As the name suggests, CakePHP is a delightfully easy-to-use framework for rapid application development (RAD). It has evolved to become the most advanced and the most sought-after rapid application development in PHP.
Part of this popularity stems from the framework’s ability to simultaneously fulfill the needs of the various stake holders to a project including business owners, project managers, developers, and system administrators.
If you are a business owner, you will love CakePHP because it requires no purchasing costs and no licensing fees. Moreover, the entire development cycle from conception to development to deployment is so breathtakingly simple that it can be completed in a matter of weeks. This is possible because CakePHP, from its very inception, was designed to streamline and simplify the process of delivery. The precious time and effort that is often wasted in frantically wrestling with code to make it work can instead be redirected to building a feature-rich site.
If you are a project manager, CakePHP is an answer to your projects. You will be relieved to find out that it resolves many issues that pestered you in the past. First, costing less than a fraction of what other commercial products charge, it will neatly fit your business plan whatever the size of your organization. Second, assembling a team of highly qualified developed will be easy due to the abundance of PHP developers. Third, it requires little training or coaching due to its intuitive simplicity and the lots of clear documentation that come with it. And finally, its functionality can be expanded and enhanced to meet the growing demands and needs of a project or an organization.
Likewise, if you are a developer, you will find CakePHP markedly boosts your productivity and the quality of the final deliverable you hand over. Furthermore, it obviates the need for the often tedious and prone to error process of integrating different components. With CakePHP, you can have a fully functional unit in half a day or so because code generation tools do much of the work for you. From simple design and syntax to application scaffolding and code generation tools, CakePHP makes it easy for all developers regardless of skill levels to achieve quick results with minimum effort. Even developers with little or no previous web development experience will be able to learn it and figure out its syntax and conventions.
Another important feature of CakePHP is its innovative implementation of “convention over configuration” concept that drastically reduces the overall size of code. This is a technique that bypasses endless configuration and setting by attributing special meaning to names given to tables, fields, directories, classes etc… To this end, CakePHP requires adherence to naming conventions.
MVC is also another aspect of CakePHP that contributes to its flexibility and robustness. By dividing the system into three distinct self-contained layers according to function, CakePHP ensure the maintainability and manageability of your code.
Last but not least, system administrators will appreciate the ease with which CakePHP can be installed on an existence system. A ready-made package, the framework is easy to decipher and configure. Plug-ins and third party libraries are also available for added functionality when and if needed. Additionally, it has a flexible directory structure, solid security infrastructure, and support for the most popular databases. All a system administrator need to do to get the ball rolling is to download the code; define databases, and set file permissions and, voila, the system is ready to go!
The above is a brief synopsis of what CakePHP can do for you. Whether what you want is rapid prototyping or the creation of full-fledged website, you will find all the necessary tools within CakePHP. Please contact us if you have questions or need a more detailed explanation of its many features.
Once the database has been created, bake models and controllers as normal using:
