CakePHP: How to use a view element inside of a controller

Question

I\'m trying to figure out how to use one of my view elements inside of a controller...

I know, I know: \"Don\'t do that!\" (99% of the time this is

Answer 1

I know this is an old question and other people have already given basically the same answer, but I want to point out that this approach (provided by Serge S.) ...

set('data', array('a'=>123, 'b'=>456, 'd'=>678));

    // disable layout template
    $this->layout = 'ajax';

    // render!
    $this->render('/Elements/some_element');
}

...is not a hacky workaround, but is in fact the recommended approach from the CakePHP docs for this common and legitimate use case:

If $view starts with ‘/’, it is assumed to be a view or element file relative to the /app/View folder. This allows direct rendering of elements, very useful in AJAX calls.

(Again: Credit to Serge S. for the code above)