Re: MVC question in basic design of export csv file

This should be handled by the controller and a helper because it's request-oriented. You should keep the model and view separated.

I've seen a CsvHelper online somewhere. Probably at the Bakery.

On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 3:29 PM, glk <greg@kaup.com> wrote:

Hello, I'm having some trouble understanding and/or implementing a simple export of some data to a csv file.

I had everything working fine with a simple controller that did not allow a view to be rendered by either going back to the referrer or by returning the response... as described in the online help. 

But reading some more, it looked as if the export function should really be part of the model.  So I converted the controller to just call the model function (dumpEventAsCSV) which performed all the data gathering and output logic and then returned to the controller and it in would in turn return to the referrer or return the response. Again, all without using a view.

      $fn = "somefilepath";
      $ans = $this->dumpEventAsCSV($ev_id, $fn);
   if ($ans) {
      $this->response->file($fn);
      return $this->response;
    } else {
      $this->Session->setFlash('Unable to export current event');
      $this->redirect($this->referer());
    }

But two problems later appeared... When I starting using some AppHelper::functions to format some of the output, neither the Controller or Model were able to access them.  $this->Form->formatId($ev_id).  Now, obviously I can add another copy of the formatting functions to AppModel and I suppose to AppController, but that seems like overkill... Now the question becomes what have I done wrong with the "design" to get me into this silly circle!?

As another question, In the Controller example shown above, the setFlash never shows up when returning to the referer()... but when I proceed to some other controller/action... it appears?  Along with that, I don't really want to display the csv file to the user after is has been created, so the $this->response->file() would be replaced by a "success" setFlash, and just return to the referrer!

Thank you for any assistance,
glk

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