Render view to string, then output json in cakephp

Yes! You Can render a view into a variable. You just have to create a view object .Inside Your Controller Try This:

$view = new View($this,false);$view->viewPath='Elements';  // Directory inside view directory to search for .ctp files$view->layout=false; // if you want to disable layout$view->set ('variable_name','variable_value'); // set your variables for view here$html=$view->render('view_name'); // then use this $html for json response

For those of you using CakePhp3

$view = new View($this->request,$this->response,null);$view->viewPath='MyPath';  // Directory inside view directory to search for .ctp files$view->layout='ajax'; // layout to use or false to disable$html=$view->render('view_name');

Don't forget to add this in your namespace

use Cake\View\View;

The Controller::render() function actually sets the body of the response by calling CakeResponse::body() and then returning the current CakeResponse object. This means that you can call the render() method inside the controller action, capture its return value and then again call the CakeResponse::body() and thus replacing the response body with the desired output.

Example code:

$data = $this->paginate();// Pass the data that needs to be used in the view$this->set(compact('data', 'foci', 'jobTypes', 'count_number'));if($this->request->is('ajax')) {    // Disable the layout and change the view     // so that only the desired html is rendered    $this->layout = false;    $this->view = 'VIEW_PASSED_AS_JSON_STRING';    // Call the render() method returns the current CakeResponse object    $response = $this->render();    // Add any other data that needs to be returned in the response    // along with the generated html    $jsonResponse = array(        'html'       => $response->body(),        'other_data' => array('foo' => 'bar'),        'bar'        => 'foo'    );    // Replace the response body with the json encoded data    $response->body(json_encode($jsonResponse));}