BUT, one problem that comes not just with CakePHP but with several frameworks, is the usage of the Model. it’s not really a problem, but I think that is the way that people learned MVC with the framework, and the way that we see the Controller.

Frameworks, such as CakePHP, Rails and so on, impose that Model is database access (not really, but they come with this access).

Is that wrong? NOT really wrong…

As the fact that normally your application will need to save data into one database, or filesystem, etc… So provide one database access inside our model probably will help us.

What is the problem?

The problem comes when you see your model as JUST one database access layer, see the model as the thing that will store our data. So we start write the system logic inside the Controller, and this Controller starts to grow, because it already has several roles in our application, it handle the request, it handle the input, it call the model, it call the view… and it also get an additional role that is have the system logic. So our controller get FAT, hard to maintain, hard to change, hard to test, hard to change. It start to has the action methods, some other private/protected methods to implement logic, and it get ugly, strange, BIG.

What about our model?

The model keep thin, with no methods, no logic, just with the relationships of our database, with the validation… does it seems strange for you?

So what hell we are not using our model?

YES, we should use our model to make the logic of the system, is that the M of our application, is what Model must be, and is what the Model is expecting.

How we can start use our model as the logic part of our applications?

1. STOPING to see the Model as your database access;
2. Writing methods inside our models;
3. Creating models without usage of database;
4. Making the models talks each other;
5. Importing libraries, objects inside or model;
6. Creating one API inside or models, to make easy the calls for the controllers;
7. Make your controllers as  much thin as possible.

What will be your gains?

1. You will probably have more freedom to make your logic;
2. Your code will be more simple to maintain;
3. It’s simple to write test for Models;
4. You will have a better OO structure of your logic;
5. You will start think different about Behaviors, Components in CakePHP;
6. Your controller will be thin, and make just what he should do, nothing else;
7. You will stop rewrite code, the model can be called in any controller that you want;
8. With a good structure of logic, it will be so much easy to upgrade your code to new versions of  the framework, or why not, migrate to another framework, as the fact that your logic system will not depends more of the features that CakePHP has.

To summarize, CakePHP is great, it has great tools to make our development fast, but what we can not do is misunderstand the MVC, and starts to be addict with bad practices.  Frameworks like Zend make it more simple to understand, because it not provides directly in the model one database access, BUT anyway in CakePHP we can make the thing correct too, and get everything good of the framework.

So the idea behind the post is not forget the Controller, but pay much more attention in your Model.

I’m here to promote a new plugin to upload in CakePHP, the Attach plugin, that is based on MeioUpload, but it’s a bit different, he makes use of new Model API of CakePHP 2, where we have support to define own validations and use the Behavior as the method of validate, and also some new things.

A big difference is the use of Imagine Lib, to make the thumbnails, that gives a lot of features to manipulate images.

The plugin also implements polymorphic models, so we have one model/table that handles/store all the files, and your custom models have association with this Attachment model.

It’s really simple to use I hope you guys enjoy the plugin any improvement or feedback are welcome, and you are able to fork it.

Currently the plugin is in his first version, and improvements will be done in the API of the plugin also in the code.

Git: https://github.com/krolow/Attach

* In the github we have the description of how it works.

Responsabilidades

- Desenvoler sistemas e sites para web;
- Manutenção em sistemas e sites existentes;
- Desenvolver utilizando as melhores técnicas de programação;
- Estruturar códigos e banco de dados;
- Escrever código limpo e bem organizado;
- Capacidade de lidar com desafios e novas tecnologias diaramente.

Qualificações
- Dominío de uma ou mais linguages de programação;
- Dominío de programação orientada a objetos;
- Facilidade na adptação com novas tecnologias;
- Responsável com o projeto/produto a ser desenvolvida;
- Dominío de banco de dados;
- Pró-ativo e autodidata;
- Rápido na solução de bugs;
- Habilidade para entregar estimativas corretas;
- Inglês intermediário/avançado;
- Experiência com desenvolvimento WEB;
- Experiência com CakePHP;
- Experiência com .NET.

Currículos devem ser enviados para vkrolow@conrad-caine.com, com o título “Programador Backend”

To avoid repeat the code I wrote this method:

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	protected function _isPOST($data = false) {
		if ((isset($this->RequestHandler) && !$this->RequestHandler->isPost()) || ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] != 'POST')) {
			$this->redirect(null, 405);
			exit;
		} else if ($data === true && empty($this->data)) {
			$this->redirect(null, 400);
			exit;
		}
	}

You can put this method in your AppController

It’s really simple, but useful for me. The code just check if it’s a POST Request if it’s not, bring a HTTP CODE 405, check if the POST data it’s not empty if it is bring a HTTP CODE 400.

And that’s it, now you don’t need wrote codes like this anymore:

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	public function my_action() {
		if ($this->RequestHandler->isPost()) {
			if (!empty($this->data)) {
 
			} else {
 
			}
		} else {
 
		}
	}

You have just to put this:

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	public function my_action() {
		$this->_isPOST(true);
	}

The first argument it’s a boolean one, you pass true if you want to check if the $this->data it’s not empty, otherwise you pass false, or pass nothing.

