CakePHP: Deleting and the afterDelete() callback

August 4, 2008 by andyg

Here is the problem I just had. I was trying to delete an image off the disk after all references to it in the database had gone - kinda like unlink(). I couldn’t work out how to access the data in the model. I need to know the filename, so I can delete it. It seems that the only way to do it is:

  1. Define a var to hold the filename

    private $_tmpImageName;

  2. Populate this in the beforeDelete() callback

    function beforeDelete() 
{
    $this->_tmpImageName = $this->read(null, $this->id);
    return true;
}

  3. Then access it in the afterDelete() callback, with something like this:

    function afterDelete()
{
    unlink($this->_tmpImageName['Image']['name']);
    return true;
}

If you know of a better way, let me know.

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2 Comments »

  1. $this->_tmpImageName['Image']['name'] should contain the absolute path to be unlink-ed.
    Problably you have just the name of image.

    Comment by Gabriel — October 20, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

  2. Turn it in, it’s an example. How do you know that field in my application doesn’t contain the absolute path?

    Comment by andyg — October 20, 2008 @ 3:42 pm

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