I'm trying to write a behavior that will give my models access to a simple workflow engine I've devised. The workflow engine itself works as a CakePHP model, with workflow data stored in the database just as any other model data is stored.

Basically what I want to do is have the behavior use the workflow model whenever an action is called on the base model. For example, if the edit() action is executed for Posts, then the Post (with the behavior attached) will trigger the workflow behavior with its own model name, action, and id as arguments (e.g. [Post, edit, 1]). Then the behavior will invoke the functionality of the Workflow model, which has a record for what to do when edit is run on Posts (e.g. send e-mail to users who are subscribed to that post) and will carry that out.

My question is, what is the proper way to invoke model/controller methods from within the behavior? The model to be used from within the behavior will always be Workflow, but the behavior should be usable from basically any model (aside from Workflow itself). I know I could run SQL queries directly from the behavior, but of course this is not the Cake way :-)

Or, am I going about this in the wrong way? I want to store a certain amount of logic in the database so that it is easily configurable by different users, and not have endless configuration checks within the model/controller logic itself so that workflow steps can be easily added/changed/removed in the future.