You can create aliases for your routes, or you can put your router also as a translatable text, like the code above:

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	Router::connect(__('articles', true), array('controller' => 'articles'));
	Router::connect(__('histories', true), array('controller' => 'histories'));
	Router::connect(__('calendars', true), array('controller' => 'calendars'));

So it’s something really simple that we can use to allow the URL use the native language of the site and we also have the powerful to translate as we want in the po file in the end.

We also can combine this with the language, in the case of your site is multilanguage we can use the prefix of the language and after that we apply the translate also, so the URL will be always friendly for each language of the system.

We must have to tell for the save all that he just has to validate. Let’s see the piece of code.

Using for examplem one model User that hasOne Profile.

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$this->User->saveAll($this->data, array('validate' => 'only'));

With this we validate the data of model User also the data of model Profile, and in the form will show the error message of both models, this will work with more relations.

Let’s go to the code:

So if you wanna retrieve a data from the last 30 days, or the last 15 days you can use the follow code:

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SELECT * FROM posts WHERE date >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 30 DAY) ORDER BY date DESC;

OR

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SELECT * FROM posts WHERE date >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 15 DAY) ORDER BY date DESC;

So there is a function DATE_SUB that makes the work for us, in resume DATE_SUB subtract a time value (interval) from a date, so we set the current date and subtract the interval that we want.

To use the code in the CakePHP it’s simple:

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$this->Post->find('all', array('conditions' => array('Post.date >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 15 DAY)')));

For others databases or also in the MySQL you can do the same with PHP code, so you just need subtract the time using PHP and pass it as a condition, for that we have the function strtotime.

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$date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("-30 day"));
$this->Post->find('all', array('conditions' => array('Post.date >=' => $date)));

Thinking about it I like the idea of crawlers that looking for specifics kind of subjects, and give for me all information that I want in just one place, and so there is one new website/crawler that I put it to public, is the Cake Cobaia, there will show informations of some sites that I guess are pertinent that talk about CakePHP, using social websites like informations about CakePHP in Twitter, also videos that talk about CakePHP and photos about CakePHP.

The aggregator show a limited number of information in the first page and it’s possible filter by types, Twitter, Web, Youtube, Flickr… I want in the future also create a filter by time etc…

I’m open for any suggestions about the project and I’d like receive some feedback, and I hope you enjoy it.

http://cake.cobaia.net

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/*
 * OK; before you read the following code know what I am trying to do.
 * I needed to get the list of child catagories from the root node so that
 * the root node didn't appear in the selection box. But for some stupid
 * fucking reason the stupid fucking DBA wont let me access the items using
 * indices and I instead have to use their stupid fucking Iterator
 * implementation. So there.
 */
$firstList = $this->getRootNode()->getChildren();
foreach ($firstList as $node)
{
    $nodes = $node->getChildren();
    break;                // wtf?
}

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// if i ever see this again i'm going to start bringing guns to work

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//hack for ie browser (assuming that ie is a browser)

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/**
* For the brave souls who get this far: You are the chosen ones,
* the valiant knights of programming who toil away, without rest,
* fixing our most awful code. To you, true saviors, kings of men,
* I say this: never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down,
* never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry,
* never gonna say goodbye. Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.
*/

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// 
// Dear maintainer:
// 
// Once you are done trying to 'optimize' this routine,
// and have realized what a terrible mistake that was,
// please increment the following counter as a warning
// to the next guy:
// 
// total_hours_wasted_here = 16
//

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// TODO: Fix this. Fix what?

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// no comments for you
// it was hard to write
// so it should be hard to read

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// I will give you two of my seventy-two virgins if you can fix this.

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options.BatchSize = 300; //Madness? THIS IS SPARTA!

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// I am not responsible of this code.
// They made me write it, against my will.

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//Dear future me. Please forgive me.
//I can't even begin to express how sorry I am.

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double penetration; // ouch

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# To understand recursion, see the bottom of this file.

At the bottom file:

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# To understand recursion, see the top of this file.

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//I am not sure why this works but it fixes the problem.

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//somedev1 - 6/7/02 Adding temporary tracking of Logic screen
//somedev2 - 5/22/07 Temporary my ass

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/*
 * You may think you know what the following code does.
 * But you dont. Trust me
 * Fiddle with me, and youll spend many a sleppless
 * night cursing the moment you thought you be clever 
 * enough to "optimize" the code below.
 * Now close this file and go play with something else.

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// drunk, fix later

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// Magic. Do not touch.

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// I dedicate all this code, all my work, to my wife, Darlene, who will
// have to support me and our three children and the dog once it gets
// released into the public

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Exception up = new Exception("Something is really wrong.");
throw up; //ha ha

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//When I wrote this, only God and I understood that I was doing
//Now, God only knows

Some more here

In a recently article for the php architect magazine, Carl Anderson describe a great article how to use the TDD inside the CakePHP 1.3.

You can download that tutorial by free here