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CakePHP¶

Note

CLI Command examples on this page are always provided without the --application (shorthand -A) argument, assuming you’re running these commands in a connected folder (at creation or using the dotcloud connect command). For more details on connected folders, see Migrating to the CLI 0.9.

In this tutorial, we will create a simple CakePHP application that displays a form for new posts, saves the posts to a MySQL database, and lists all of the saved posts.

Create a Model
Create a Controller
Create a View
Send requests to the front web controller
Create a dotcloud.yml file
Enable automatic database configuration
Deploy to dotCloud

Create a Model ¶

First, you will need to download the latest version of CakePHP and untar (or unzip) it to a local directory on your computer. Once you have done that, you can add a Post model. To do this, create a file in app/models called “post.php”. It will need to contain this code:

<?php

    class Post extends AppModel
    {
        var $name = 'Post';
        var $validate = array(
            'body' => array(
                'rule' => 'notEmpty'
            )
        );
    }

?>

Create a Controller ¶

Next, create a file called “posts_controller.php” in app/controllers which contains this code:

<?php

    class PostsController extends AppController {
        var $name = 'Posts';
        var $components = array('Session');

        function index() {
            $this->set('posts', $this->Post->find('all'));
        }

        function view($id) {
            $this->Post->id = $id;
            $this->set('post', $this->Post->read());

        }

        function add() {
            if (!empty($this->data)) {
                if ($this->Post->save($this->data)) {
                    $this->Session->setFlash('Your post has been saved.');
                    $this->redirect(array('action' => 'index'));
                }
            }
        }
    }

?>

Create a View ¶

Finally, create a directory in app/views called “posts”. Inside of that directory, create a file called “index.ctp”:

<!-- File: /app/views/posts/index.ctp -->

<h1>Add Post</h1>
<?php
    echo $this->Form->create('Post', array('action' => 'add'));
    echo $this->Form->input('body', array('rows' => '3'));
    echo $this->Form->end('Save Post');
?>

<h1>Posts</h1>
<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Id</th>
        <th>Text</th>
    </tr>

    <!-- Here is where we loop through our $posts array, printing out post info -->

    <?php foreach ($posts as $post): ?>
    <tr>
        <td><?php echo $post['Post']['id']; ?></td>
        <td>
            <?php echo $post['Post']['body']; ?>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>

</table>

Send requests to the front web controller ¶

To send requests to the front web controller, you’ll need to create a file in app/webroot called “nginx.conf”. Inside of this file, add this line:

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;

This will make sure that all requests for dynamic content will be directed to the front web controller, which will route them appropriately.

Create a dotcloud.yml file ¶

To deploy to dotCloud, you need to create a file in the root directory of your cakephp app (the directory under “app”) called “dotcloud.yml” which describes the structure of your application. For this application, the dotcloud.yml will look like this:

www:
    type: php
    approot: app/webroot
mysql:
    type: mysql

Enable automatic database configuration ¶

In app/config, you’ll find a file called database.php.default. Copy or rename this file to “database.php”, then add a constructor function inside the DATABASE_CONFIG class which reads the dotCloud ‘environment.json” file and updates the default database settings. The end result will look something like this:

<?php

    class DATABASE_CONFIG {

        var $default = array(
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            'persistent' => false,
            'host' => '',
            'port' => '',
            'login' => 'root',
            'password' => '',
            'database' => 'cakephp',
            'prefix' => '',
        );

        var $test = array(
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            'persistent' => false,
            'host' => 'localhost',
            'login' => 'user',
            'password' => 'password',
            'database' => 'test_database_name',
            'prefix' => '',
        );

        function __construct() {
            $json = file_get_contents("/home/dotcloud/environment.json");
            $env = json_decode($json, true);
            $this->default['host'] = $env['DOTCLOUD_MYSQL_MYSQL_HOST'];
            $this->default['port'] = $env['DOTCLOUD_MYSQL_MYSQL_PORT'];
            $this->default['password'] = $env['DOTCLOUD_MYSQL_MYSQL_PASSWORD'];
        }

    }

?>

Deploy to dotCloud ¶

Now you’re ready to deploy! Just run the following (if you’re using git or hg, you’ll need to commit your changes first):

dotcloud create my_app
dotcloud push

At the end of the push, you’ll see the URL for your newly deployed app. Simply open that url in your browser (add “/posts” at the end) to see your app.

CakePHP¶

Create a Model¶

Create a Controller¶

Create a View¶

Send requests to the front web controller¶

Create a dotcloud.yml file¶

Enable automatic database configuration¶