How many ways can you generate a CakePHP Admin interface? A summary of the available methods, as well as an intro to CakeAdmin, a class-based admin generation tool.

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/