Book excerpt: Cake is a rapid development framework for PHP that uses well-known design patterns and provides a structured framework that enables PHP users at all levels to rapidly develop robust web applications, without any loss of flexibility. This book offers step-by-step instructions to learn the CakePHP framework and to quickly develop and deploy web-based applications. It introduces the MVC pattern and coding styles using practical examples. It takes the developer through setting up a CakePHP development and deployment environment, and develops an example application to illustrate all of the techniques you need to write a complete, non-trivial application in PHP. --from publisher description.