CakePHP 2.5.3 Status 500 - View file is missing when using JsonView _serialize

Question

I'm trying to send a simple AJAX request from my view, and I'm using cakePHP's JSON view to do so, but I'm unable to get _serialize to prevent the controller from seeking a ctp file--I consistently get a "Status 500: view file ... is missing" error. I've read the docs and several similar questions on stackoverflow, and I can't see what I'm missing.

I've added the requesthandler to my initialize function in AppController:

public function initialize() {
    $this->loadComponent('RequestHandler');
}

enabled extensions:

Router::parseExtensions('json');
require CAKE . 'Config' . DS . 'routes.php';

I've added the component to my controller:

class StudentsController extends AppController {
    public $name = 'Students';
    public $components = array('RequestHandler');

The only thing that seems to change it is when I add the following code to AppController's beforeFilter method--just renders the word "null":

$this->RequestHandler->renderAs($this, 'json');
$this->response->type('application/json');
$this->set('_serialize', true);

This is my controller method:

public function set_rating() {
    $this->autoLayout = false;
    $this->autoRender = false;
    $this->response->type('application/json');

    $studentID = (int) $this->request->data['studentID'];
    $rating = (int) $this->request->data['rating'];

    $this->Student->id = $studentID;
    if($this->Student->saveField('rating', $rating)) {
        $this->set('success', 1);
    }
    else{
        $this->set('success', 0);
    }
    $this->set("_serialize", array("success"));
}

and the Ajax request:

$.ajax({
    url: '<?php echo $this->webroot . $this->params["controller"]; ?>/set_rating.json',
    type: "POST",
    dataType: "json",
    data:  {studentID: text, rating: value},
    success: function(response) {
        if(response['success'] == 1){
            manageFlashMessage('alert-success', 'Rating saved.');
        }
        else {
            manageFlashMessage('alert-danger', 'Sorry, something went wrong');
        }
    },
    error: function (xhr, status, error) {
       console.log(xhr.status);
       console.log(xhr.responseText);
       console.log(status);
    }
});

I can't see what I'm missing! Any ideas?

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 30 '16 at 13:20

I had the same error message in a similar context; In my case, it was due to the fact that the method I was trying to call didn't get through the isAuthorized function. As such, it was redirected to another method, which was not intended to be viewed in json format, and that's how the "Status 500: view file ... is missing" error message came about.

I simply had to add the appropriate exception for my json method within the isAuthorized function and that fixed it.

To debug these types of errors, one can try to access the url directly instead through an ajax call, because then the corresponding permission error message will be shown.

This is exactly what it turned out to be--there was one place I had forgotten to allow the user type to access the new model. An aco_sync took care of it. It's always the little things... — Amanda Keogh, May 10 '16 at 19:31

CakePHP 2.5.3 Status 500 - View file is missing when using JsonView _serialize

1 Answers1