The document discusses rapid admin application development using CakePHP, focusing on scaffolding and code generation through tools like 'cake bake'. It highlights the advantages and drawbacks of using scaffolding, offers insights on customization, and compares CakePHP's capabilities with other frameworks like Rails and Django. The content is targeted at developers building CMS applications and emphasizes the need for efficient tools to create admin interfaces quickly.

1. REALLY RAPID ADMIN
APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

2. ~WHOAMI
• Jose Diaz-Gonzalez
• Resident IRC Troll (savant)
• Rants at http://josediazgonzalez.com
➘
• Harasses as @savant
me
• Codes as josegonzalez on github
• Works at @seatgeek
not me
➘

3. WHO IS THIS TALK FOR?
• Anyone building CMS’ for a living
• Those needing quick, extensible CRUD applications
• Anyone looking for a boring challenge

4. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?
• var $scaffold = true;
• ../cake/console/cake bake
• cake bake skeletons
• admin generation

5. SCAFFOLD

6. SCAFFOLDING
• Generic application auto-generation
• InCakePHP, introspects the Model::schema() and
relationships to pull in data
• Dumb, never recommended for production, not easy to
manipulate

7. var $scaffold
<?php
class IssuesController extends AppController {
var $scaffold;
}

8. EXTENDING THIS?
• Introspects model; add callbacks/validation rules/behaviors
• _*Scaffold() Callbacks
• Custom app/controller/scaffold.php class
• Customize app/views/scaffolds/* views
• 2.0 gets cooler scaffold

9. FIN

10. SCAFFOLD DRAWBACKS
• Little to no usage documentation
• Hard to customize
• Easier to add generic methods in AppController

11. GENERIC METHODS

12. GENERIC METHODS
• Create
index()/view()/add()/edit()/delete() methods in your
AppController
• Have callbacks to disable in specific Controllers
• Able to override in child Controllers

13. /**
* Handles index requests.
*
* @return void
* @access public
*/
public function index() {
// Only do this work if our concrete controller has not.
if (!isset($this‐>viewVars[Inflector::pluralize($this‐>modelClass)])) {
$this‐>set(array(
Inflector::pluralize($this‐>modelClass) => $this‐>paginate(
$this‐>modelClass,
/**
* Here we toss in any conditions that were found as named
* parameters and which match up to a column in the model
* schema.
*/
array_intersect_key(
$this‐>params['named'],
$this‐>{$this‐>modelClass}‐>schema()
)
)
));
}
}
From https://github.com/joebeeson/crumbs/blob/develop/app_controller.php

14. class PostsController extends AppController {
protected $disabledActions = array('index', 'add', 'edit', 'changelog');
public function beforeFilter() {
if (in_array($this‐>params['action'], $this‐>disabledActions)) {
$this‐>cakeError('404');
}
}
}
disabling mocked methods

15. CAVEATS
• Has to be generic enough to use across controllers
• Only portable if built as a plugin library (ie. LazyModel)
• Must remember to build disabling code

16. BAKE

17. CAKE BAKE
• You can now view the generated code and modify at will
• Have to re-bake constantly
• Everyone uses it; No one customizes it
• Same issues as Scaffold
• NOT === var $scaffold

18. BAD CAKE BAKE
• Lets use Model::scaffold = ‐1 please
• Generated view() can result in an empty page
• Generated delete() lets crawlers potentially auto-delete
site
• Model::read() usage is evil
• Asks too many questions; Can’t I just answer once and rebake?

20. EXTENDING THIS?
• Templates: app/vendors/shells/templates
• Models are simple to access in templates
• Do you follow “conventions” or allow configuration?
• May need custom shell for extra configuration

21. CAKE SKELETONS
• ../cake/console/cake bake project
• Multiple skeletons available
• Application Bootstrap
• More or less portable

22. CAKE SKELETONS
• Can’t use in existing applications
• Assume you’ll always follow the same conventions
• Hard to upgrade bootstrapped apps in automated fashion
• Good for “chop-shops” and freelancers on new apps

23. EXTENDING THIS?
• Copy
cake/console/templates/skel to app/
vendors/templates/skeletor
• Add plugins, create migrations/schema files
• Generate generic models/controllers/views
• Customize the HTML/CSS
• GITHUB

