AfterSave.md

AfterSave Behavior

A CakePHP behavior that allows the entity to be available after the save in the state it was before the save. It also allows it to be available outside of the afterSave() callback later on, where needed.

Introduction

It takes a clone of the entity from beforeSave(). This allows all the info on it to be available in the afterSave() callback or from the outside without resetting (dirty, ...).

This can be useful if one wants to compare what fields got changed, or e.g. for logging the diff.

Technical limitation

Make sure you do not further modify the entity in the table's beforeSave() then. As this would not be part of the cloned and stored entity here.

Usage

Attach it to your model's Table class in its initialize() method like so:

$this->addBehavior('Tools.AfterSave', $options);

Then inside your table you can do:

public function afterSave(Event $event, EntityInterface $entity, ArrayObject $options): void {
    $entityBefore = $this->getEntityBeforeSave();
    // Now you can check diff dirty fields etc
}

The same call could also be made from the calling layer/object on the table:

$table->saveOrFail();
$entityBefore = $table->getEntityBeforeSave();

If you are using save(), make sure you check the result and that the save was successful. Only call this method after a successful save operation. Otherwise, there will not be an entity stored and you would get an exception here.

Also note that by default the "dirty" fields should be present in the afterSave() callback still. Same for "original" values. So if your needs are bound to that callback only, this behavior might not be needed usually.