CakePHP support for initial configuration / web app installation? - cakephp

Question

I've got a CakePHP based web app that needs some initial configuration. I'd like to do the equivalent of the mysql source command to set up a bunch of tables / initial rows, then execute a $this->User->save() command to create the root account (I think this needs to be done via code since it'll use the salt value for the local install of CakePHP, which might/should be different than the one on my dev machine), etc, etc.
My hack-y solution is to expose a public method on a controller that does this, direct my browser to it, then set stuff up (via the Configure::load and Configure::dump) so that the route from that URL to the method is removed after the installation is complete.
Does CakePHP provide any support for 'installing' a web app?
Part of my problem is that my attempts at Googling for "CakePHP web app installation" are all overshadowed by the various tutorials (etc) about how to install CakePHP itself. My issue is not installing CakePHP, it's providing an easy and safe way to set up the stuff my web app needs (like SQL database tables, etc) for it's particular needs.

Answer 1

It's called Cake Schemas....
The simplest thing you can do in your development environment is run the following via command line from root:
./app/Console/cake schema dump --write filename.sql
Which gives you a dump of your SQL file then you can edit the sql file directly before using it.
You specifically ask for running $this->User->save(), while learning about Schemas might be a bit complicated, you can accomplish this by running
./app/Console/cake schema generate
Which creates your schema.php, then:
App::uses('User', 'Model');
public function after($event = array()) {
if (isset($event['create'])) {
switch ($event['create']) {
case 'users':
App::uses('ClassRegistry', 'Utility');
$user = ClassRegistry::init('User');
$user->create();
$user->save(
array('User' =>
array(
'username' => 'admin',
'role' => 'admin',
'password' => 'admin'
)));
break;
}
}
}
Which makes a definition as you wish, then when you run:
./app/Console/cake schema create
Your tables get dropped, but remade as per your schema definitions and your model files, and with your specific "after" function
http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/console-and-shells/schema-management-and-migrations.html