CAKE framework?

[COBOLdinosaur]

Is anyone familar with CAKE in a hosted environment.  It looks like it might be usful to me for some of the enhancements I want to add to the content side.

I don't want to expend a lot of effort and then find myself running into unreasonable limitations, or be stuck patching security holes and trying to find optimization to get around a lot of bloated crap put in to support stuff I don't need. 

I am still not advanced enough in PHP to be able to see over the horizon.  CAKE looks a little too easy and that scares me into thinking it will be very limited.  I don't want to ens up with something that reduces my options to use a full range of tools.

Anyone got some experience with it?

http://cakephp.org/

[rdivilbiss]

First stop for me is SecurityFocus.com.  There were two vulnerabilities posted in 2006 which were fixed quickly.

Second look was at their open bug reports and how long they have been open.  Nothing scary there, and they seem to be very active at fixing and closing bug reports.

Its been out for quite a while.  Looks pretty stable.

[VGR]

I've no experience in it but I read it uses the old "Model, View, Controller Architecture", so you've to be accustomed to it. it also probably uses OOP

[GrandSchtroumpf]

The cake looks good.  I'll give it a try.

[VGR]

quand tu auras fini ton test, dis-moi à quoi ça sert ;-)

[rdivilbiss]

Mọi thứ thì quan trọng với cách của nó!

[GrandSchtroumpf]

quand tu auras fini ton test, dis-moi à quoi ça sert ;-)

Like all frameworks, it's meant to make things more complicated than they ought to be ;)

There are 2 questions:

1. Why using an MVC framework?

2. Why choosing Cake over the other MVC frameworks?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP
That's the typical problem with open-source projects.  There is too much choice.

[COBOLdinosaur]

1. Why using an MVC framework?

At this point I am not using any framework.  I am not a big fan of frameworks, but I need to be able to move things along more quickly then I have been doing, and a bunch of pre-created objects might help.

2. Why choosing Cake over the other MVC frameworks?

I am simply evaluating.  I downloaded it and installed it in a seperate sub-domain.  I still have to do some configuration and db creation, and then I will see if it gives me what I need.  If not I will look at something else.

If anyone has suggestions about frameworks or any other approach to increasing my PHP productivity please let me know.  Requirements:

• Short learning curve
• Rapid development capability
• Secure
• Stable

Based on wht I know to this point CAKE looks like it meets those requirements.  If it does not then I will continue the quest, or if something better gets recommended i will move to that.  I would rather develop my own framework, but I do not have the time based on my commitments, and my current level of PHP skills.

[VGR]

[SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC MODE ON]

    * Short learning curve
    * Rapid development capability

Those items are linked IMHO. A framework is ***never*** easy/trivial enough to enable a fast learning curve (with the possible or notable exception of the "default PHP framework", or ol' days' BASIC or Pascal). A "useful framework" is by essence full of features that will render it difficult to master.
Nowadays, "rapid development" (RAD? ;-) is obtained via clever interfaces and environments (UI, IDE) - I see no such tool for web development ; the ones I saw are clumsy Java monsters ; I don't want to be hampered by the IDE. Long live Notepad or vi or emacs ;-)

    * Secure
    * Stable

Again, I see thos eitems as linked. For me, nothing is worse than a black box. I hate to discover a vulnerability in third-party software. Hence I'd rather develop everything myself. At least I know the culprit in case of a problem.
[SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC MODE OFF]

It's not really a framework, but the last time I saw reuseable and trustable code that I didn't write (modestly ;-) is the "sack" AJAX toolkit that I use from time to time. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I don't want to run on three wheels only either ;-) I want to be able to change gear whenever I want. I don't want a framework to force me to do things in a certain way with no clear view of the consequences.

[GrandSchtroumpf]

I read most of the documentation and I followed the blog tutorial.
There are some very interesting ingredients in this cake.

One small thing: it looks like we are stuck with the standard cake URI format:
http://www.example.com/controllername/actionname/param
I guess the param does not absolutely need to be an int (like in the tutorial), so we could have something like this:
http://www.expertsrt.com/articles/view/email-alias-patterns

[COBOLdinosaur]

One small thing: it looks like we are stuck with the standard cake URI format:
http://www.example.com/controllername/actionname/param

That assumes that we just use the framework as is.  I generally do not leave anything unaltered.  If I don't like something I just change the code.  That is part of the problem of deciding to even use a framework.  How much will I end up have to change to make it waht I want it to be? Will it be less of an effort to just build my own framework or modify and existing one.

From haveing been involved in the development of several JAVA frameworks for my employer, I know that the effort is not trivial, but in the end there is no bloat or crap we do not need.  I have not built any sustantial apps with PHP, so I don't know how to apply development effort metrics to PHP.

Plus I am not a big fan of frameworks anyway.  I have found that code libraries with easily modified and extend code snippets offer the best flexibility. That is the way I have been working, but I am way behind schedule in terms of what I want to do, and I am trying to find a way to get things done quicker. 

My time is really going to be restricted for the next 6 months because of a major re-organization at work.  Once I am past that I will be looking at retire and spending all my time having fun on the Internet; but the next six months is going to be a  b___ch.

[GrandSchtroumpf]

I think the cake URI format makes perfect sense for a site like ERT.

I have tested cake with SEO-optimized "param" and it works great.
For this type of URI's: http://www.expertsrt.com/articles/view/email-alias-patterns
Just define a "uri" field in your "articles" database table, then use this in your controller to get access to the record in your view:

Code:

function view($uri = null) {
$this->set('article', $this->Article->findByUri($uri));
}

I guess the URI format is the only point that is not completely flexible...
I don't doubt your ability to modify the framework, but that's not something i would recommend as it will probably create a big mess if you ever decide to upgrade it.

So, if you ask me, I'll say go for the Cake!

[rdivilbiss]

Bake a Cake or get out of the kitchen.