News

Before We Get Going

I've accumulated a lot of links since the last digest (two months between posts will do that). As a result some links that would normally be included didn't make the cut.  The good news is you'll never know if your blog post/code snippet was cut, so don't feel bad.  Although if you posted something CakePHP related since Thanksgiving then you can assume I saw it.  And if it's not included then you can assume I didn't deem it worthwhile.  So maybe you should feel bad...

GitHub and Lighthouse

CakePHP development moved to GitHub (Yea!) and Lighthouse (Lightwhat?).  Plus new plugins (localized and datasources), which are already on version 0.2 (that puts them on target for 1.0 around Jan 2024).

Cake Prayer

Via @predominant: A CakePHP Prayer

New CakeDC

Cake's parent company CakeDC got a fancy new design (via @PhpNut).  Also you can support CakePHP by grabbing the new migrations plugin for a $15 "donation".

New Default CSS

@mark_story posted a couple screenshots of what could be the new default style sheet.  HAWT!

Sites

validcake.com

I actually don't think this a Cake site, but it does generate the validation array for Cake models. 

checkoutmygarage.net

From @modethirteen: checkoutmygarage.net - Yes, it is pretty much what you would think it is: A site for uploading pics of your garage.  I might post some shots of my garage - boxes of old baby cloths/toys piled on unused exercise equipment.  Although I don't think that's what they're going for.

vegasorange.com

From @mgiglesias: A site for Vegas real estate.  I used to love Vegas, but haven't been in years.  I hear it's kind of lame now and Montreal is the hip gambling spot.  Hey, speaking of Canada...

harbourstation.ca

From @???? (I got this from twitter, but didn't note who posted it.  I suck): A Canadian arena that hosts Canada's two most popular forms of entertainment: hockey and Gordon Lightfoot. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine which is the most popular.

iqlink.com.au

From @predominant: iqlink.com.au - A product info site for sweet looking ATM that dispenses documents instead of cash (or something like that).

In The Blogs

Loading Helpers As Needed

Jeremy Burns has a great tip on how to load a helper for a specific action rather then the whole controller. This is nothing new, but it's worth mentioning again.

Better Zip Code Validation

Jamie Nay posted a short validation routine for handling various international postal codes.  This is mostly for 1.2 as the localized plugin mentioned above handles these in 1.3.

Bye-bye $cakeDebug

Teknoid has a post marking then of the $cakeDebug variable and some bits on how the new system works.

Code

Fixture Factory

I'm going to screw up the description on this one, but here we go: Fixture Factory is a CakePHP plugin for programatically creating fixture at the top of your unit tests, rather then relying on database records or _fixture files.

CakePHP to LI3 Bridge

This is more of a LI3 plugin for porting Cake apps bit by bit.  Here's the official descprition:

The li3_cake plugin allows you to develop applications that use CakePHP and Lithium together, leveraging classes and exposing resources using both frameworks in unison.

Be honest: you threw up a bit in your mouth reading that.  That description is a "synergy" away from qualifying for the enterprisey buzzword hall of fame.

Trees

If you're into trees then last month must have been like Christmas for you.  Also if you're into Christmas, then last month must have been like Christmas for you.  First we have Neil Crookes TreeCounterCacheBehavior plugin.  If you're smart you're probably asking:

@AD7six: why have a (total)child_count field at all. no-of-children = (rght - lft -1)/2 .

And obviously the answer is:

@neilcrookes: ah, I remember now, it's for when I add scope functionality

@neilcrookes: when I say remember, I mean, that's the excuse I just came up with for being too dumb to realise no-of-children = (rght - lft -1)/2

Also from Jamie Nay is his post "Adding Better Scope Limiting to CakePHP 1.2’s Tree Behavior".  One more: BTree Behavior from jas osborne, which claims to be faster then the Cake Tree Behavior when dealing with overgrown trees.

I'm Out!

And on that note don't forget to subscribe to my feed or follow me on twitter. As always if you think I missed something leave a comment. Or if you do something interesting and want it included in the next digest, send me an email.