CakePHP Workshop in Raleigh, NC (Sep 6-7)

Hey folks,

Tim and I are very thrilled to announce the very first two-day workshop for everybody who is interested in mastering the CakePHP framework. The event is a collaboration between Debuggable Limited and the Cake Software foundation.

Special thanks goes to Credit Risk Management L.L.C. for sponsoring the rooms and catering!

Overview

Event Info: Raleigh, NC (4140 Parklake Ave)
Date: September 6 + 7 (Saturday + Sunday)
Seats: max 25
Costs: 600 USD / seat (Students pay 100 USD less)
Signup: Signup page

Speakers

Garrett J. Woodworth (President of the Cake Software Foundation)
Nate Abele (Cake Lead Developer)
Felix Geisendörfer (Cake Core Developer)
Tim Koschützki (Cake Core Contributor)

What to expect

This workshop is going to be very different from standard programming workshops. There will be two tracks in two different rooms. The main track will teach you everything you need to know in order to build great applications in CakePHP. You will be introduced to the MVC Pattern, learn how to setup CakePHP projects and watch a full application being put together over the course of two days. All sessions are delivered by the core developers of CakePHP so the information you get will be top quality and allow you to do things right from the beginning. This way you will save lots of time and money in the long run.

The second track is the most unique however. Instead of having a fixed schedule and sessions you will have the opportunity to directly pick the brains of the people who wrote CakePHP in a personal and informal manner. There is also a good amount of topics we are prepared to speak on like: git, javascript, cake internals and project management - just let us know what you want to learn and we will deliver : ).

In the second track you will also find out about some secret cutting edge things all of us are working on, including some early insights into Cake 2.0 and other unreleased additions to the cake core.

So all in all you get two days full of talks and chatting with the core developers that will be worth your while, including lots of fun in the evenings.

Schedule

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Time	Speaker	Session	Session Description
9:00 am - 10:00 am	Garrett	Introduction	Garrett will introduce you to the speakers and tell you a little about the history of CakePHP. You will also be provided with the information to connect to the git repository for the workshop so you can setup the application being built locally and create your own fork(s) with modifications you'd like to get reviewed / shared.
10:00 am - 10:30 am	coffee break
10:30 am - 11:30 am	Felix	First steps in the kitchen	You will learn about the philosophy behind CakePHP which is very important for effective development. The session will also walk you through the basics of downloading / installing CakePHP, keeping up with updates and giving you an overview over the components of CakePHP. Finally you will see how CakePHP makes it incredibly easy to display information from a database in a simple index action.
11:30 am - 12:30 pm	Nate	MVC Introduction	After having seen the model, controller and view components of CakePHP in action, Nate will provide you with an indepth explanation of why things are designed this way and how to properly organize your code. A true understanding of MVC is the key to enjoy writing easy to maintain applications in CakePHP.
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm	lunch break
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm	Nate	Using CakePHP Models	In this session Nate will give you an introduction to Model layer and how to effectively query and abstract your database with it. But be warned, after this you may never have to write a single line of sql again ; ).
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm	Tim	Controllers in CakePHP	Now that you know how to use the Model layer, Tim will show you how to use controllers as the interface between the users of your application and the database. He will cover the CakePHP form helper as well as writing clean and effective add / edit and delete actions.
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm	coffee break
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm	Garrett	Kitchen tools (CakePHP's Console)	In this session Garrett will show you how CakePHP's built-in command line tools can make your development more effective. A special focus will go into the bake code generator that allows you to turn a database schema into a working application automagically!

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Time	Speaker	Session	Session Description
9:00 am - 10:00 am	Tim	Keeping things yummy (Validation)	Learn how to validate form data with Cake's built-in validation rules. Learn how to write your own validation rules and implement complex business requirements within your models.
10:00 am - 10:30 am	coffee break
10:30 am - 11:30 am	Tim	Unit testing in CakePHP	This session will cover the basics of unit testing in CakePHP. You will be walked through the process of setting up tests for some of the previously shown code and receive advice on efficient testing of your own applications.
11:30 am - 12:30 pm	Felix	Advanced Model usage	In this session Felix will show you how to leverage some of the most powerful model functions such as filters, behaviors and the ability to overwrite the find method.
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm	lunch break
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm	Felix	Ajaxifying your Cake Site	In this talk Felix will show you how you to ajaxify your CakePHP application using jQuery and the new JS helper.
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm	Garrett	Kitchen helpers	Garrett will give you an overview about the remaining CakePHP view helpers and how to use them effectively.
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm	coffee break
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm	Nate	Auth System (ACL)	In the last talk Nate will show you how to handle permissions for your applications actions & data using CakePHP's built-in authorization and authentification system.