Today i wake to find the fantastic news that CakePHP 1.3 is now in beta. You can read more about that via cakephp.org
The bit that particularly tickles me about this new is the inclusion of something i’ve wanted since i first heard about it, virtual fields.
Virtual fields are a new feature in the Model for CakePHP 1.3. Virtual fields allow you to create arbitrary SQL expressions and assign them as fields in a Model. These fields cannot be saved, but will be treated like other model fields for read operations. They will be indexed under the model’s key alongside other model fields.
For anyone who has ever had to stitch together $firstname.’ ‘.$lastname to make $name fields and wondered why you couldn’t get that in a $this->Model->find(‘list’), this is for you.
Once again, many thanks to the fine work from CakePHP developers and contributors, especially Mark Story.
Top new year news indeed and looking forward to the full 1.3. stable release.
