Mariano Iglesias - CakePHP 1.3 Application Development Cookbook

Mariano Iglesias started programming at the early age of 11, moving through a variety of programming languages, and becoming a proficient PHP developer of over 10 years.

Throughout the years, he collaborated on several open source projects, mostly in C++, Java, Python, and PHP. He became a CakePHP and a Lithium contributor, frameworks that are among the most popular web development frameworks.

He divides his time between client work and his current open source projects, which are built with C++, Python, and PHP.

There are no words that can express my gratitude for the CakePHP community, and the CakePHP core team. Their passion and commitment to build one of the best PHP frameworks is to be cherished. Their sincere dedication to sharing knowledge cannot be praised enough.

This book has also benefited from the best team of technical reviewers a CakePHP book could possibly have. Here is my aknowledgement for Jeffrey Smith, John Anderson, Mark Story, Nick Baker, Paul Gardner, and Sam Sherlock. You not only helped me find flaws in my code, but also suggested some impressive improvements. The CakePHP community should be proud to count you as members.

Everyone on the Packt Publishing team has not only accommodated my schedule, but helped me throughout the writing of this book. They are truly a joy to work with, and no writer should walk away from the opportunity of writing for Packt. Thank you guys for your support and trust.

Nick Baker , owner of WebTechNick LLC and Senior IT/Developer at healthyhearing.com. Nick is a gifted problem solver who sincerely enjoys all aspects of programming and design, from development to implementation - excelling at programming, testing, documentation, and training in multiple platforms. Nick has worked over 13 years focusing on web development and is an expert in multiple web 2.0 frameworks such as CakePHP and Ruby on Rails. Prior to working with Allied Health LLC, Nick studied Computer Science at the University of New Mexico and helped build the Natural Heritage of New Mexico website - a site used by research scientists to store/retrieve data and map the distribution of endangered plants and animals in the Southwest. UNM holds a patent for multi-layer vector searches in GIS as a direct result of Nick's work.

Sam Sherlock is a web developer who is inspired by the innovations of modern web technology and loves to see them put to use in creative ways that benefit the masses. He has been a keen, early adopter of many popular Open source projects (jQuery, SWFObject. and of course, CakePHP).

He is a co-creator of a CakePHP plugin named BakingPlate, soon to be available via Github. One day he hopes to use modern web technologies to create mathematical teaching guides that are accessible and enjoyable to all.

Jeff Smith grew up in a small town in Indiana named Odon, but has lived in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA) for the last 15 years. Web programming is his hobby, but he plans to make it his career later. He enjoys working with many established frameworks, as well as trying out new ones. He is currently working with Drupal, Joomla!, and Ruby on Rails for various small projects. He is looking forward to learning about Non-SQL databases, Lift, and Scala.

I would like to thank Packt for giving me an opportunity to help out on this book, the Object-oriented PHP book I am working on, and I look forward to helping out on any books I can in the future.

Mark Story graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design with a degree in Illustration. Art being a difficult industry to break into, he tried his hand at programming. This grew into a skill and passion that allowed him to become the lead developer of the CakePHP framework and secure a position with FreshBooks as a front-end developer. Mark's design background and skills in development produce a unique combination of attention to detail, technical expertise, and, above all, patience. Leading the CakePHP project as the primary contributor for the past two years, Mark contributes to several open-source projects in his spare time.

I'd like to thank my wonderful wife for putting up with all the late nights and my incessant talking about things she doesn't really understand. I'd also like to thank the fantastic CakePHP community CakePHP without you, this book would never have been possible.