CakeDC Blog

TIPS, INSIGHTS AND THE LATEST FROM THE EXPERTS BEHIND CAKEPHP

Meet the CakeDC

Written by Larry on December 08, 2008
25115 VIEWS

The articles section of our site will include best practices, business advice, and technical advice, updated weekly or more often by our talented developers. Our articles will touch upon a wide range of topics from our experiences and expertise. Check back frequently for fresh thoughts from our seasoned talent, including Mark Story who was at CakeFest in Argentina providing updates daily on the talks.

As a founder of and lead developer at the Cake Development Corporation, I am proud to provide the inaugural article for the all new CakeDC.com. It has been a long and wonderful last 12 months, and CakeDC has helped bring reality to the limitless potential of our clients' projects. Like any great recipe, the ingredients of Cake Development Corporation have been hand–selected and carefully measured to create the very best blend of talent, imagination, and sophistication of any team in the world. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to our outstanding development team, as well as provide a little background about where our company has come from and where we are headed.

After spending nearly 2 years working exclusively on CakePHP and seeing its popularity growing daily, Garrett Woodworth and I realized the need for a team of experts devoted to building the best applications for clients. Therefore, in 2007, Garrett and I formed Cake Development Corporation – a company dedicated to bringing the potential of CakePHP to life while supporting its further development and aiding clients in the rapid development of web applications. In this venture, Garrett and I recognized that we had a unique and rarely realized opportunity to do what we love as our full–time jobs – and, unlike during those initial two years of development, actually get paid to do it.

As a business partner, I could not have asked for anyone better than Garrett. A key player in the development of CakePHP, Garrett continues to develop the code and drive the machines that keep users coming back for more. He is extremely passionate about the work he does and takes pride in delivering quality products that are the best of their kind, a true leader the team members can look up to. In fact, I have come to think of him as a younger brother – someone whom I respect greatly, but with whom I also spar from time to time (in a healthy way, of course).

After a short time, it became necessary to bring on some new talent. Garrett and I welcomed a third developer Jitka Koukalová, to our small family in 2007. Jitka, a developer who was active in the CakePHP community and was vital contributor to its code, was an amazing addition to our team from the beginning, and exhibited great skill in, and equally great appreciation for, our open source platform. With great attention to detail, she became instrumental in server security and maintenance. Her ability to find an issue and fix it fast along with her classy and professional demeanor would make her a mentor to future members of the Cake development team.

Florian Krämer, the next to join CakeDC, soon became our second great recruit. Florian has continually proven himself to be extremely knowledgeable when it comes to developing applications. Florian's meticulous attention to detail, outstanding work ethic, and dogged pursuit of excellence continue to be hugely important assets of our company. But more than a colleague, I consider Florian a good friend. Apart from his great skill, his fun and personable demeanor make him a great team member and someone I genuinely enjoy working with. He has a great sense of humor – or, at least, he appreciates mine!

Having seen a great deal of growth in 2007, we sought to expand our development team in early 2008 by welcoming aboard a whole new crop of distinguished developers with a great working knowledge of CakePHP and a passion for its vast capabilities. The first of this group was Yevgeny Tomenko. Yevgeny knows an astounding amount about the inner workings of application development, and I am continually amazed at his dependability and sheer speed. Since joining our team, he has become a great "go–to" person who uses his years of experience to help guide the others on the team. I really love how passionate he is about our product, and it’s great to see such a talented and focused guy enjoying his work at CakeDC.

Next, after spending some time watching Niles Rowland help others in the CakePHP IRC channel, we realized he would be a true asset to the CakeDC team. We recruited him in early 2008, and since then he has been a very knowledgeable and dependable part of the development team with a vast understanding of CakePHP and programming in general.

Soon to follow Niles were Erin McCargar and Daniel Feinberg, both of whom came aboard in May of 2008. Erin has a long history working with CakePHP and is looked up to as an advisor by those on her team. Daniel, a key person when it comes to machine learning, is very knowledgeable with CakePHP. With outstanding attention to detail and a great skill in their fields of expertise, both are willing and able to go the extra mile to make a project shine.

Finally, our most recent addition to the family is Mark Story who joined the team in November of 2008. Mark brings a lot to CakeDC; he is a core developer of CakePHP with design experience that is second to none. Mark is all about getting things done right the first time, and is great at working with others. The rest of the team truly looks up to him for both his skill and amicable personality.

This eclectic group of talent is the heart and soul of CakeDC, the family unit that makes our company stand a head and shoulders above the rest. After seeing how far we have come in the last two years, I am very excited to see what this team can accomplish next! We are looking forward to all the challenges that lay ahead and can’t wait to help our clients create a brighter, more innovative future.

Latest articles

165 Views

Goodbye to 2025!

