CakePHP

CakePHP is an open source web application framework for producing web applications. It is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails, and distributed under the MIT License.

History

CakePHP started in 2005, when Ruby on Rails was gaining popularity. The community has since grown and spawned several sub-projects. CakePHP is not a port of Ruby on Rails to PHP, but appropriates many of its useful concepts.

Lithium fork

In October 2009, project manager Garrett Woodworth and developer Nate Abele resigned from the project to focus on Lithium, a framework code base originally being developed at the CakePHP project as "Cake3", but which was not agreed upon by the entire development team as a replacement for CakePHP. The remaining development team continued to focus on the original roadmap that was previously defined.

Features of CakePHP

Like Rails, CakePHP makes it easier for the user to interface with the database with the active record pattern. It also encourages use of the model-view-controller architectural pattern. Upcoming version 2.0 of CakePHP is being modeled around the Data Mapper architectural pattern. Its features include:

• Compatible with versions 4 and 5 of PHP
  • CakePHP 2.0 is planned for supporting PHP 5.2 and above (including PHP 5.3)
• Integrated CRUD for datasource interaction
• Application scaffolding
• MVC architecture
• Built-in validation, Data sanitization, and Internationalization and localization
• Various Behaviors, Components and Helpers to minimize development time
• Unit testing using the SimpleTest framework, available in CakePHP version 1.2

Console applications

CakePHP offers a CLI accessed by the "cake" command. There are several core console applications available in the library, among them:

• "acl" for the management of Access Control Lists
• "bake" for the generation of models, controllers and views
• "i18n" for application internationalization
• "schema" for database schema creation and migration.
• "testsuite" for running unit tests, including model, controller and web tests.

Developers can also create their own "shells" and shared functionality across these shells called "tasks" (in CakePHP's parlance). The scripts have access to the application's models and controllers. An example use-case for this would be the scheduled update of the application's data from an RSS or other data feed, with the full power of the application logic and data relationships created with CakePHP.

See also

• Comparison of web application frameworks

Bibliography

• Golding, David (July 21, 2008), Beginning CakePHP: from Novice to Professional (1st ed.), Apress, pp. 344, ISBN 1430209771, http://www.apress.com/book/view/9781430209775 
• Chan, Kai; Omokore, John; Miller, Richard (December 2, 2008), Practical CakePHP Projects (1st ed.), Apress, pp. 400, ISBN 143021578X, http://www.apress.com/book/view/9781430215783 
• Bari, Ahsanul (July 15, 2008), CakePHP Application Development (1st ed.), Packt Publishing, pp. 332, ISBN 1847193897, http://www.packtpub.com/cakephp-application-development/book 

External links

• Official Website
• Official Community Portal
• Official Question and Answer Site
• Official Documentation
• Official API
• Tickets
• Official CakePHP Code Repository
• Cook up Web sites fast with CakePHP - DeveloperWorks series from IBM on CakePHP