Almost all external libraries are now included in the package to make the installation a bit easier. Included are the required PHP OpenID library and PEAR DB (which is used if you want to store the OpenID data in the database). Not included is the EAUT library as I think this standard is dead (i.e. nobody is using it).

The configuration settings are now set when you add the OpenID component to the $components array of your controller(s):

public $components = array('Openid' => array('use_database' => true));

or

public $components = array('Openid' => array('database_config' => 'name_of_database_config));

The old way, using Configure::write(), is no longer supported:

Configure::write('Openid.use_database', true);
Configure::write('Openid.database_config', 'name_of_database_config');

So, if you upgrade and you use those configuration settings, make sure to adapt your code accordingly.

Last, but not least, I fixed a bug which caused a “class not found” error if you used the component in a plugin.

That’s it. You can get the component from http://code.42dh.com/openid or directly from GitHub.

Happy baking!

Since RC4 a small new feature has been added: it is now possible to specify whether the validation of an URL should be strict (“strict” meaning the protocol must be provided, i.e. “http://example.com” is valid whereas “example.com” is invalid). If you want to use the strict URL validation, you have to use in your model something like:

public $validate = array('website' => array('rule' => array('url', true)));

For people currently using Cake 1.1 and considering to upgrade to 1.2 I recommend to have a look at Migrating from CakePHP 1.1 to 1.2. And to budget enough time for the migration itself because so many things changed…

Happy baking!

Anyway, the update from RC3 to RC4 was smooth, and I didn’t encounter any problems so far. Besides replacing the “cake” folder I also had to replace “app/webroot/css.php”, as it had been slightly modified since RC3.

There were some changes in the core which could cause problems in some (rare) cases:

• ClassRegistry::_duplicate() is now private (i.e. it is now ClassRegistry::__duplicate())
• Router::matchRoute() is now private (i.e. it is now Router::__matchRoute())
• the parameter of XmlNode::toArray() (in cake/libs/xml.php) has been changed from “$object = null” to “$camelize = true”
• in the AclComponent the methods setAro(), setAco(), getAro() and getAco() have been removed
• Model::normalizeFindParams() has been removed
• the deprecated $safe parameter has been removed from JavascriptHelper::codeBlock()

Additionally, the method Model::getDisplayField() has been deprecated. Now you have to access the $displayField property directly (though the method still works).

Happy updating :)

Upgrading NoseRub, which has to act as my guinea pig in such cases, from RC2 to RC3 was a piece of cake. In the “app” folder I had to update the following files as there were some minor changes in them:

• app/webroot/js/vendors.php
• app/webroot/css.php (my mistake, this file wasn’t changed)
• app/webroot/index.php (my mistake, this file wasn’t changed)

And then I had to replace the “cake” folder, of course.

Up to now I encountered only two small “issues” which were easy to fix.

The first “issue” just broke some tests: the order of the attributes “value” and “id” of the hidden field created when using FormHelper::checkbox() changed from:

<input type="hidden" name="data[OpenidSite][email]" value="0" id="OpenidSiteEmail_" />

to

<input type="hidden" name="data[OpenidSite][email]" id="OpenidSiteEmail_" value="0" />

The second “issue” caused the following warning:

array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #1 is not an array [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/form.php, line 1141]

The reason for this warning is that we used FormHelper::select() “wrong”:

echo $form->select('Account.service_id', $services, null, null, false);

The problem is that the default value for the fourth parameter has to be an empty array and not “null” and so I had to fix the statement from above in the following way:

echo $form->select('Account.service_id', $services, null, array(), false);

As you can see, the upgrade was very smooth here. Thanks to everyone involved with this release!

Now I’m looking forward to the final version of CakePHP 1.2 :)

Update (2008-10-02): Another “issue” I just noticed is that the “old” Model/field syntax no longer works correctly. For example:

echo $form->textarea('Micropublish/value');

generates the following HTML code:

<textarea name="data[Micropublish/value]" id="Micropublish/value" ></textarea>

The fix is simple:

echo $form->textarea('Micropublish.value');

This will create the correct code:

<textarea name="data[Micropublish][value]" id="MicropublishValue" ></textarea>

Here some things I noticed/encountered while migrating from the beta version to RC1.

