The CakePHP FormHelper is one of the biggest time savers in the whole framework. It not only takes care of generating common elements as well as performs auto-filling of pretty much all input fields. The only problem I find with it is the difficulty in generating forms using $form->create(...) that submit to the current page, ie a form with action="". This is because when the URL in $form->create(...) is set as '' or null, the default action URL of /model/add takes over.The solution I end up with is often writing my own and tags instead of using $form->create() and $form->end(). The issue with using custom form tags is that CakePHP will no longer auto fill input fields meaning that a lot of code has to be implemented to detect and specify input values. Overcoming this is quite simple and simply requires the use of $form->end() with a custom form tag, such that your form code looks like: <?= $form->input("User.name") ?> <?= $form->input("User.email") ?><?= $form->end() ?>