To go through this recipe, we need some data to work with. Create a table named articles with the following SQL statement:

CREATE TABLE `articles`(
`id` INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL,
`title` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
`body` TEXT NOT NULL,
`created` DATETIME NOT NULL,
`modified` DATETIME NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(`id`)
);

Now add some sample data to this table with the following statement:

INSERT INTO `articles`(`title`, `body`, `created`, `modified`) VALUES
('First Article', 'Body for first article', NOW(), NOW()),
('Second Article', 'Body for second article', NOW(), NOW()),
('Third Article', 'Body for third article', NOW(), NOW());

Create the controller for this table in a file named articles_controller.php and place it in your app/controllers folder, with the following contents:

<?php
class ArticlesController extends AppController {
public function index() {
$this->paginate['limit'] = 2;
$articles = $this->paginate();
$this->set(compact('articles'));
}
public function add() {
if (!empty($this->data)) {
$this->Article->create();
if ($this->Article->save($this->data)) {
$this->Session->setFlash('Article saved'),
$this->redirect(array('action'=>'index'));
} else {
$this->Session->setFlash('Please correct the errors'),
}
}
}
public function view($id) {
$article = $this->Article->find('first', array(
'conditions' => array('Article.id' => $id)
));
if (empty($article)) {
$this->cakeError('error404'),
}
$this->set(compact('article'));
}
}
?>

Create a file named article.php and place it in your app/models folder, with the following contents:

<?php
class Article extends AppModel {
public $validate = array(
'title' => 'notEmpty',
'body' => 'notEmpty'
);
}
?>

Create a folder named articles in your app/views folder, and inside that folder create a file named index.ctp with the following contents:

<h1>Articles</h1>
<p>
<?php echo $this->Paginator->counter(); ?>
&nbsp;-&nbsp;
<?php echo $this->Paginator->prev(); ?>
&nbsp;
<?php echo $this->Paginator->numbers(); ?>
&nbsp;
<?php echo $this->Paginator->next(); ?>
</p>
<p>
<?php echo count($articles) . ' articles: '; ?>
</p>
<ul>
<?php foreach($articles as $article) { ?>
<li><?php echo $this->Html->link(
$article['Article']['title'],
array('action'=>'view', $article['Article']['id'])
); ?></li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
<p><?php echo $this->Html->link('Create article', array('action'=>'add')); ?></p>

Create a file named add.ctp and place it in your app/views/articles folder, with the following contents:

<?php
echo $this->Form->create();
echo $this->Form->inputs(array(
'title',
'body'
));
echo $this->Form->end('Save'),
?>

Create a file named view.ctp and place it in your app/views/articles folder, with the following contents:

<h1><?php echo $article['Article']['title']; ?></h1>
<?php echo $article['Article']['body']; ?>

If you now browse to http://localhost/articles, you should see a paginated list of articles, as shown in the following screenshot:

CakePHP offers two main methods (amongst others) to allow developers to specify content that can be translated: __() and __n(). The naming of these methods may seem a bit odd, but they are largely influenced by Perl's implementation of gettext, a tool that is part of the GNU Translation Project.

The __() method is used to translate static text, and takes up to two arguments:

The __n() method is used to translate static text that could change if a certain value is either singular or plural, and takes up to four arguments:

We start by changing the flash messages in the ArticlesController class to use the __() method, specifying that the translated string should be returned rather than echoed to the client. We continue by modifying the add.ctp view so that all labels and the form legend can be translated.

Similarly, we wrap the title in the index.ctp view with the translator function. We then use the first parameter of the counter(), next(), and prev() methods that are part of the PaginatorHelper class to pass the translated version of the appropriate pagination text. Finally, we use the __n() function to choose the correct translated text depending on the value of the count variable.

$translated = __d('my_plugin', 'Hello World', true);

$translated = __dc('default', 'Hello World', 6, true);