Sunday, March 22, 2009

Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional

Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional
Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (July 21, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1430209771
ISBN-13: 978-1430209775
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches







CakePHP is a leading PHP–based web app development framework. When asking a question on forums or chat rooms, many CakePHP beginners get little help from the experts. Simple questions can get a response like, “Well, just read the online manual and API.” Unfortunately, the online manual is depreciated, and who wants to absorb a programming language or framework from an API? Beginning CakePHP will do the following:
  • Leads you from a basic setup of CakePHP to building a couple applications that will highlight CakePHP’s functionality and capabilities without delving too deeply into the PHP language, but rather what the CakePHP framework can offer the developer.
  • Teaches you to use CakePHP by incorporating advanced features into your web development projects.
  • Targets beginners of CakePHP or web frameworks in general as well as experienced developers with limited exposure to CakePHP. A secondary audience may include developers undecided on adopting CakePHP or business managers trying to assess the value of incorporating CakePHP into their toolbox.

What you’ll learn
  • Install and configure the CakePHP web framework.
  • Create your first CakePHP web application: to–do lists.
  • Progress by building a more complex blogging application.
  • Incorporate Ajax and Web 2.0 principles and techniques into your blogging and other CakePHP applications.
  • Apply these sample applications along with advanced techniques as a framework or template for building your own web applications with CakePHP going forward.

Who is this book for?

This book will speak to an audience of developers already familiar with PHP but who may not be PHP experts. This book is tailored for those new to CakePHP and who want a thorough tutorial.

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!



User Review:

I have mixed feelings... I think if the book was just now published and in sync with the current cake API I'd give it 4-5 stars.

Overall I am liking the book as it does a pretty thorough job of explaining things, unlike tutorials that just show you how to do things, but not explain them. This book explains almost everything.

However, just a bare 6-7 months in print and this book is already sadly obsolete. Many of the code examples don't work any longer as the API for cakePHP has already changed significantly. I have spent more time trying to chase down the fixes/changes than I am making progress in the book and I'm getting frustrated. The author responds to errata eventually, but seems to take awhile. Meanwhile you can post your questions (or search for them) in his Forum or Blog. I've posted to both places but I'm not sure the author is replying to them any longer, fortunately other people are!

I could wish that the author would try to keep the code snippets updated on his blog, forum or in the errata. I think anyone writing a book like this has to understand how quickly the book is going to be out-of-date and make some effort to communicate changes to his audience, otherwise they'll just end up annoyed like me.

So would I recommend this book? Yes, with the caveat that you'll need to dig for fixes constantly and progress might be very slow.


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