Baking with cakePHP

Its been a while..

So lately I've been baking with cakePHP. Since I'm new to php and new to this framework, my thoughts might overlap between the two. A comment for the cake might be due to php and vice-versa. Anyway, here it goes. Instead of pro's and con's, I'll write as likes and don't-likes.. in no particular order. As I don't think I can judge php and related technology being a newbie..

Like:
First thoughts of using phpcake reminded me of Grails. very simple, less code and code generator tools.

Don't Like:
Too much reliance on convention over configuration. I'm still a bit 'old-school' if you will on this. My gripe with this is that if you live a framework (meaning that is all that you do), then convention is all ok. But if you switch between projects using different frameworks, configuration is a lifesaver. You know exactly what goes where and why. Personally I fall in the second camp and don't like to rely on too many 'automagic' methods.

Like:
convention overrides. It gives ways to override conventions. Such as /controllers/opportunities_controller.php expects and uses /models/opportunity.php model and will error out if model not present. But if you want to use /models/client.php model in /controllers/opportunities_controller.php, just declare a member:

$uses = array('Client');

or if you want to use other models, declare:

$uses = array('Opportunity','Client');

Like:
bake tool. It generates the models, views, controllers with staple code. The generated code is very workable to customize.

Don't Like:
ACL. Nothing wrong with ACL, but the heavy reliance on ACL for Authorization. I wish they support url pattern for authorization as an alternative. (maybe they do.. but I didn't find a good example). As a comparison see aceigi ( http://www.acegisecurity.org/petclinic-tutorial.html and scroll to block of code just before section 'Start petclinic's database)

Also, there is not much support for 'rapid development' with authorization using ACL. Everyone seems to create a different way to implement the actual authorization permission checking, especially from the views. So, I did the same. I even had to create my own session managed permission map, so that the system does not make tons of db queries on each page request.

And if you need to see at a later date which resource is authorized to whom, you need to be a SQL guru to run Tree/Hierarchical queries to find that out.

Like:
debugging. It helps a lot, and shows what framework is doing internally to get stuff done.

Don't Like:
Lack to true OO. a quick example. It allows you to create a Model class. When you invoke for a model from the Model's find() method, you don't get an instance of the model. You get an array with data?!

Lets say controllerA is using ModelB, you can say:

$model = $this->ModelB->find(...)

This is OO. But any call on

$model->..

fails, as $model is not an instance of a class. It is an array.

Like:
components for controllers and helpers for views concept. This helps create reusable functionality and integration into controllers and views is seamless.

Don't Like:
models with data access methods. I had this gripe with Grails as well. There is a big debate on this issue about should models be aware of loading and fetching themselves or should that functionality be separated in DAO's. I don't want to judge which is better, but I like DAO's.. This helps models to behave as command or transport objects.

Like:
dynamic methods: findBy... and findAllBy.. on models.. that's a life saver.

Like:
$conditions for making complex queries. Build your complex query in an array, and supply it to the find method. This addresses one issue I had talked about earlier. See ORM and search/filtering In effect it uses the method I had talked about called 'search...(criteria)', where a criteria object is built and sent to the search method.

Don't Like:
->, => .. fingers hurt typing. This is php issue though..

There are features that I've not tried yet. Such as behaviors, elements etc. I may write again when I have a fuller grasp of the framework.

So finally, would I use php cake in future? Yes, for a quick prototype or where php is required in a project. But for more enterprise solutions I'd fall back on a java solution.