If you have ever tried to learn cake, the chances are that you have already gone through the CakePHP Blog Tutorial found in the manual. It in an excellent read to get acquainted with the cake way. But unfortunately, the Blog Tutorial only runs fine in CakePHP 1.1. If you try to run the code on 1.2, you will get errors as shown below, either when you add or edit post:

The main reason for this is that functions like input(), tagErrorMsg(), textarea(), hidden() in the Html Helper are now deprecated. Instead, all the form related functions are moved in the Form Help.

So, to make the blog tutorial code run on 1.2, you just have to make the following simple changes:

1. Load the form helper in the Posts Controller (/app/controllers/posts_controller.php):
   
<?php
class PostsController extends AppController {
var $name = 'Posts';
var $helpers = array('Form' );
...
}
?>

2. Change the view of add (/app/views/posts/add.thtml) to:
   
<h1>Add Post</h1>
<?php echo $form->create('Post');?>
<p>
<?php echo $form->input('title'); ?>
</p>
<p>
<?php echo $form->input('body'); ?>
</p>
<?php echo $form->end('Submit');?>

3. Also change the view of edit (/app/views/posts/edit.thtml) to:
   
<h1>Edit Post</h1>
<?php echo $form->create('Post');?>
<?php echo $form->input('id'); ?>
<p>
<?php echo $form->input('title'); ?>
</p>
<p>
<?php echo $form->input('body'); ?>
</p>
<?php echo $form->end('Submit');?>


And thats it! Your blog tutorial code will be running smoothly on 1.2. One last thing, that I recommend, is to change the extension of all the views from .thtml (e.g. index.thtml) to .ctp (e.g. index.ctp). Though not doing so will not create any problem, but you better get use to the .ctp extension, as this is the defaut file extension for CakePHP 1.2 views.

For a more complete picture of the changes in 1.2, please visit: CakePHP 1.2: The Romance Continues…

Thats it!

It is almost a year ago when I started seeing her, and ever since I am in love with her. From then on, I have been with her in quite a few projects, and she has never let me down. Its true that at times the relationship has not gone that well, but its mostly my fault. Either it was my lack of understanding her well or my impatience, or just the pressure of tight deadlines, that I ended up in uncomfortable situations with her. But she never let me down. Eventually, we made it through, and here I am one year later, writing about my beautiful relationship with Cakephp.

Oh hell! I didnt expect to get carried away this early, but contrary to what you are thinking, this article is not about my romance with CakePHP, but again, you never know when I start to get carried away For what little I have used this wonderful framework, it has been solely 1.1. Mostly due to lack of time, I never actually tried the new CakePHP 1.2. This is my attempt to get myself in tune with the latest release of CakePHP, and continue the romance. In my attempt to learn more about 1.2 (without getting into the code right away), I figured out that there is still no good documentation available. And whatever there is, are scattered across the web. Here I try to get them all together, and I hope this will help others to find 1.2 resources easily, and eventually help them adopt 1.2 faster.

Features

Behaviours, With Association, enhanced validation, a new helper for form, built in pagination support, integrated unit testing and caching are some of the new features to name. But, if you are looking for a more clearer idea about what are the new features in 1.2, head right to the article by cakebaker called What’s new in CakePHP 1.2 ? The article clearly lists down all the major changes made in 1.2. Cakebaker also has an article that compares 1.1 and 1.2: Which Cake should you eat?. This will help you make your choice, but in my humble opinion, I still think 1.2 will be difficult for most people to start with, if they are new to CakePHP. The major reason being the lack of proper documentation. Having said that, most of 1.1 documentation will still work for 1.2, but there is the danger of using any deprecated feature or not taking full advantage of 1.2. If you are the type who likes the feeling of going into the unknown, then dive straight in 1.2. On the other hand, if you like to play it safe, and want complete control over what you are doing, you should go for 1.1. But again, my judgement might be totally wrong :p. Another reason, why you should start with 1.1 is that it will allow you to be in a better situation to comprehend the cool features that 1.2 comes with.

Ok! Enough of my opinions, now lets continue with the rest of 1.2 resources. The next one is by Nate: Bag o’ Tricks. This has random features of 1.2, that will definitely make your eyes go twinkling if you used 1.1 and never knew anything about 1.2. Having said that, I have the perfect link to follow: OCPHP. These are the presentation slides on 1.2 in the recently held OCPHP conference. A must see for any 1.2 wanna be.

