Get Another 47-Page Chapter
The chapter “Cake 1.2 Functions and Properties” is now available for readers of Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional. It contains 47 pages of reference material about the CakePHP framework which is useful for looking up functions and properties of the various classes. A preview is also available [PDF], if you’re interested in checking it out.
I’m thrilled about this chapter for a couple of reasons. First of all, I like cheatsheets, and this is like a cheatsheet for the whole CakePHP framework. Sure, for some things, the API is the only way to go for looking up specifics about functions and properties. But often, I just need to flip through a chart or a couple of pages to look up something, and having it right there in front of me is sometimes more accessible than bouncing back-and-forth between one tab on the API and another on my project or text editor.
Second, I’m thrilled about this chapter because it was not only fun to compile, but also has been useful for me as I’ve developed my own Cake apps. I’m excited to pass it along to you and make your life easier. There’s nothing worse than building something and then finding out that you could have accomplished the same method by calling out a one-line command from a Cake helper or component. This chapter will provide you with a concise view of what’s available in Cake and save you from this kind of disappointment.
So, dear reader, enjoy Appendix C: Cake 1.2 Functions and Properties and be sure to let me know if it has been beneficial for you. As always, I love hearing your feedback.
Reader Feedback
I’m interested in your feedback about my new book “Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional.” Please visit the Forum to discuss the book, ask questions, or otherwise let me know what you think of the book. You can also reach me by commenting on blog posts or writing reviews on Amazon.com.
This book represents the first major effort to publish a CakePHP manual in English, and has gone through rigorous testing and technical reviews to get it to this point. Many of you got started with my first drafts of “The Newbie’s Guide to CakePHP” and made suggestions as far back as 14 months ago. That feedback has certainly culminated in what is now “Beginning CakePHP,” and was so valuable back then. I hope to get similar feedback from what is sure to be a wider audience with the release of a much larger and in-depth book. I can promise that I’ll consider your suggestions and who knows — maybe another edition will be ready as Cake matures into 1.2 and 2.0 releases.
As always, thanks for the support, and I hope you enjoy the read!
Web Standards Education
Personally, I appreciate good documentation efforts not only because I’m a believer in education– especially the self-help kind (it’s the most cost-efficient way to learn)–but because well-documented projects reduce dead weight loss and inefficiency. In other words, when everyone better understands what the experts know, simply put, there is much less hassle, especially when it comes to programming.
Possibly the worst of all coding smorgasbords is HTML/CSS. I mean, no other markup language has been so terribly implemented (Internet Explorer! Gasp!) and at the same time so widely used (can anything top the world wide web in terms of developer base?). Yet, surprisingly, web standards are slow in coming. Sure, they’re there, and who can doubt the number of web standards evangelists out there urging us all to improve our markup? But until the powers that be (namely, the big four: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Opera) all subscribe to web standards, we all get to continue finding hacks for creating a three-column layout or using transparency in graphics and rounded corners.
I came across Opera’s web standards curriculum and was impressed. Clearly, Opera is fighting for dear life when considering their market share compared to other browsers, and I think it’s fairly obvious that their strategy is to ride the web standards wave to try to grab customers. Heck, they suedMicrosoft over web standards and anti-trust. But the need for a consensus on web standards is still sorely needed, and Opera’s push to educators to more effectively teach web development is certainly relevant. For instance, I was shocked how often at my alma mater, the top professors in Information Systems were teaching outdated methods for web development, and this was at a top-ranked business school.
Though a life where web standards are fully implemented across all the major browsers is one I don’t think I’ll ever experience, I still appreciate when somebody makes the effort.