In app/config/core.php the class name for ACL has changed. Instead of

Configure::write('Acl.classname', 'DB_ACL');

it is now

Configure::write('Acl.classname', 'DbAcl');

The model-based storage engine for the cache (cake/libs/cache/model.php) has been removed.

Probably the first thing you notice when you migrate to the new version are the warnings caused by the deprecated “vendor” function. This function has been replaced by App::import(). Unfortunately, you can’t perform a simple search/replace operation as files/directories which don’t follow the cake conventions have to be treated differently (see also Loading vendor files). Examples:

App::import('Vendor', 'follows/cake/conventions'); // .php is automatically appended
App::import('Vendor', 'unconventional', array('file' => 'doesnt/follow/Cake/Conventions.php');

Another newly deprecated method you might use is Model::execute(). It has been replaced by Model::query(). This time you can use search/replace.

With Model::find() I encountered a situation, where the method didn’t return any data. I don’t know whether it is a bug or simply no longer supported. Here the code I used (simplified):

$this->Location->find('list', array('fields' => 'id, name'));

It performs the correct SQL statement, but somehow the preparation of the result doesn’t work. A simple workaround is to use the model alias for the field names:

$this->Location->find('list', array('fields' => 'Location.id, Location.name'));

Or as mentioned by Xr in a comment:

$this->Location->find('list');

A new feature of the FormHelper caused a visual problem in my application: it adds a class with the name of the input type to the respective input field (e.g. “text” to a text field, “password” to a password field, etc.). As I already used a CSS class with the name “text”, my forms looked a bit ugly after the update ;-)

The latest issue I encountered was a blank page (only the performed SQL statements were shown). It was caused by the following snippet which worked with the beta version (don’t ask me why there was an exit at the end of the method *g*):

public function xy() {
    ...
    $this->render('aview');
    exit;
}

After removing the exit, the view was rendered as expected, obviously something changed internally.

All in all, the migration was quite smooth. Thanks to the cake team for this piece of cake :)

Let’s have a closer look at those options we have at our disposal when planning a release.

Time-oriented releases

Time-oriented releases have a fix release date. If we see we cannot make it, then we either have to delay features to the next release, or we have to switch features, i.e. an “easier” feature gets implemented instead of a planned feature. On the other hand, if there is some time left until the release date you can implement additional features.

The challenge with time-oriented releases is to find the right time frame. Is it too short, it is difficult to implement something of value. Is the release date too far away, then there is no release “pressure” and people slow down.

An example for time-oriented releases is the Scrum process, there you have at the end of each iteration a release (i.e. every two to four weeks there is a new release).

Feature-oriented releases

With feature-oriented releases you define a set of features you want to have implemented before you release. There is often no release date announced, or it is rather vague like “we plan a release for spring 2008″.

The challenge here is to find the right set of features. If you select too many features, then the implementation takes “forever”. In the other case you may have too many releases with not much value.

As an example for feature-oriented releases we probably can take CakePHP, as its releases follow the motto “it is done when it is done”.

Time-and-feature-oriented releases

A combination of the two aforementioned approaches are time-and-feature-oriented releases, where you have a fix release date plus a set of features the release must contain.

The challenge here is that you often need a variable element you can adjust to deliver the release at the planned date with the planned features. You can add more people to the project, work longer, and/or decrease the quality.

Examples for such time-and-feature-oriented releases are projects which have to be live at a certain date, e.g. an advent calendar application has to be ready at the first of December.

As you see, each approach comes with its own challenges. There is no best approach. It depends on your specific situation/project.

Happy baking :)

The 1.2 release now comes with some test cases. You find instructions about how to run them in the announcement. As I prefer to run the tests via command line, I wrote a simple bake task to execute those core tests. You can find it in the downloads section. Its usage is:

php bake2.php coretest  // runs all tests
php bake2.php coretest libs/view  // runs all tests in the folder cake/tests/cases/libs/view and its subfolders
php bake2.php coretest group no_database  // runs the specified group test

At the moment it is recommended to run the group test “no_database”, because the tests for AclNode and DboSource will fail (they are not included in that group test).

Happy baking :)

Happy baking :)

You can download the new release from CakeForge, and read the changelog and the release notes.

Happy baking :)