Cakephp object mapper? - cakephp-3.0

Question

I have the following code in android to send to my cakephp server
val params = JSONObject()
val siteId = sharedPref.getInt("site_id", 0)
try {
params.put("photo", encodeImage)
params.put("lat", latitude)
params.put("lng", longitude)
params.put("status", status)
params.put("site_id", siteId)
} catch (e: JSONException) {
Log.e("JsonException", e.toString())
}
val queue = Volley.newRequestQueue(this#CameraActivity)
val request = object : JsonObjectRequest(Request.Method.POST, ROOT_URL + TRANSACTION,
params, Response.Listener<JSONObject> { response ->
// startActivity(myIntent)
}, Response.ErrorListener {
Toast.makeText(this#CameraActivity, "That didn't work!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
}) {
#Throws(AuthFailureError::class)
override fun getHeaders(): MutableMap<String, String> {
val headers = HashMap<String, String>()
headers.put("Accept", "application/json")
headers.put("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8")
headers.put("Authorization", "Bearer "+ token) // Figure out a way to get JWT
return headers
}
}
And I have this code on cakephp controller to receive it
$transaction = $this->Transactions->newEntity();
if($this->request->is('post')){
$transaction->lat = $this->request->getData('lat');
$transaction->lng = $this->request->getData('lng');
$photo = $this->request->getData('photo');
$transaction->status = $this->request->getData('status');
$decoded = base64_decode($photo);
$transaction->employee_id = $this->Auth->user('id');
$transaction->project_id = $this->Auth->user('project_id');
$transaction->site_id = $this->request->getData('site_id');
if ($this->Transactions->save($transaction)) {
$this->Auth->logout();
$this->set([
'success' => true,
'_serialize' => ['success']
]);
}
}
The problem is on the server side I do not want to equate every request to a cakephp entity variable. Is there a way I can just do an object mapping so i do not need to do the unnecessary equating at the cakephp controller?