File uploads with CakePHP

I wanted to upload a file and attach it to my object, but couldn't find a nice enough solution for it out there, so I created my own method, and I must say I'm quite happy with the results.

In my controller, I just added a method called encodeFile that take 2 parameters, the PHP file upload array, and a target variable reference;

   
 function encodeFile($arr, &$dest)
 {
     switch($arr["error"]) {
     case 0:   // OK!
         $fileData = fread(fopen($arr['tmp_name'], "r"),
                                  $arr['size']);        
         if(!$fileData)
             return "Could not read file from disk";
         $dest = base64_encode($fileData);
         break;
     case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:
     case UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:
         return "The file is too big.";
     case UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:
     case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:
         return "The file was not uploaded.";
     case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR:
     case UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE:
         return "A configuration error occured";
     default:
         return "An unknown error occured.";
     }

     return true;
 }

Then, in my add() method, I can use the function like this:

 $ret = $this->encodeFile($this->params["form"]["File"], $this->data["MyModel"]["File"]);
 if($ret !== true) {
   $this->Session->setFlash('File problems: ' . $ret);
 } else {
  if($this->MyModel->save($this->data)) {
                      ...

I also added a controller method to view the image:

 function image($id)
 {
  $this->layout = "empty";
  $o = $this->MyModel->read(null, $id);
  Header("Content-type: image");
  echo base64_decode($o["MyModel"]["File"]);
 }