无法使用beforeValidate初始化变量

I have a custom behavior, specified in AppModel.php, that automatically creates a field based on the selected language. Thus, depending on the chosen language, name_eng -> name or name_fra -> name.

...
$virtualField = sprintf($model->name.'.'.$name.'_%s', Configure::read('Config.language'));
$virtualFields[$name] = $virtualField;
$model->virtualFields = $virtualFields;
...

This part works.

The issue arises when I submit the edit form, get a validation error and the field isn't available when the edit view is displayed with error prompts. I believe this is due to either my behavior not being called in this process or $this->request->data being created using form data?

I figured that I would initialize the values using beforeValidate. However, it's not working out: the field still doesn't exist once I've submitted the form which gives me this error:

In AppModel.php:

function beforeValidate(array $options = array()){
    //hard coded for test purposes
    $this->data['CertificateType']['name'] = $this->data['CertificateType']['name_'.Configure::read('Config.language')]
    return true;
}

In the view (edit.ctp):

echo $this->request->data['CertificateType']['name'];

Essentially, how can I replicate the functionality of my custom behavior and initialize my field after a form has been submitted but doesn't validate?

The needed logic was eventually put in AppController.php. Everything works fine now.