I’ve spent the bulk of the day getting CakePHP up and running on the www-side of the amodernfable.com domain. Why? Because I wanted to use a framework to handle things like integrating a database-driven portfolio with some static content and learn more PHP (and the Cake framework, which I’ve heard nothing but great things about) in the process.

The CakePHP installation here on Dreamhost was a snap. No real configuration necessary other than setting up my database config file to point to the right spot. I was expecting worse (I know I’ve seen some nasty stuff happen when I tried to get Ruby on Rails up and running before, but this was simple and easy).

Overall thoughts on the framework (from a couple hours’ use): if you’re used to Rails, you’ll know how things work or where they go right off the bat (there are some differences that will catch you, such as default layouts being enforced right off the bat, and I like the RoR approach better that way). Setting up routing was a bit easier than my last Rails attempt. Documentation is easy to find with the right Google search. My object oriented PHP is a bit on the slim side, but, when you’ve programmed enough, PHP is a quick learn; hopefully, the controllers and models will give me more experience there.

It’s nice to have a framework in place to speed things up. Also, I’ve built in Cushy CMS support right into my views, which should make it a snap to update things. I really dig Cushy for doing one thing (managing small blocks of content) very well. Let’s see how well it plays with Cake. (And, there’s two plugs in a single post!)

Non-tech, but worth a link.

technorati tags:ilovebuffalo

the “Web 2.0″ browser: it’s pretty much integrated every possible thing you’d want to do - from tagging to blogging to photosharing - right in the app itself. I’ll be checking it out for a little while, and I’ll post my thoughts.

First off, easy and painless install. Big props for that. It easily hooked itself in to all my accounts with very little hassle. +10 points. I’m still getting the hang of everything, but the quality of the install was huge: not many browsers - heck, not many software platforms of any kind - pull off something that smooth. I’ll keep going and see how long it sticks.

technorati tags:flock, web 2.0, browser

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