Well bakers… another advent calendar is coming to an end. I hope you enjoyed all of the topics covered each day. We are also closing the year with so much gratitude.    2025 was the 20th year of CakePHP, can you believe it? We had an amazing year with our team, the community and the CakePHP core. It was great connecting with those who attended CakeFest in Madrid, and we hope to have the opportunity to see more of you in 2026.    I cannot let the year end without getting a little sentimental. There is no better way to say it… THANK YOU. Thank you to the team who worked so hard, the core team that keeps pumping out releases, and most of all … thank you to our clients that trust us with their projects. CakeDC is successful because of the strong relationships we build with our network, and we hope to continue working with all of you for many years.    There are a lot of great things still to come in year 21! Could 2026 will be bringing us CakePHP 6?! Considering 21 is the legal drinking age in the US, maybe CakePHP 6 should be beer cake? Delicious. Stay tuned to find out.    Before I go, I am leaving you with something special. A note from Larry!   As we close out this year, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Twenty years ago, CakePHP started as a simple idea shared by a few of us who wanted to make building on the web easier and more enjoyable. Seeing how far it has come, and more importantly, seeing how many lives and careers it has impacted, is something I never take for granted. I am deeply grateful for our team, the core contributors, the community, and our clients who continue to believe in what we do. You are the reason CakePHP and CakeDC are still here, still growing, and still relevant after two decades. Here is to what we have built together, and to what is still ahead. Thank you for being part of this journey. Larry

Written by Amanda on December 24, 2025

196 Views

Pagination of multiple queries in CakePHP

Pagination of multiple queries in CakePHP

A less typical use case for pagination in an appication is the need to paginate multiples queries. In CakePHP you can achieve this with pagination scopes.

Users list

Lest use as an example a simple users list. // src/Controller/UsersController.php class UsersController extends AppController { protected array $paginate = [ 'limit' => 25, ]; public function index() { // Default model pagination $this->set('users', $this->paginate($this->Users)); } } // templates/Users/index.php <h2><?= __('Users list') ?>/h2> <table> <thead> <tr> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('name', __('Name')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('email', __('Email')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('active', __('Active')) ?></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <?php foreach ($users as $user): ?> <tr> <td><?= h($user->name) ?></td> <td><?= h($user->email) ?></td> <td><?= $user->active ? 'Yes' : 'No' ?></td> </tr> <?php endforeach; ?> </tbody> </table> <?= $this->Paginator->counter() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->prev('« Previous') ?> <?= $this->Paginator->numbers() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->next('Next »') ?>

Pagination of multiple queries

Now, we want to display two paginated tables, one with the active users and the other with the inactive ones. // src/Controller/UsersController.php class UsersController extends AppController { protected array $paginate = [ 'Users' => [ 'scope' => 'active_users', 'limit' => 25, ], 'InactiveUsers' => [ 'scope' => 'inactive_users', 'limit' => 10, ], ]; public function index() { $activeUsers = $this->paginate( $this->Users->find()->where(['active' => true]), [scope: 'active_users'] ); // Load an additional table object with the custom alias set in the paginate property $inactiveUsersTable = $this->fetchTable('InactiveUsers', [ 'className' => \App\Model\Table\UsersTable::class, 'table' => 'users', 'entityClass' => 'App\Model\Entity\User', ]); $inactiveUsers = $this->paginate( $inactiveUsersTable->find()->where(['active' => false]), [scope: 'inactive_users'] ); $this->set(compact('users', 'inactiveUsers')); } } // templates/Users/index.php <?php // call `setPaginated` first with the results to be displayed next, so the paginator use the correct scope for the links $this->Paginator->setPaginated($users); ?> <h2><?= __('Active Users') ?>/h2> <table> <thead> <tr> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('name', __('Name')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('email', __('Email')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('active', __('Active')) ?></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <?php foreach ($users as $user): ?> <tr> <td><?= h($user->name) ?></td> <td><?= h($user->email) ?></td> <td><?= $user->active ? 'Yes' : 'No' ?></td> </tr> <?php endforeach; ?> </tbody> </table> <?= $this->Paginator->counter() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->prev('« Previous') ?> <?= $this->Paginator->numbers() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->next('Next »') ?> <?php // call `setPaginated` first with the results to be displayed next, so the paginator use the correct scope for the links $this->Paginator->setPaginated($inactiveUsers); ?> <h2><?= __('Inactive Users') ?>/h2> <table> <thead> <tr> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('name', __('Name')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('email', __('Email')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('active', __('Active')) ?></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <?php foreach ($inactiveUsers as $inactiveUser): ?> <tr> <td><?= h($inactiveUser->name) ?></td> <td><?= h($inactiveUser->email) ?></td> <td><?= $inactiveUser->active ? 'Yes' : 'No' ?></td> </tr> <?php endforeach; ?> </tbody> </table> <?= $this->Paginator->counter() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->prev('« Previous') ?> <?= $this->Paginator->numbers() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->next('Next »') ?> And with this you have two paginated tables in the same request.

