In the previous tutorial, Table Relationships, we set up associated tables and displaying associated data, but there's no point to displaying associated data if you can't add it first.

There are multiple ways to save associated data. We'll start with the easiest way, discretely.

When working with CakePHP it is important to remember "Convention over Configuration." If you start from the bottom, or back end, the database, and work your way forward correctly, CakePHP will do much of legwork for you, saving you tons of redundant and repetitive work.

If you don't, there are almost always ways to make things work the hard way. An example of this is the relationships between tables. If you name your database tables and fields following CakePHP convention, it becomes trivial to set up relationships between them.

In addition to accessing the fields existing in the database, a Model can be used to create virtual fields for consistent formatting of data that you don't want to store redundantly in your database or have to recreate each time you want to use it.

Elements are reusable blocks of code you can create once and use in multiple Views of your site, making it easier to make changes in a single location instead of searching for all the occurrences of the same code.

For ease of access I create a common login/logout block to display on all the pages of my applications.

You may have noticed references to password() and resetPassword() functions in the Authentication tutorial. These are used to allow users to reset their password when they forget it.

With CakePHP 5, time localization is built in. Edit the /config/app.php file and you'll see the following under the App configuration:

Now we're going to work on storing our Session information in the database.