In this case, your home page is not a static page. It contains dynamic data (from other models). In order to solve this I probably would create a specific controller for the home page that query data from other models (binding and calling specific methods of each model). These data would be passed to a view (index) which would be composed by elements (each one being a model widget). As you may guessed the view should call each element passing the corresponding model data variable as parameter.

Due the elements, queries and data manipulation necessary to accomplish this task I think pages_controller should not be used (even being perfectly suitable for). Create a specific controller for this situation is a clear pretty way to do it.

After all you just connect you controller index method to the url you want. For a home page example something like below might solve:

Router::connect(‘/’, array(‘controller’ => ‘my_new_controller’, ‘action’ => ‘index’));

And, for sure, remove the similar entry point “/” to pages_controller display action.

Regards,
Benito

2. About cluttering up the URL and UX. It is easy to argue that going from “www.site.com/pages/page” to “www.site.com/page.htm” will both unclutter the URL and enhance the UX

3. I think you mean “content type” is about telling the browser what type of file they’re dealing with.

4. Not everything from 1999 is horrible.