A steady increase is being noted in the number of web applications developers switching from PHP 5+ to PHP 7 to make web applications perform faster and consume less memory. Also, PHP 7 comes with several new functions and operators, while supporting type declaration and anonymous classes. But the developers still need PHP frameworks to build web applications quickly by availing various libraries, utility modules, and development tools.
Many enterprises nowadays prefer hiring PHP developers who are proficient in widely used PHP frameworks. Hence, the demand for PHP developers depends on their knowledge of certain PHP frameworks. Both enterprises and web application developers have option to choose from a wide range of open source PHP web frameworks. According to the usage statistics posted on various websites, CakePHP is one of the widely used PHP frameworks.
In addition to being written in PHP, the web framework is designed based on concepts of Ruby on Rails. Also, CakePHP has been evolving consistently to meet the emerging trends in web application development. CakePHP 3.3 Red Velvet comes with an array of new features including option to map complex data types, better image cached data, and PSR7 Middleware. Hence, the latest version of CakePHP enables developers to write custom web applications in PHP 7. Hence, many enterprises will prefer hiring PHP programmers familiar with different versions of CakePHP.
Why Demand for CakePHP Development and Developers will Remain Intact?
Reduces Coding Time
CakePHP is designed with features to allow programmers to build PHP applications without writing lengthy and complex code. It further enables developer to reduce the overall coding time by reusing their existing code. At the same time, the beginners can always refer to the comprehensive documentation and use practice guides to write code easily and quickly.
Supports PHP 7
According to the latest usage statistics posted on w3techs.com, version 5 of PHP is currently being used by 97.5% of the websites. Most programmers nowadays build websites and web applications using PHP 5 instead of PHP 7. As CakePHP supports versions 7 of PHP, it becomes easier for developers to create websites with the most recent version of the server-side programming language. Also, the current version of the web framework is fully compatible with PHP 7.
Facilitates Development of Large Scale Websites
CakePHP can be used for developing web applications of varying scale and nature. Like other modern frameworks, it supports model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. The architecture enables users to speed up development of large websites by keeping the business layer and user interface separated. They can easily insert, update and access data from the database without affecting the presentation and display. An enterprise can deploy separate teams to work on various aspects of the large scale website at a time, and complete the project within a stipulated timeframe.
Minimal Configuration
Often programmers have to spend time to configure the PHP framework in the most appropriate way. But they can start using CakePHP without making any complex configuration. The framework can detect and configure the required setting automatically. However, the developers are required to set up the database before starting coding. Once the database is set up, the framework can be used directly without checking any complex XML or YAML files.
Provides Several Built-in Batteries
The built-in batteries provided by CakePHP help developers to accomplish a variety of tasks without writing additional code. These batteries are actually integrated with the PHP MVC framework. The users can take advantage of these batteries to effectuate caching, database access, translation, authentication and validation. The validation features further enable developers to add multiple advanced validation rules to each field.
Facilitates Rapid Prototyping
Nowadays, prototyping has become an integral part of web application development process. While building innovative and complex web application, the programmers have to test the concept in advance by building a prototype of the application. CakePHP comes with features to help programmers to create prototype of the web application without putting any extra time and effort. They can take advantage of the code generation and scaffolding features of the framework to build prototypes quickly.
Comes with Built-in Security Tools
Some PHP frameworks require developers to use third-party tools to keep their websites secure and inaccessible. But CakePHP is designed with a number of built-in tools that help programmers to create secure websites. The tools make it easier for developers to protect the application from cross site scripting (XSS) attacks and SQL injection. At the same time, they can also use the tools to validate user input, prevent web form tampering, and eliminate Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF).
Provides a Flexible ORM System
The most recent version of CakePHP comes with a new ORM system. The ORM is inspired by the tool used by other web frameworks to facilitate object relational mapping. It provides a fluent interface to effectuate query building, while supporting data post-processing, composite primary key, and eager loading strategies. The users also have option to use custom data type logic to cast complex types while interacting with the database.
Boosts Routing Performance
Often PHP web developers use tools to define routes to distinguish the application implementation from its structure of URLs. The reverse routing technique used by CakePHP 3.0.0 enables users to convert a number of parameter into a URL string. They can further use the reverse routing to refactor the URL structure of the application without making any changes to the code. The quicker and improved routing technique used by the latest version of the framework can parse and dispatch the routes faster without affecting the routing performance.
Reduces Project Overheads
CakePHP is distributed as open source software under the MIT License. So it can be used by developers without paying any licensing fees. Also, they can use the framework over a longer period of time without worrying about license renewal. The openness further helps users to curtail the overall development cost and project overheads significantly. Also, the developers can further use the CakePHP plug-ins shared by the active community to avoid writing any additional code.
Facilitates Unit Testing
In addition to speeding up PHP application development, CakePHP further makes it easier for users to test the websites easily. As PHPUnit is used as its underlying testing framework, CakePHP provides support for comprehensive testing. The integration makes it easier for developers to perform unit tests to evaluate the application’s features and functionality. However, they have to use PHPUnit additionally through the Composer or a PHAR package. The option makes it easier for users to deliver a high quality PHP application.
However, the usage statistics posted on various websites indicate that PHP frameworks like Laravel, Symfony 2, Nette, CodeIgniter and Yii 2 are more popular than CakePHP. Hence, the PHP developers can always enhance their career prospects by being familiar with multiple frameworks and development tools. But CakePHP is still one of the widely used PHP frameworks, and hence the demand for skilled CakePHP developers will remain intact in near future.