So you want a separate admin panel in your CakePHP app? To make one, we need to edit some files and make some new ones. We will also look into creating a theme for the admin panel, and utilize it when in admin.
We are using CakePHP 2.x for this tutorial.
1. Edit /app/Config/core.php
Find:
Configure::write('Routing.prefixes', array('admin'));
We add the admin prefix and uncomment it.
2. Create a layout for admin
- go to /app/View/Layouts
- make a copy of default.ctp
- name it; admin.ctp
3. Edit admin.ctp layout
- make necessary modifications to the layout
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<?php echo $this->Html->charset(); ?>
<title>Administrator | <?php echo $title_for_layout; ?></title>
<?php
echo $this->fetch('meta');
echo $this->Html->css(array('admin'));
echo $this->fetch('css');
echo $this->fetch('script');
?>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="header">
<div class="logo"></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
<div id="content-wrapper">
<?php echo $this->fetch('content'); ?>
</div>
<div id="footer">
© <?php echo date("Y");?> - All rights
</div>
<?php echo $this->element('sql_dump'); ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
4. create admin.css stylesheet
- /app/webroot/css/admin.css
- add your styling
5. edit AppController.php
- add a prefix check in your beforeFilter function to load your admin layout
public function beforeFilter() {
if ((isset($this->params['prefix']) && ($this->params['prefix'] == 'admin'))) {
$this->layout = 'admin';
}
}
6. Edit UsersController.php
- We need to tell UsersController that it needs to run the beforeFilter from AppController (remember to put this in all your controllers).
public function beforeFilter() {
parent::beforeFilter();
// Controller spesific beforeFilter
}
- Create an admin function:
public function admin_dashboard() {
$title_for_layout = 'Dashbord';
$this->set(compact('title_for_layout'));
}
- Create the view for the function (/app/Views/Users/admin_dashboard.ctp)
<h1>Dashboard</h1> <p>Welcome to the Admin Panel</p>
7. Point browser to your admin location
- if you have login functions and Auth in play, try setting the auth allow to * in UsersController.php
$this->Auth->allow('*');
- Go to: your-domain.com/admin/users/dashboard
- Your new admin layout should now render, and you should see the “welcome to the admin panel” message.
8. Make more functions + Controllers + Views + Models
- remember to put admin_ on all admin functions/views
- When “admin_” prefix is in use, the admin layout will render.
Have Fun!!