Written by Rperez on December 23, 2025

331 Views

Clean DI in CakePHP 5.3: Say Goodbye to fetchTable()

This article is part of the CakeDC Advent Calendar 2025 (December 23rd, 2025)

Introduction: The Death of the "Hidden" Dependency

For years, accessing data in CakePHP meant "grabbing" it from the global state. Whether using TableRegistry::getTableLocator()->get() or the LocatorAwareTrait’s $this->fetchTable(), your classes reached out to a locator to find what they needed. While convenient, this created hidden dependencies. A class constructor might look empty, despite the class being secretly reliant on multiple database tables. This made unit testing cumbersome, forcing you to stub the global TableLocator just to inject a mock. CakePHP 5.3 changes the game with Inversion of Control. With the framework currently in its Release Candidate (RC) stage and a stable release expected soon, now is the perfect time to explore these architectural improvements. By using the new TableContainer as a delegate for your PSR-11 container, tables can now be automatically injected directly into your constructors. This shift to explicit dependencies makes your code cleaner, fully type-hinted, and ready for modern testing standards. The Old Way (Hidden Dependency): public function execute() { $users = $this->fetchTable('Users'); // Where did this come from? } The 5.3 Way (Explicit Dependency): public function __construct(protected UsersTable $users) {} public function execute() { $this->users->find(); // Explicit and testable. }

Enabling the Delegate

Open src/Application.php and update the services() method by delegating table resolution to the TableContainer. // src/Application.php use Cake\ORM\TableContainer; public function services(ContainerInterface $container): void { // Register the TableContainer as a delegate $container->delegate(new TableContainer()); }

How it works under the hood

When you type-hint a class ending in Table (e.g., UsersTable), the main PSR-11 container doesn't initially know how to instantiate it. Because you've registered a delegate, it passes the request to the TableContainer, which then:
  1. Validates: It verifies the class name and ensures it is a subclass of \Cake\ORM\Table.
  2. Locates: It uses the TableLocator to fetch the correct instance (handling all the usual CakePHP ORM configuration behind the scenes).
  3. Resolves: It returns the fully configured Table object back to the main container to be injected.
Note: The naming convention is strict. The TableContainer specifically looks for the Table suffix. If you have a custom class that extends the base Table class but is named UsersRepository, the delegate will skip it, and the container will fail to resolve the dependency.

Practical Example: Cleaner Services

Now, your domain services no longer need to know about the LocatorAwareTrait. They simply ask for what they need. namespace App\Service; use App\Model\Table\UsersTable; class UserManagerService { // No more TableRegistry::get() or $this->fetchTable() public function __construct( protected UsersTable $users ) {} public function activateUser(int $id): void { $user = $this->users->get($id); // ... logic } } Next, open src/Application.php and update the services() method by delegating table resolution to the TableContainer. // src/Application.php use App\Model\Table\UsersTable; use App\Service\UserManagerService; use Cake\ORM\TableContainer; public function services(ContainerInterface $container): void { // Register the TableContainer as a delegate $container->delegate(new TableContainer()); // Register your service with the table as constructor argument $container ->add(UserManagerService::class) ->addArgument(UsersTable::class); }

Why this is a game changer for Testing

Because the table is injected via the constructor, you can now swap it for a mock effortlessly in your test suite without touching the global state of the application. $mockUsers = $this->createMock(UsersTable::class); $service = new UserManagerService($mockUsers); // Pure injection!

Conclusion: Small Change, Big Impact

At first glance, adding a single line to your Application::services() method might seem like a minor update. However, TableContainer represents a significant shift in how we approach CakePHP architecture. By delegating table resolution to the container, we gain:
  • True Type-Safety: Your IDE and static analysis tools now recognize the exact Table class being used. This is a massive win for PHPStan users—no more "Call to an undefined method" errors or messy @var docblock workarounds just to prove to your CI that a method exists.
  • Zero-Effort Mocking: Testing a service no longer requires manipulating the global TableRegistry state. Simply pass a mock object into the constructor and move on.
  • Standardization: Your CakePHP code now aligns with modern PHP practices found in any PSR-compliant ecosystem, making your application more maintainable and easier for new developers to understand.
If you plan to upgrade to CakePHP 5.3 upon its release, this is one of the easiest wins for your codebase. It’s time to stop fetching your tables and start receiving them. This article is part of the CakeDC Advent Calendar 2025 (December 23rd, 2025)

Written by Arusinowski on December 23, 2025

We Bake with CakePHP