CakePHP Starter Kit

A modern, extensible CakePHP 5+ starter kit for rapid application development. This kit provides a robust foundation with authentication, activity tracking, AJAX utilities, menu systems, notifications, Vite asset pipeline, and more—ready for building admin panels, SaaS backends, or any custom web application.

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Overview

The CakePHP Starter Kit is designed to accelerate your development with a curated set of features and best practices. It includes user authentication (with magic link/passwordless login), activity tracking, AJAX-powered tables, dynamic menus, toast notifications, fake data generation, and seamless Vite.js integration for modern asset management.

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Features

• User Authentication: Magic link login, passwordless authentication, user registration, verification, and full user management (CRUD).
• Activity Tracking: Middleware and models to log user activity, browser, device, and more.
• AJAX & DataTable Utilities: Helpers and cells for building interactive, responsive tables with search, sort, pagination, and export features.
• Menu System: Configurable sidebar, header, footer, and profile menus with unlimited nesting and icons.
• Toast Notifications: Flexible toast/flash notification system with configurable positions and display modes.
• Vite Integration: Modern asset pipeline with Vite.js for development (HMR) and production.
• Fake Data Generation: CLI command to generate fake data for any model, with schema-aware and special field handling.
• Environment Service: Utility for accessing and managing request environment variables.
• Extensible Structure: Easily add new models, controllers, helpers, and UI components.
• Bulk Delete: Bulk deletion support for any model.
• Middleware: Activity tracking, CSRF protection, error handling, and more.
• Modern UI: Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, and ready-to-use layouts.

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Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• Composer
• Node.js & npm (for asset building with Vite)
• Supported database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc.)

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Installation

1. Clone the repository or use as a template:

   git clone https://github.com/your-org/cakephp-starter-kit.git myapp
   cd myapp

2. Install PHP dependencies:

   composer install

3. Install JS dependencies:

   npm install

4. Copy and configure environment files:

   cp config/app_local.example.php config/app_local.php
   # Edit config/app_local.php for your DB/email settings

5. Set writable permissions:

   • Ensure logs/ and tmp/ are writable by the web server.

6. Run database migrations:

   bin/cake migrations migrate

7. Build frontend assets:

   npm run build
   # Or for development with HMR:
   npm run dev or npm run watch

8. Start the CakePHP server:

   bin/cake server -p 8765

   Visit http://localhost:8765 in your browser.

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Use Cases

• Admin dashboards and CRUD interfaces
• SaaS backends and user portals
• Rapid prototyping for new projects
• Learning CakePHP best practices

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Configuration

• Environment: config/app_local.php for DB, email, and environment-specific settings.
• Menus & UI: config/setting.php for menu structure, toast positions, and UI layout.
• Assets: Vite config in vite.config.js and tailwind.config.js.

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Generating Fake Data

Quickly seed your database with test data for any model:

bin/cake fake --list-models
bin/cake fake users 10
bin/cake fake users 5 --dry-run
bin/cake fake users 10 --special-fields=avatar,logo

See doc/fake-data-command.md for full details.

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Directory Structure

• src/Controller/ - Main controllers (Users, Activities, AuthRequests, Pages)
• src/Model/Table/ - Main models (Users, Activities, AuthRequests, Sessions)
• src/View/Helper/ - UI helpers (DataTable, Menu, Toast, Vite)
• src/View/Cell/ - UI cells (AjaxTable, DataTable, Menu)
• src/Form/ - Authentication and verification forms
• src/Service/ - Backend services (Environment, FakeData)
• src/Mailer/ - Email logic (UserMailer)
• src/Middleware/ - Middleware (ActivityTracker)
• config/ - Configuration files
• templates/ - View templates
• webroot/ - Public assets

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Extending the Kit

• Add new models in src/Model/Table/ and run migrations.
• Add new controllers and views for custom features.
• Use helpers and cells to build interactive UIs.
• Customize menus and layouts in config/setting.php.

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Documentation

• Fake Data Command: Generate fake data for any model.
• AjaxTable Helper: Build interactive tables.
• Menu Helper: Dynamic, nested menus.
• Toast Helper: Toast notifications.
• Vite Helper: Modern asset pipeline.
• CakePHP Book: Official CakePHP documentation.

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Maintainer

Sandeep Kadyan

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License

This project is open-sourced under the MIT license.