Beginning CakePHP (eBook)

David Golding is author of best selling CakePHP book, Beginning CakePHP, as well as a long time web developer, PHP programmer.

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 7
About the Author 16
About the Technical Reviewer 17
Acknowledgments 18
Introduction 19
From Novice to Professional 20
Why Cake? 20
Summary 24
Getting Started 25
Installing and Running CakePHP 26
A Simple Start: Running Cake on a Localhost Environment 26
Running the Setup Routines 30
Summary 33
Creating a To-Do List Application 34
Exploring the MVC Structure 34
Designing and Creating the Database 36
Creating Models 37
Creating Controllers 38
Launching the Application 39
Creating the Scaffolding 40
Summary 42
Developing CakePHP Applications 43
Naming Files and Designing the Database 44
Convention Over Configuration 44
MVC Default Behaviors 45
Naming Conventions 46
Poorly Designed Databases 54
Table Associations 55
Beyond the Scaffold 67
Summary 68
Creating Simple Views and Baking in the Console 69
Introducing Layouts 69
Creating Individual Views 73
Using Bake to Create Views 75
Editing Baked Views 82
Using Commands for Faster Baking 84
Customizing Views 84
Summary 85
Customizing Views 86
Handling User Interactions 86
Writing Individual View Files 93
Using Other Helpers 99
Summary 100
Working with Controllers and Models 101
Building an Extensive Blog 101
Working with Actions 102
Customizing the Controller for the Blog 104
Creating a Model for the Blog 112
Writing Custom Model Functions 118
Trimming Results 121
Summary 123
Implementing Ajax Features 124
How Ajax Works 124
Preparing the Ajax Helper 127
Adding Comments to the Blog 128
Working Ajax into the View 129
Working Ajax into the Controller 132
Using Other Ajax Helper Functions 134
Doing More with the Ajax Helper 140
Uploading Files with jQuery 142
More Ajax Features 145
Summary 145
Advanced CakePHP 146
Helpers 147
Installing Helpers 147
Using Cake’s Built- in Helpers 148
Using Other Built- in Helpers 167
Creating Custom Helpers 172
Customizing Helper Variables 181
Summary 183
Routes 184
The Basic Route 184
Arguments 185
Reverse Routing 186
Admin Routing 187
Route Parameters 189
Parsing Files with Extensions Other Than . php 191
Summary 194
Components and Utilities 195
Why Use Components? 195
Using Built- in Components 196
Utility Classes 206
Third- Party Components 212
Creating Custom Components 213
Summary 214
Vendors 215
Using Vendors 215
Making No Assumptions for Third- Party Scripts 217
Installing a Third- Party Script 218
Using Other Frameworks with CakePHP 219
Summary 225
Plugins 226
Installing a Third- Party Plugin 226
Creating Custom Plugins 228
The Calendar Plugin 231
Summary 247
DataSources and Behaviors 248
Extending the Model with DataSources and Behaviors 250
Working with DataSources 250
Working with Behaviors 261
Summary 277
Wrapping Up the Application 279
Designing the Home Page 279
Generating Dynamic Navigation 281
Customizing the Overall Design 282
Debugging the Application 282
Running the Application on a Remote Host 283
Summary 284
Appendixes 285
Installation Issues 286
Developing in a Localhost Environment 286
Setting Up a Localhost 287
Running MySQL 291
How CakePHP Compares with Other Frameworks 293
PHP Frameworks 293
Using the Various Frameworks 294
Index 298