Scaffolding Touch Ups
I can’t rant and rave enough about CakePHP. When I come across rivalries like the classic PC-vs.-Mac or Adobe InDesign-vs.-Quark XPress, I always try to consider what each side offers. (Incidentally, I’m a Mac user who sticks with InDesign.) When it comes to Cake-vs.-Symfony or Cake-vs.-Zend Framework, or even Cake-vs.-CodeIgniter, I’m convinced Cake is the winner on almost all counts.
But — I must concede one point. Maybe it’s because I try to have an eye for design, or maybe it’s just noticing a better flavor when you taste it, but I think Cake’s scaffolding design could use some work. In this area, I think Ruby On Rails definitely comes out on top.
I noticed that on one project, I had adjusted the scaffolding views a lot because I knew that those peeking over my shoulder were Rails fans. By no means were my designs much better, but on the whole, they were at least more pleasing to me, and, ultimately, what makes you happy when coding an extensive application is worth it. Kinda like the music truckers listen to; it doesn’t make the shipment get there any faster, but it sure makes the journey more enjoyable.

It dawned on me that perhaps I should let other bakers try out my scaffolding touch-ups. So, here’s how to add these touch-ups to your Cake app.
- Download Scaffolding Touchups [zip]
- Unpack the .zip file
- Place the “cake.generic.css” file in the
1app/webroot/css
folder
- Place the “home.ctp” file in the
1app/views/pages
folder
- Place the “default.ctp” file in the
1app/views/layouts
folder
Now, don’t get me wrong. I think Cake’s scaffolding design is just fine. This is just my little monochromatic flavor is all. Hope you enjoy.


Justin
Aug 27th, 2008, 11:24 am
Hi, David
I love the book and I thought I write to say “What a wonderful kind thought that you have in writing this book, it’s what I’ve been waiting for awhile now, and it’s great!, Thanks for sharing your wisdom!” and btw, I downloaded the Scaffoding Touchups.zip and edited the last line in your “cake.generic.css file by adding this:
.form input[type=text], .form textarea
{
font-size: 13px;
border: 1px solid #999;
margin: 5px;
padding: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
=====> width: 100%
}
# and this:
select[multiple=multiple] {
width: 100%;
}
See what you think!
Thanks sincerely,
Justin