Cakephp3: How can I return json data?

Question

I am having a ajax post call to a cakePhp Controller:

$.ajax({
                type: \"POST\",
                url: \'locations/add\',
                data: {
           


        

Answer 1

Most answers I've seen here are either outdated, overloaded with unnecessary information, or rely on withBody(), which feels workaround-ish and not a CakePHP way.

Here's what worked for me instead:

$my_results = ['foo'=>'bar'];

$this->set([
    'my_response' => $my_results,
    '_serialize' => 'my_response',
]);
$this->RequestHandler->renderAs($this, 'json');

More info on RequestHandler. Seemingly it's not getting deprecated anytime soon.

UPDATE: CakePHP 4

$this->set(['my_response' => $my_results]);
$this->viewBuilder()->setOption('serialize', true);
$this->RequestHandler->renderAs($this, 'json');

More info