CakePHP: How to use a view element inside of a controller

Easy:

$view = new View($this, false);$content = $view->element('my-element', $params);

Also:

DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE!!!

Sometimes, you need to render a CakePhp element from a view and inject its content into the page using AJAX the same time. In this case rendering element as a regular view from controller is better than creating a dedicated view that just contains <?php echo $this->element('some_element') ?>, and may be done this way:

<?phppublic function ajax_action() {    // set data used in the element    $this->set('data', array('a'=>123, 'b'=>456, 'd'=>678));    // disable layout template    $this->layout = 'ajax';    // render!    $this->render('/Elements/some_element');}

I know this is an old question and other people have already given basically the same answer, but I want to point out that this approach (provided by Serge S.) ...

<?phppublic function ajax_action() {    // set data used in the element    $this->set('data', array('a'=>123, 'b'=>456, 'd'=>678));    // disable layout template    $this->layout = 'ajax';    // render!    $this->render('/Elements/some_element');}

...is not a hacky workaround, but is in fact the recommended approach from the CakePHP docs for this common and legitimate use case:

If $view starts with ‘/’, it is assumed to be a view or element file relative to the /app/View folder. This allows direct rendering of elements, very useful in AJAX calls.

(Again: Credit to Serge S. for the code above)