Validation

One area where CakePHP 1.2 has really improved is in the built in validation support. In 1.1 there where only four validation rules: VALID_NOT_EMPTY, VALID_NUMBER, VALID_EMAIL and VALID_YEAR. The rest had to be hand coded. In 1.2 there are more validation rules than you will ever need: alphanumeric, email, maxlenght, url and phone are a few to name. To get a better picture of all the available rules and how to use them, follow the links below:

• Validation with CakePHP 1.2 by Cakebaker again.
• All about Validation in CakePHP 1.2 by Another Cake Baker.
• All about Validation in CakePHP 1.2 – Part 2 by Another Cake Baker
• Validation Gotcha in CakePHP 1.2 by Another Cake Baker
• Multiple rules of validation per field in CakePHP 1.2 by Mariano Iglesias

Caching

Cool! Enough of validation, and now its going to be something that is becoming more important as CakePHP is being used in high traffic web apps: caching. Proper caching of data can make your app improve its performance dramatically. CakePHP 1.2 comes with caching support right out of the box. At the moment, it has support for five different caching engines:

1. File
2. APC
3. Memcache
4. Xcache
5. Model

The default caching engine is file i.e. it uses the files to cache data. But, the most elegant thing about the 1.2 caching support is that it has a common interface for all the caching engines. You can change the caching engine and yet use the same code to cache. Also, you can use any other caching engine with the same interface. You can even combine all the caching engines appropriately by writing our own engine by wrapping different caching engines into it. Switching caching engine in the runtime is also possible. What else can you ask for? Links? Here they are:

• CakePHP 1.2 Cache by Jiri Kupiainen
• Optimizing your CakePHP elements and views with caching by Tane Piper
• Cache Elements Individually For Each User by Ketan

Console

If you have used the bake.php script in 1.1, you will be amazed by the new console of CakePHP1.2. Basically, what the bake.php script did was that it allowed you to create models, controllers and view file structure ready for you(this is more commonly called baking) so that you have a structure ready for you to start working on. The new console takes this to the next level by allowing you to not only bake(auto generate code), but gives you access to different code from the command line. You can even use it to automate different tasks. This is something that I will most definitely write about more in the future, but for the time being, these links will satisfy your thirst:

• Setting Up the CakePHP Console on Windows. this is a screencast from the CakePHP site
• Setting Up the CakePHP Console on *nix, another screencast
• Update(31/08/07): Baking a bit faster with the bake script by Cakebaker
• Update(31/08/07): Faster baking of controllers with the bake shell script by Cakebaker
• Update(31/08/07): Baking Views by Cakebaker

Test Suite

Unit testing is something that has become vital for cooking bug-free(bug free? Im definitely kidding) apps. CakePHP 1.2 has integrated CakePHP test suite that uses SimpleTest. There isn’t much(just one) docs for this yet, but I am sure that this feature is so important, that proper docs will be available very soon. May be I can chip in . For the time being this is the only link I found, and it is from the bakery: Testing Models with CakePHP 1.2 test suite by Mariano Iglesias .

Wow! I cant believe you are still reading. I am already becoming tired of writing, so you must be tired as well, but thanks for being with me Frankly, I didnt expect this to get this long, but I still have some more links to write about. Don’t worry, I will be quick from now on

The ‘With’ Association

[Update(06/09/07)]
The ‘hasandbelongstomany’ relationship has been one of the most confusing aspects of model relationship in CakePHP for quite sometime, but (hopefully) not anymore. The ‘with’ association is here to make life easier. So what is it? It is nothing more than an easy way to access the join table. With the ‘with tag’, you can directly access the join table without any hassle. Some of the details are discussed by Chris’ Brain in A Glimpse Inside CakePHP 1.2

RSS Feeds

Making RSS Feeds for your app cant get easier. Super-easy RSS feeds with CakePHP 1.2 by Jiri Kupiainen and How Easy Are Web Services in CakePHP 1.2? Really Easy! by Chris Hartjes explains it all. Don’t forget to go through the comments.

Pagination

In CakePHP 1.1, pagination was not present in the core. With 1.2, pagination is right at home as Rob Conner explains in Basic Pagination Overview (1.2) and Advanced Pagination (1.2). Update(30/08/07): I cant believe I missed this wonderful article by Nate: Pagination, etc.

