How to define a variable and dynamically link to a URL in CakePHP?

Question

I am trying to extend onto the 'blog tutorial' from cakephp and am having a little trouble with linking to a logged in user's homepage, which I created on a file called view.ctp.

I can link to most of my file path http://localhost:8888/blogtest/users/view/ up until I need the 'id' to define which page to send someone too.

This is how I am linking to the page:

<a href="/blogtest/users/view/<?php ?>">go</a>

I know I need some logic within the php tags to tell the browser to retrieve the id of the current logged in user.

How would I got about doing this? Where would I create a variable?*

Does the var go in the UsersController.php or is it in the User.php? Any help is greatly appreciated!

UsersController php:

<?php

// app/Controller/UsersController.php
App::uses('AppController', 'Controller');



class UsersController extends AppController {

    public function beforeFilter() {
    parent::beforeFilter();
    // Allow users to register and logout.
    $this->Auth->allow('add', 'logout');
    }

    public function login() {
        if ($this->request->is('post')) {
            if ($this->Auth->login()) {
                return $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirectUrl());
            }
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('Invalid username or password, try again'));
        }
    }

    public function logout() {
        return $this->redirect($this->Auth->logout());
    }

    public function index() {
        $this->User->recursive = 0;
        $this->set('users', $this->paginate());
    }

    public function view($id = null) {
        $this->User->id = $id;
        if (!$this->User->exists()) {
            throw new NotFoundException(__('Invalid user'));
        }
        $this->set('user', $this->User->read(null, $id));
    }

    public function add() {
        if ($this->request->is('post')) {
            $this->User->create();
            if ($this->User->save($this->request->data)) {
                $this->Session->setFlash(__('The user has been saved'));
                return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
            }
            $this->Session->setFlash(
                __('The user could not be saved. Please, try again.')
            );
        }
    }

    public function edit($id = null) {
        $this->User->id = $id;
        if (!$this->User->exists()) {
            throw new NotFoundException(__('Invalid user'));
        }
        if ($this->request->is('post') || $this->request->is('put')) {
            if ($this->User->save($this->request->data)) {
                $this->Session->setFlash(__('The user has been saved'));
                return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
            }
            $this->Session->setFlash(
                __('The user could not be saved. Please, try again.')
            );
        } else {
            $this->request->data = $this->User->read(null, $id);
            unset($this->request->data['User']['password']);
        }
    }

    public function delete($id = null) {
        // Prior to 2.5 use
        // $this->request->onlyAllow('post');

        $this->request->allowMethod('post');

        $this->User->id = $id;
        if (!$this->User->exists()) {
            throw new NotFoundException(__('Invalid user'));
        }
        if ($this->User->delete()) {
            $this->Session->setFlash(__('User deleted'));
            return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
        }
        $this->Session->setFlash(__('User was not deleted'));
        return $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
    }

}

?>

Answer 1

Pay attention to the blog tutorial text:

The single instruction in the action uses set() to pass data from the controller to the view (which we’ll create next). The line sets the view variable called ‘posts’ equal to the return value of the find('all') method of the Post model.

It goes on here and explains exactly what you want:

        <td>
            <?php echo $this->Html->link($post['Post']['title'],
array('controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'view', $post['Post']['id'])); ?>
        </td>

Honestly I have doubts you tried to read it at all. If you really did read this section again. It is all there in great detail.