CakePHP Questions

Here is a cool way to do it. On your app_model, do something like this:

class AppModel extends Model {

    public $validate = array();

    public function __construct($id = false, $table = null,...

You could define those things on your app_controller beforeFilter method and set the $logged variable right there so you can access it from the layout itself and not each view.

The same goes for...

In fact, files with PHP only I don't even close it with "?>".

I just omit it. It won't do any harm.