The correct way to set a default search value in CakePHP <p>I have a CakePHP Application with many many screens using data from a specific model. Most of the time, I need a specific field to be checked against (like the "user_active=>1" example in the cookbook), however I'd still like to be able to specify that field as a condition and override the default. My code works, but is this the best way to do this?</p> <p>Also, the $queryData field is mixed — what are the possibilities other than array? just NULL?</p> <pre><code>&lt;?php public function beforeFind($queryData) { if(is_array($queryData)) { //query data was an array if(!is_array($queryData['conditions'])) { $queryData['conditions'] = array('Course.semester_id'=&gt;SEMESTER_ID); } else if (!isset($queryData['conditions']['Course.semester_id'])) { $queryData['conditions']['Course.semester_id'] = SEMESTER_ID; } } } ?&gt; </code></pre>