let's say i have:
http://some-domain/application/controller/action/parameter
This is somehow working in cakePHP. Now I want to now what exactly 'parameter' is. But inside the Model. How to get to this information?
I have to say that there is a formular including a 'Next' Button and I want to validate the input inside of the Model in beforeValidate(). But I have to know on which page the user was at the time of clicking the submit button. This page is 'parameter'.
There are two type of parameter in CakePHP, you have passed parameters and named parameters. A passed parameter is as shown in your example and will be passed as part of the url.
http://example.com/controller/action/passed_param
echo $this->params['passed'][0] // 'passed_param'
http://example.com/controller/action/name:param
echo $this->params['named']['name'] // 'param'
I would recommend getting the parameters in your controller and calling model methods with them passed through.
Such as
$this->Model->find('all', array('conditions'=>array('id'=>$this->params['passed'][0])));
As to how it's working, you will want to have a look at your routes file. In your app/config/routes.php you will find all the routing and which parts are passed.
The standard cake url format is usually as follows, as you'll see in the routes. array('controller'=>'MyController', 'action'=>'MyAction', 'MyParam');
I can't seem to find a specific page in the book on Params, but have a google around for guides.
Model (in MVC design pattern) shouldn't have direct access to any external variables. The proper way is to pass that variable as a parameter from Controller or View:
$myModelObj->doSth($getParameter);
Router::getParams() is available from everywhere and gives
[plugin] =>
[controller] => leads
[action] => step1
[named] => Array()
[pass] => Array()
[url] => Array(
[ext] => html
[url] => someurl/post-1
)