One problem I recently stumbled upon while developing a site with CakePHP is the issue of controlling elements in a layout. For instance, in one of my controllers, I want to be able to change the look of an element I have embedded in my layout (in this case, it was a simple menu item, that changes depending on what part of the site is being accessed). How can I change this element if it is in the layout, and I have no direct means of communication between my various controllers and the layout?

I've tried installing CakePHP several times on different web hosts, and on each I usually hit a snag when configuring an installation of cake in a subdirectory. There are several reasons for installing in a subdirectory--the primary being that I want to access certain types of resources (like swf and jar files) from the document root, while preserving the cake front controller as the primary director of traffic to the site. The question is, how do I install in a subdirectory without specifing the folder name in the URL, while maintaining access to the current resources on the root of my site?

Just found out, after making a few modifications to my site, that the FindAll method has been deprecated. I had been using this frequently throughout my site; I'm not sure how I feel about the new syntax for the Find method.