Disabling validation for specific form (user login) - validation

Question

The problem
I have a login form available on every page (in the right menu). The problem is that when the user is on the register page, the fields from the login form are validated. I have username and password fields in both forms, and both are validated.
Ideas:
Different field names for registration form (register_username, register_password, register_email) and then set normal names before saving.
Different model (but albo using the users table) for login form?
Anyway, I just wonder what is the best way to solve this.

Answer 1

I'm guessing that both forms would submit to different actions, with the registration form submitting to Users->register() and the login form submitting to Users->login().
I would suggest that when you're in the register() action, you could try copying the relevant variable into another associative array and then validating and saving that, rather than validating and saving the $this->data variable.

Answer 2

Your second option is correct. I had encountered this problem before and wrote an article about it at the Bakery: Multiple Forms per page for the same model
The basic idea is to create separate models for each form extending the original model:
class RegisterForm extends User {
}
Then, load these forms in your controller however you please:
$this->loadModel('RegisterForm');
Then call validation as usual:
$this->RegisterForm->save($this->data);
For your particular case, you might not want to create the LoginForm model, and have only the RegisterForm model. This will let you take advantage of whatever magic the AuthComponent has.
HTH.

Answer 3

I haven't tried two forms with the same inputs, but this works for two forms with different inputs. I don't see why it shouldn't work for your needs.
View:
Make sure each submit button has a name value so that $this->params can identify it.
//first form ...
<?php
$profile_options = array('label' => 'edit profile',
'name' => 'form1');
echo $this->Form->end($profile_options);
?>
//second form ...
<?php
$password_options = array('label' => 'edit password',
'name' => 'form2');
echo $this->Form->end($password_options);
?>
Controller action:
Use $this->params to test for each form submission
if(isset($this->params['form']['form1'])){
$this->User->set($this->data); //necessary to specify validation rules
if($this->User->validates(array('fieldList' => array('email')))){
$this->User->saveField('email', $this->data['User']['email']);
}
}
elseif(isset($this->params['form']['form2'])){
//same deal for second form
}

Answer 4

It may be desirable to validate your model only using a subset of the validations specified in your model. For example say you had a User model with fields for first_name, last_name, email and password. In this instance when creating or editing a user you would want to validate all 4 field rules. Yet when a user logs in you would validate just email and password rules. To do this you can pass an options array specifying the fields to validate:
if ($this->User->validates(array('fieldList' => array('email', 'password')))) {
// valid
} else {
// invalid
}