How to validate records before inserting in CakePHP 2.X

Problem:

Sometimes we only need to validate records before inserting operations in CakePHP. In the case of bulk insertion and CSV records validation, it’s very difficult to validate individual fields of bulk records.

Solution:

array (‘validate’ => ‘only’) parameter will do exactly that for us.

How to use:

Create validation rules in Model file
Eg.
public $validate = array (
'user_id' => array (
'numeric' => array (
'rule' => array (
'numeric'
)
)
)
);
$data = array(
'user_id' => null
);
if ($this->User->saveAll(
$data, array('validate' => 'only')
)) {
echo "validates";
} else {
echo "does not validate";
}