Installing CakePHP

Over the past few months I have been getting to grips with CakePHP, a rapid development framework written in PHP that uses the Model, View, Controller (MVC) software design pattern. If you are a PHP programmer then give this framework a try because quite frankly it’s the bee’s knees.

Although it does have quite a steep learning curve once you become familiar with the concepts it will help to improve your programming skills and will also get your database-driven websites up and running extremely quickly. This post is going to be the first of many regarding CakePHP and my plan is to release posts quite regularly that build upon the Blog tutorial found in the manual.
Downloading and Installing CakePHP

Currently there are 2 versions of CakePHP available, 1.1 and 1.2. Version 1.2 is in a pre-beta stage and limited documentation exists and therefore I’m going to be dealing with the stable 1.1 release. Go to the download page and grab the 1.1 zip file. Extract the files to a folder in your local web server (read my previous post about setting one up) , I’ve renamed the folder to “cakephp” and inside you will have a number of folders and files including “app”, “cake”, “docs”, “vendors”, “.htaccess” and “index.php”.



One of the first things you should do when starting with CakePHP is read the manual, especially the first few chapters about the basic concepts and installation. It will help to get your head around everything and although things may seem confusing at first it does get easier.

I setup CakePHP to use the production setup right from the start this makes everything easier when you need to upload your finished site, I do this by setting up a virtual host.
Setting up a Virtual Host

I’m running the excellent Xampp webserver and I use virtual hosts for developing all my websites. Open the Apache Virtual Host file (located at C:\server_directory\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf) and create a new host:

1.
2. DocumentRoot C:/server/htdocs/cakephp/app/webroot
3. ServerName cakephp:80
4.


Don’t forget to add “cakephp” to you Hosts file (C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts), restart your webserver if you already have it running and you will be able to access your new installation of CakePHP by going to “http://cakephp” in your browser.
Mod_Rewrite

Just a quick note on mod_rewrite, if you have installed Xampp as your local server or use Apache then its best if you enable mod_rewrite, simply open the “httpd.conf” file located at “C:\server\apache\conf” and uncomment the following line by removing the ‘#’ symbol:

1. #LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so


There is some more information regarding mod_rewrite in Section 5 of the “Installing CakePHP” part of the manual. Remember to restart Apache when you make any changes like this.
Testing CakePHP in your Browser
CakePHP Image

If you have set everything up correctly then you should be seeing a CakePHP page when you go to “http://cakephp”, if you are not seeing any images or css styling then make sure that you have mod_rewrite enabled and that your virtual host is pointing to the “/app/webroot” directory (with no trailing slash). The page is telling you that you have not set up your database configuration file so we will be doing this next.
Setting up the Database Connection
CakePHP Image

The database configuration file is located at “C:\server\htdocs\cakephp\app\config”, rename the “database.php.default” file to “database.php” and open it in your editor. You need to enter your database username, password and database name into the “$default” connection. If you have not yet created a new database open phpMyAdmin in a browser and create a new database, doesn’t really matter what you call it but I’ve created one called “cakephp”.
CakePHP Image

Reload “http://cakephp” in your browser and CakePHP will now be able to see your database configuration file and it will also be able to connect to your database. Everything is looking good and you now have a fresh install of CakePHP up and running on your local web server.