Planet CakePHP

If you work on a lot of php web applications like I do,  chances are you consider using a PHP framework at some point.  I’ve written many very complex PHP applications using only minimal OOP and by using the PHP include function for separation and code re-use.  
I decided it was time to look at some frameworks to see if they could make my programming life any easier.  Most PHP frameworks use what is called MVC (model, view, controller) for separation.  This means that interaction with databases or external data sources are managed with the model,  the core logic of your application is handled with controllers,  and the display elements of your application are handled with views.  This makes your application easier to manage, especially if you have multiple people working on it.
PHP Frameworks also come with a lot of useful code that should save you a lot of time.  When you’re writing an application using a PHP framework,  you should take the time to become familiar with this library of code.   It would suck to write some imaging resizing function only to learn later that its included in your framework.
After looking at some frameworks, I decided to try out CakePHP.  They had a cool looking site and promises of easy application writing.  I downloaded and installed it on my web server.  The first thing I noticed is that theres a lot of console stuff in the tutorials which I don’t care for.  This is a personal preference though, and you may like it.  
Before I go any further I’d like to say that this isn’t a blog post about which is the best framework, it’s only my personal experiences, I am definitely not a definitive resource for framework information, and I encourage you to do your own research.  
I’m currently in the middle of writing an application, so I converted everything I had over to CakePHP.   For the most part it went pretty smoothely,  however I found that it had a lot of little quirks that didn’t make a lot of sense to me.   The main problems I came across were with database interaction.   CakePHP does some database “magic” which seemed to be more trouble than it was worth.
I constantly found myself trying to figure out how to do something in CakePHP that I knew exactly how to do without it,  then searching through several different incomplete sources of information,  almost always finding answers in blog posts.
class UserBase extends AppModel 
{ 
  var $name = ‘UserBase’; 
  var $primaryKey = ‘ID’;
  var $actsAs = array(’Containable’);
  var $hasMany = array(
    ’User’ => array(
      ’className’ => ‘User’,
      ’foreignKey’ => ‘userbase_id’,
      ’dependent’ => true
    )
  );
}
This is an example of a model in my application.   Why does it act as a containable?  Because if you don’t set it to this,  it will always search it’s “hasMany” association.  You have to set this in the model, then tell it not to search the association in a controller.   Also there’s arrays everywhere.  If you use CakePHP, get ready to use a billion arrays.   I understand that this may be necessary, but it’s not easier.
After converting my entire application progress to CakePHP, I decided it was more trouble than it was worth.  I spent enough time learning CakePHP to replicate my application, and I was even able to answer some questions in the CakePHP irc channel by the end. 
I’ve been researching CodeIgniter and so far it looks really good.  I’m going to convert the same application to it and see if it makes my life easier.  Some of the things that look good about it is that models aren’t even required,  which I think I’ll like.   Also the documentation looks really nice,  all the classes and helpers are clearly laid out.  
I’m hoping I won’t get lots of comments from CakePHP fanboys like I’ve seen in some blogposts, I’d like to reiterate that CakePHP has a lot of good things about it,  I’ve only gave a couple of my experiences that made me turn away from it.  It doesn’t work for the way I code,  which may be a problem with me instead of Cake.  I encourage everyone to research every framework before choosing one.  
Part 2 will be my experience with CodeIgnitor,  good or bad.  I may decide to stick with doing my own thing.  
Happy coding.