CakePHP Framework A comprehensive review

“Effort with brain becomes effortless!! The IT industry i.e. driven by the interaction between a manmade machine and the human brain is at its crest. Every moment, a smarter brain comes and quakes the industry with its mesmerizing features and potential. Framework is one such piece that makes smarter software application development possible with less time and effort. CakePHP is such a magnificent framework for PHP developers to make their life much easier than before. How is it possible; let’s find it out?”

The core is MVC- that means rapid web development:Model – view – controller is a new concept that is being introduced to the web industry for efficient and accurate application development. Most of the frameworks especially web domain specific frameworks follow this pattern for quick and efficient web solution development. Basically in a MVC Architecture the content that renders on the HTML page is controlled by the controller i.e., the gateway between the core logic and the final view of a web application. The model keeps the data about the website i.e., all the tables, database etc are stored under the supervision of model. The view contains final HTML content for the web page that will be visible on the user interface i.e. the browser. Whenever the user places a request, the controller analyses it and retrieves the data from the model and renders it on to the view. Any change in the model or controller will directly impact the view without putting more effort for the application logic. The best part is that we can integrate advanced features like AJAX technology for rendering dynamic contents on the view.

ORM is tightly coupled with MVC- results outstanding pace and performance: ORM stands for object relational mapping that is extremely helpful for object oriented programming. Few years back PHP had no support for object oriented programming like java or .net for efficient and secure application development. With the introduction of ORM, CakePHP i.e., developed in MVC Architecture takes maximum benefit from the ORM technique for rapid web development. With ORM, a virtual object database is created and it directly impacts the model section of the MVC pattern. Any change in the object can be visible throughout the application and it will definitely diminish the effort of the developer for quick web development process. In simple words, the experienced CakePHP developer doesn’t have to write multiple common queries for altering, creating or deleting any table attribute for the database to be impactful throughout the application. You just modify the object for the database and it will take care of the whole things by itself resulting in improved performance and productivity. This reflects all the nature of object including inheritance, polymorphism, and reusability concepts for faster application development in a systematic manner.

Ease of use: Ease of use is the most important feature of any framework because it plays the role of a deciding factor for the developer whether to choose a framework or not. Hence every framework manufacturer strives for an outstanding developer interface in their product. CakePHP is highly developer friendly due to its well organized components and interfaces in the application platform. A fresher PHP developer can easily accustomed with the interface of the framework and hence start working on the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) within no time. CakePHP enables the PHP developer in developing quick web solutions using different components and libraries of the framework that can be accessed without the need of much expertise from the developer. Apart from better developer interface, there are many developer friendly features available in the framework that will definitely lessen the coding effort of the developer and hence it will bring a smile on the developer’s face while working on the platform.

Extensibility can be achieved from CakePHP: A framework is useless if it can’t help in expanding the features of any web application with the integration of third party software applications or tools. CakePHP enables the web developers in integrating all modern amenities into their application from the external resources available in web. It can integrate many plug-ins, modules and components from the web in developing highly efficient and feature loaded web applications. What is more? One can modify the in-house code of the framework as per his requirement for better application development. In fact, there are many templates available in CakePHP for quick web development without compromising on the look and feel of an application that too within very less time span.

Built in Validation is yet another effort cutting feature: CakePHP has a built-in validation feature that is extremely helpful while dealing with application development having multiple forms, input fields etc. The developer need not to write lengthy codes to validate a form input field using JavaScript or jQuery since all are there inside the framework itself. The best part is that, these in-built validating functions are highly optimized and thoroughly inspected by the expert team of CakePHP; so there is no threat of any performance related issues while adopting those functions for our application.

Caching, optimization and modern features etc will help in building contemporary web applications: With the preamble of mobile browsers and smart phone browsers, it becomes a necessity to write not only highly optimized web apps rather to design responsive web application to deal with these varieties of devices and browsers. The inbuilt improved caching feature enables the application to load faster on the smart phone browser and the implementation of modern cutting edge technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery etc can help in building high performance light weight web applications for a wide range of platforms and devices.

More than 10 years of glory for CakePHP: Yes! CakePHP is already 11 years old now. Over time, it evolves itself to accustom with the ever changing demands of the industry. The continuous learning attitude of expert CakePHP team enables it to sustain in the market with the same essence as before even after 10 years, which is not at all a small period in IT industry where everyday some new technologies get born and shadows the existing one’s potential. So, CakePHP is like a game changer in the industry especially when we think about object oriented programming using PHP, which was always a dream for PHP developers since its inception.

CakePHP is perhaps the oldest and most robust PHP frameworks. For more than 7 years Mindfire Solutions has built great web applications using CakePHP for its clients. If you decide to use this great framework for your software development needs then write to us at sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com and we will respond to your query within one business day!