In this CakePHP tutorial for beginners, you will learn CakePHP framework basics like:

What is CakePHP? Why use CakePHP Framework?
History of CakePHP
Features of CakePHP
CakePHP- Folder Structure
Configuration of CakePHP
Cake- PHP naming conventions
How does MVC work in CakePHP?
Disadvantages of using the CakePHP framework

Why use CakePHP Framework?

Here, are prime benefits/pros of using CakePHP framework:

Cake PHP is by far, one of the quickest web development platforms. CakePHP allows developers to gain enhanced control over the database and SQL queries. It helps users to develop robust web applications without losing their environment flexibility rapidly. Support for PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, PEAR-DB for ADODB, a database abstraction library. Facilitates search Engine Friendly URLs Provide features like input validation and sanitization tools which make the app secure. Templating with familiar PHP syntax

History of CakePHP

Now in this CakePHP tutorial, we will cover the history of CakePHP framework:

Features of CakePHP

Here are important features of CakePHP.

Active, friendly community MVC architecture Built-in validation Works from any web site directory, with some or no Apache configuration involved. Templating Engine Caching Operations Easy CRUD Database Interactions. Built-in Validation Handlin Components like Email, Cookie, Security, Session, and Request View Helpers for JavaScript, Ajax, HTML Forms and More

CakePHP- Folder Structure

Now in this CakePHP framework tutorial, we will learn about the CakePHP folder structure. Below is a folder structure of CakePHP:

Configuration of CakePHP

CakePHP comes with a single configuration file by default. It also allows you to modify it according to your requirements. There is a folder called “config” given for this purpose. Model Contains your application’s tables, entities, and behaviors.

Cake- PHP naming conventions

Cake follows the idea of convention over configuration. Naming convention method allows you to organize the operation of the web application. In this method, more than one word in the name must be separated by “_” when naming the file and camel cases when naming the class. The MVC parts must follow below given syntax:

Databases Configuration

CakePHP allows you to configure Database in config/app.php file. It provides default connection with provided parameters which you can modify per your choice. Important parameters are given below:

How does MVC work in CakePHP?

Now, we will learn how MVC work in CakePHP in this CakePHP framework tutorial. It is a dynamic way to build the prime mechanism of a web application. The model, the view, and the Controller- separate each other.

Cake PHP splits operations into three parts:

Models: Used for all database interactions. Views: Used for all output and displays. Controllers: Used to control the application flow

Here, are steps to use MVC architecture in CakePHP: Step 1) The client or user interacts with the view Step 2) View alerts controller of the specific event. Step 3) It sends a database request to the Model and Controller updates the model. Step 4) The model alerts view that it has changed. Step 5) View receives model data and updates itself according to received data.

Why use MVC?

CakePHP MVC helps you to separates business logic from presentation and data retrieval. A site is divided into logical sections which you can govern with a specific controller. When testing and debugging an application, any developers help you to locate and correct errors without having complete details of the code.

Disadvantages of using the CakePHP framework

The documentation supports of CakePHP is not as comprehensive as it should be. To use CakePHP software, the developer needs to update the default routes for creating fancy URL’s, which is a lot more work compared to other PHP frameworks. CakePHP one way routing as compared to other frameworks. Learning PHP framework is not easy. Offers one-way routing is another disadvantage when compared with frameworks such as Ruby on Rails.

Summary

CakePHP is an open-source framework that helps make development and maintenance of PHP apps much easier. CakePHP allows developers to gain enhanced control over the database and SQL queries. It was developed by Michal Tatarynowicz On April 15, 2005 MVC architecture and Built-in validation are the most important features of CakePHP CakePHP comes with a single configuration file by default which allows you to modify it according to your requirements. Naming convention method of CakePHP allows you to organize the operation of the web application. CakePHP allows you to configure Database in config/app.php file. Cake PHP splits MVC operations into three parts: Models: Used for all database interactions, Views: Used for all output and displays, Controllers: Used to control the application flow The biggest advantage of using MVC in CakePHP is that it helps you to separates business logic from presentation and data retrieval. The biggest drawback of CakePHP is that documentation supports of CakePHP is not as comprehensive as it should be.