Stars

Behavior API

Attach the behavior in your table's initialize() method:

$this->addBehavior('Favorites.Starable');

Write a star from trusted application code using the authenticated user's ID:

$behavior = $posts->getBehavior('Starable');
$behavior->addStar(['modelId' => $postId, 'userId' => $userId]);
$behavior->removeStar(['modelId' => $postId, 'userId' => $userId]);

addStar() returns the saved reaction ID, or null when the returned entity is not saved. Storage failures can throw an ORM persistence exception. removeStar() returns the number of deleted rows. Never take the user ID directly from form data.

Use the named finder argument with CakePHP's current ORM:

$posts->find('starred');
$posts->find('starredBy', userId: $userId);

starred means starred by any user. starredBy filters to one user.

Preload the current user's star

Starred is available once the behavior is attached. Without a behavior userId setting, explicitly filter it for the current user:

$posts->find()->contain([
    'Starred' => fn ($query) => $query->where(['Starred.user_id' => $userId]),
]);

In the template:

echo $this->Stars->linkIcon('Posts', $post->id, (bool)$post->starred);

The third argument avoids a helper lookup. Do not contain an unfiltered Starred association to represent the current user's state.

Counters

Add an integer starred_count column with a default of zero to your host table, then enable:

$this->addBehavior('Favorites.Starable', ['counterCache' => true]);

The behavior configures CakePHP's CounterCache behavior for the host association. Adding and removing stars uses entity callbacks to update the counter. Admin reset uses deleteAll(), which bypasses those callbacks. Recalculate counters after a reset. Existing stars also need an initial counter backfill.

Display options

The default helper uses the ★ character. Load Font Awesome separately if you select its FA6 template:

$this->addHelper('Favorites.Stars', [
    'html' => \Favorites\View\Helper\StarsHelper::HTML_TYPE_FA6,
    'colorMap' => [0 => '#666', 1 => '#b45309'],
]);

You can pass your own HTML template or disable inline colors with colorMap => false and style the star and starred classes.

Same-action forms

For a controller that receives star submissions on its own action, set its default table and load Favorites.Starable. Configure the helper with strategy => 'action'. Processing defaults to startup, not beforeRender. Set on => 'beforeRender' and useEntity => true only when the action places the target entity in its expected view variable first. Restrict the component to the intended actions and avoid mixing unrelated forms with its payload.

The separate plugin controller is the simpler starting point. Getting started covers that route.