Ajax Plugin

Use this plugin when a controller action should return an HTML fragment inside a JSON response, or when a JavaScript client needs redirect URLs and flash messages. For a plain JSON API, CakePHP's core JsonView is usually enough. Register core view classes through Controller::viewClasses() for content negotiation.

Response shape

AjaxView starts with these keys:

{
    "error": null,
    "success": null,
    "content": null
}

content contains rendered template HTML unless you replace it with a serialized view variable. Setting a non-null error or success skips template rendering. Additional serialized variables are included as extra keys. _message appears when the component consumes flash messages; _redirect appears when it intercepts a controller redirect.

The plugin preserves normal HTTP errors. Exception response formatting depends on your application's error handling and content negotiation. Check response.ok in a fetch() client before handling a successful response body. A business error set through the error variable does not change the HTTP status by itself.

Start with Getting started, then read the component and view references.

CakePHP 6 preparation

Use fetchTable() for model access, viewBuilder()->setOption('serialize', ...) for response fields, and $event->setResult() or stopPropagation() in event callbacks. Keep your application on current CakePHP 5 and resolve its deprecations before upgrading. The plugin currently declares CakePHP 5 support only; its inherited view properties and hooks need review when adding CakePHP 6 support.