24. EXISTING CAKE BAKE
SKELETONS
• Andy Dawson’s Skel
• Jon Bradley’s cake-skel
• Dean Soffer’s BakingPlate
• Jose Gonzalez’s AppSkellington

25. IS THAT ALL?

26. RAILS GENERATORS

27. • Generators generate generators
• Scaffolding similar to bake
• Heavy community use
• http://railswizard.org/
^ Someone make this for CakePHP ^
ESSENTIALLY
CAKE BAKE+SKELETONS

28. RAILS ADMIN

29. • Port of MerbAdmin
• Ruby DSL Configuration
• Similar to var $scaffold
• Works with existing
applications
• Actively
Developed, https://github.com/sferik/rails_admin
Unofficial

30. SYMFONY ADMIN

31. PROGRESSIVE ENHANCEMENT
• var $scaffold on crack
• supports custom fields
• weird templating language
• Symfony win?
http://chetzit.com/uploads/images/00/00/04/2010/09/10/4ef9840c2e.png

32. YAML YAML YAML

33. NO GENERATION STEP
save and go

34. DJANGO ADMIN

35. DJANGO PONY
• Very customizable
• Lots of available plugins
• Lots of “themes”
• Official Support

36. CAKE ADMIN

37. WHY
• Need custom admin interface on top of phpmyadmin
• Can’t use Croogo/Infinitas/etc.
• Need to replicate similar admin interfaces across projects
• Let less technical developers create their own interfaces

38. THE GOOD

39. CLASS BASED
// Access via /admin/posts
class PostCakeAdmin extends CakeAdmin {
}

40. PHP-BASED CONFIGURATION
class CategoryCakeAdmin extends CakeAdmin {
/**
* Where do I “scaffold” this?
*
* @var string
*/
public $plugin = 'dashboard';
}

41. LOOKS EFFIN AMAZING

42. BETTER BASE METHODS
public function delete($id = null) {
if (!empty($this‐>data['Category']['id'])) {
if ($this‐>Category‐>delete($this‐>data['Category']['id'])) {
$this‐>Session‐>setFlash(__d('admin', 'Category deleted', true), 'flash/success');
$this‐>redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
}
$this‐>Session‐>setFlash(__d('admin', 'Category was not deleted', true), 'flash/error');
$id = $this‐>data['Category']['id'];
}
$this‐>data = $this‐>Category‐>find('delete', compact('id'));
if (!$this‐>data) {
$this‐>Session‐>setFlash(__d('admin', 'Category unspecified', true), 'flash/error');
$this‐>redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
}
}

43. THE BAD

44. NO TESTS

45. HIGH LEARNING CURVE

46. AND THE REST

47. CREATING NEW ACTIONS
• Needs an *ActionConfig class
• Templates for Controller/View - Model optional
• Similar to Cake Bake Templates
• Access to a model and the Admin class config

48. WHATS IN AN ACTION
<?php
class CakeAdminIndexConfig extends CakeAdminActionConfig {
// Guess
var $defaults = array( /* some options */);
// Should we enable this by default
var $enabled = true;
// Plugin where the templates for this action are located
var $plugin = 'cake_admin';
// Action type
var $type = 'index';
// How do we "link" to this method
var $linkable = 'List {{modelname}}';
// Custom model methods (find, related)
var $methods = array('find');
// How do we merge our defaults and configuration?
function mergeVars($admin, $configuration = array()) {
}
}

49. CAKE ADMIN GENERATE

50. TODO
• More actions (galleries, TreeBehavior)
• Ajax and other UI enhancements
• Web interface for customization
• Scaffold-like interface in 2.0

51. LINKS
• CakeAdmin: http://github.com/josegonzalez/cake_admin
• Baking Master Class: http://www.neilcrookes.com/2009/07/11/baking-master-class-cakefest-jul-09/
• AppSkellington: http://github.com/josegonzalez/app_skellington
• Skel: http://github.com/ad7six/skel
• Cake-Skel: https://github.com/jonbradley/cake-skel
• BakingPlate: http://github.com/proloser/bakingplate
• RailsAdmin: http://github.com/sferik/rails_admin
• DjangoAdmin: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/ref/contrib/admin/