Simple Answer
For common functions across your application, add a Lib or Utility class.
app/Lib/MyClass.php
class MyClass {
public static function usaStateList() {
// ...
}
}
Then add this at the top of whichever file you want access to the function:
App::uses('MyClass', 'Lib');
And call your function wherever you like:
$myClass = new MyClass();
$states = $myClass::usaStateList();
Better Answer
It looks to me like your specific problem is that you want to be able to get a list of US states in both your controller and your view. The best way to do this is to have a database table of US states.
Create a table in your database called us_states.
Example SQL:
CREATE TABLE `us_states` (
`id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
`name` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
`abbreviation` CHAR(2) NOT NULL
) ENGINE = MYISAM
Insert all the states as data in that table. You can find SQL dumps on the Internet which already have that for you (e.g. Like this one).
Create a UsState model in CakePHP.
/**
* Model for US States
*
* @package app.Model
*/
class UsState extends AppModel {
/**
* Default sort order
*
* @var string|array
*/
public $order = 'UsState.name';
}
What you can then do is access the states from your controller just by using the model.
/**
* Your Controller
*
* @package app.Controller
*/
class YourController extends AppController {
public function index() {
// Get a list of US states
$this->loadModel('UsState');
$states = $this->UsState->find('all');
}
}
And if you want to access those states in your View, then you should pass along that data as you normally would any other variables.
I imagine you would want to do that so you can have a select menu of US states, perhaps.
public function index() {
// Get a list of US states
$this->loadModel('UsState');
$states = $this->UsState->find('all');
// Make the states into an array we can use for a select menu
$stateOptions = array();
foreach ($states as $state) {
$stateOptions[$state['id']] = $state['name'];
}
// Send the options to the View
$this->set(compact('stateOptions'));
}
And in your view you can display a select menu for that like this:
echo $this->Form->select('us_state_id', $stateOptions);
