CakePHP Beginner Tutorial – Part1

By Karthi

I am writing this CakePHP Beginner tutorial for my friends, who are interested to code MVC style. Welcome to CakePHP – MVC Framework. Here is your CakePHP Beginner Tutorial to create a sample Application.

Step #1 Download Latest CakePHP files from here or use this Direct File Link (cake_1.2.0.7125-rc1.zip)

Step #2 I hope you have PHP configured and you are able to see what is <?php echo “Hi Karthik”; ?>

Step #3 Lets assume your “DOCUMENT_ROOT” is k:\www\ Extract cakephp files to k:\www\kake\ So, Your directory arch will look alike.. k:\www\kake\app k:\www\kake\cake ….

Step #4: Create a MySQL database called “cakedb” & a table “members”

CREATE TABLE `members` (

`id` INT( 12 ) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY , `name` VARCHAR( 32 ) NOT NULL , `email` VARCHAR( 45 ) NOT NULL

) ENGINE = innodb;

Step #5: This is the most important part you have to understood. We are gonna create Models/Controllers/Views using commandline. Dont do this step without understanding the basics of MVC concept.

Read more about MVC here

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Start -> Run -> Cmd (*nix users use your terminal)

C:\>k: k:\>cd www\kake\cake\console\

k:\www\kake\cake\console\>path K:\wamp\bin\php\php5.2.5 (Linux users: #php or #/usr/bin/php . or  know your php ps path from #which php command)

Step #6: Lets do it. (This part is very simple to do, I am not gonna provide you a screenshot or anything… I will give you a raw idea.. As you are a programmer is good to learn this progress as “trial & error” method

k:\www\kake\cake\console\>cake bake

• Put your app path (Ex: k:\www\kake\)
• Select Database type (Ex: mysql)
• Give Database login info (Ex: host: localhost , user: root , password: >>Password is empty)
• confirm the database info
• again, k:\www\kake\cake\console\>cake bake
• We are gonna create a Model now. So press “M”
• Our table name “1.Member”(members is the table name, But cakephp suggests Model name as Singular & first letter uppercased table name)
• Press “1″
• We dont need any validation checks at this time just press “N”
• Confirm Model looks ok. Press Y
• again, k:\www\kake\cake\console\>cake bake
• Now select controller, Press C
• 1. members (table name will be your controller name)
• press “1″
• We do NOT need scaffolding (N)
• We do NOT need Test suite (N)
• We do NOT need Admin routing (N)
• We may need sessions (Y)
• We need Add/Edit/View/Delete (Y)
• Yeah, Looks ok.. Confirm the controller.
• again, k:\www\kake\cake\console\>cake bake
• We gonna do “Views” Press “V”
• again select our controller 1. members.. Press “1″
• We do need Add/Edit/View/Delete (Y)
• We do not need AdminRouting (N)
• Confirm it and exit the command line…

Looks lengthy??? Yes Ofcourse.. But it is better than writing hundereds of mysql_query(); mysql_fetch_array(); stripslashes(); again and again yes.

Step #7 Point your browser to http://localhost/kake/index.php You will see a “Welcome message from CakePHP” Wait, It may look very dry without any color. You have to configure CakePHP *not* to use mod_rewrite. So

open k:\www\kake\app\config\core.php

Uncomment: Configure::write(‘App.baseUrl’, env(‘SCRIPT_NAME’)); line.

Now, Refresh your browser.. it may look better.

Step #8: Visit : http://localhost/kake/index.php/members You can see a list of members and you can add members on http://localhost/kake/index.php/members Post your doubts here.. I am glad to help you. Regards, Karthik

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