CakePHP quickstart

UPDATE: at the end we used Zend framework

I decided that CakePHP is worth few hours of my time to look into it and decide if we can use it at our project.

I downloaded 1.2 RC2 version from http://cakeforge.org/frs/?group_id=23&release_id=399, extracted and setup virtual host so I can go to my CakePHP installation on localhost -> http://c/

When I open http://c/ CakePHP welcome screen appears. It tells what has to be configured and where to look for further documentation. User friendly. Nice!

Edited salt variable for security purposes to a custom value.
Copied database.php.default to database.php and edited file so it corresponds my database configuration. So far sooo simple :)

I created simplified database structure

CakePhp has an interesting feature - automatic project setup via console (command prompt). I already did database setup. So I only "baked" user model, controller and view - for start.

console bake tool manual

Screen masks are done, basic functions work. Nice and quick.
But I don't like design and that CakePhp logo on top. Where can I modify default layout?

I had to copy cake/cake/libs/view/layouts/default.ctp to cake/app/views/layouts/default.ctp and then edit file as I want

If you want to enable unit testing (it is very important thing that can greatly reduce overall project development time, costs and make maintenance easy) you have to download third party unit testing - SimpleTest. Download it and extract it to vendors folder. That's it.