerson extends BasePerson {

    }

?>

Now to test if it worked just create a controller in the inherited app and check to see what Models your app has loaded:

$this->set('models', App::objects('Model'));

And the view:

<?php
    debug($models); 
?>

It should print out something like the following:

array(
    (int) 0 => 'AppModel', //Is in the base app
    (int) 1 => 'BasePerson', //Is in the base app
    (int) 2 => 'InheritedPerson' //Is in the inherited app
)

Check out CakePhp's App class for more information.