Authentication and ACL

Authentication and Access Control List are explained in the following bakery articles:

• Simple Form Authentication in 1.2.x.x by Sean Callan
• How to use ACL with Cake PHP 1.2.x? by Ketan

Email Component

1.2 has a new Email Component: Brief Overview of the new EmailComponent by GreyCells

Helpers

Now with helpers. There is a new helper called FormHelper that is dedicated to you know what(Forms). Also, now the “dot” notation can be used(Model.field instead of Model/field). The links below shows the usage of different helpers in 1.2

• Html Helper by Jeff Keith
• Form Helper
• Javascript Helper’s JSON object by Eelco Wiersma
• Update(30/08/07): Form Building: More Auto-Magic Than You Can Handle? by Nate

The 1.2 Manual

Ok! Thats it! But before I let you go I have one final link. I am sure you are eagerly waiting for the 1.2 Manual to come out. The CakePHP people are hard at work to get it done. But, if you want to have a sneak peak at the work, just click here. It is still incomplete, but going through it will not harm.

Thats all I have. I plan to write more about each 1.2 features in more detail, but lets see how that one goes. If you think I missed any useful link, please do let me know. I will be glad to update.

This article has useful links for a CakePhp new comer to get started with using Ajax. As the manual mentions, using Ajax in your Cake application is very easy. Ajax is implemented in Cake through the Cake Ajax Helper, which is included with Cake by default. The Cake Ajax helper utilizes the ever-popular Prototype and script.aculo.us libraries for Ajax operations and client side effects.

Below are some useful resources that got me started with Ajax in CakePHP. I hope these will help you too:

1. Getting Started:

• http://grahambird.co.uk/cake/tutorials/ajax.php
  This is probably the best place to start. Graham Bird wrote an excellent tutorial for getting started with CakePhp and Ajax:
• http://manual.cakephp.org/chapter/helpers
  Once you are done understanding Graham Bird’s tutorial, you should be ready to understand what the manual says about the Ajax Helper. You will find Ajax Helper way below in this page.
• http://infor96.com/cake/posts/
  This is another excellent Ajax example with CakePhp. It shows a demo Ajax blog. You can also download the source.
• http://cakebaker.42dh.com/2006/01/18/submit-a-form-with-ajax/
  CakeBaker’s blog on Submitting A Form With Ajax is a small but resourceful blog to read, especially the comments.
• http://www.nolimit-studio.com/baking/2006/05/16/adding-visual-effects-to-ajax-calls/
  Baking with Sosa has an interesting blog on Adding Visual Effects to Ajax Calls.

2. AutoComplete:

• http://manual.cakephp.org/chapter/helpers
  The Manual has a good example to get you started with Ajax Autocomplete.
• http://cakebaker.42dh.com/2006/06/06/autocompletion-the-easy-way/
  This blog by Cakebaker discusses a component made by Nate for easy implementation of autocomplete.
• http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/77
  The bakery has a good example for the same component.

3. Ajax Redirect:

• http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/92
• http://cakebaker.42dh.com/2006/03/15/redirect-with-ajax/
• http://cakebaker.42dh.com/2006/03/28/a-simple-redirect-component/

4. Ajax Validation:

• http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/88

5. Encoding:

• http://cakebaker.42dh.com/2006/01/17/the-right-encoding-for-your-ajax-views/

6. Ajax Uploader:

• http://thinkingphp.org/demos/cake-timer/

7. Ajax Star Rating:

• http://rossoft.wordpress.com/2006/09/07/ajax-star-rating-helper/

8. Ajax Chat:

• http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/229

9. TinyMCE with Ajax:

• http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/140

10. Dojo Helper

• http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/53

11. Updating Select Box using Ajax

• http://www.devmoz.com/blog/2007/04/04/cakephp-update-a-select-box-using-ajax/
  This tutorial shows how to update a select box using ajax call. Very useful

12. CakePhp API

• http://api.cakephp.org/class_ajax_helper.html
  Once you are confortable with using Ajax with Cake, the only place you need to look for any reference is the API.

13. Search The Cake PHP Google Group

• http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php/search?group=cake-php&q=ajax&qt_g=Search+this+group
  Yes. You will be surprized to find out the amount of information you will get to know from searching the group. To search the group for “ajax”, use the link above.

Feel free to leave comment. And, if you think I have left out some useful links, do let me know too.