Finally, I found some time to take CakePHP for a spin. I've heard some really good things about it, and I've been trying to get some time to try it out. I installed the framework and went through the tutorial on building a simple blog application. I have to say I'm quite impressed.

The post briefly introduces the Model-View-Controller method the framework follows and shows some of the features/benefits it brings with it - the low entry level, its speed, and whether or not it makes for a good "first framework" for other developers.

Using the view as a starting point may seem odd at first considering the view-related actions are some of the last steps in the page load scenario, but since our views don't have any external dependencies, unit tests are very easy to write and so is the accompanying code.

He explains how views work along with the rest of the framework and some of the basic rules surrounding how they get their data. Code comes along with the explanations for different views like XML, HTML and JSON methods of output.

After speaking with any number of users about getting started with a framework, I find many do not have an advanced understanding of the corner stone of a current day web application framework: the Model-View-Controller Design Pattern.

He explains the normal development approach (kind of a Page Controller where each bit of functionality has its own page) versus the Model/View/Controller approach of separation of presentation and logic in a structured fashion. He also goes through each of the parts of the MVC equation and shows the difference between the roles that the Controller and Model have in the application.

In my previous article, I announced that I would be documenting the process of developing a simple MVC framework. In this post I will go into a little more detail about each of the specific components of our MVC and will discuss the series of events which occur each time a page loads, otherwise known as the page load scenario.

He talks about how URIs work, the role of mod_rewrite, several of the objects involved (like the Front Controller, Request, Route and View) and how they all fit in with the custom Models, Views and Controllers the user could define.

This Zend Framework video is from our resident Zend-nerd: Jon Lebensold. Again, let us know what you think and should you have any suggestions or request, please feel free to comment.

Part one was posted back on Tuesday for those that need to catch up.

This video is a little more basic than the previous Zend videos.

The video runs about twelve minutes long and covers the use of the Framework to post information back to a page and insert some of the information back into the database.

This guy [making comments at PHP London] apparently works for the Agavi project. [...] The comments for that [reddit] post are really interesting too, as people take their usual swipes at PHP, and CakePHP, and the Symfony guys come out in droves to talk up Symfony, and on and on it goes. Sadly, this is not a unique occurance on the web.

Chris took a closer look at Agavi to see what made its MVC so special - only to find that it just does it different, but not necessarily "right" (he includes a code example to illustrate). He also quotes Wikipedia's definition of an MVC framework and notes that CakePHP seems to fit it to a tee.

Chances are, however, that you just want to get on with coding, and don't want to have to deal with complex libraries. CodeIgniter achieves this wonderfully, staying out of your way but offering a lot of functionality if and when you need it.

The tutorial takes a little time to explain what an MVC framework is before getting in to how to use it (it makes more sense when you know how requests are handled). They create a simple "jobs" application to get you started that not only shows the structure of a simple app, but also includes how interface it with a (MySQL) database as well.