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CakeDC Git Workflow - An Introduction

Written by Lubomir on May 31, 2014
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Its been almost a year now since we released, and then later open sourced, the CakeDC Git Workflow at CakeFest 2013 in San Francisco. Since then, we've had loads of feedback, and have also experienced ourselves how it's revolutionized the way we work on projects.

When we first set out to define the workflow we had some issues which we wanted to resolve. The main ones being broken staging servers due to unstable branches, an unorganized planning of QA on a build, repeated efforts when testing code which is constantly changing, and messy repositories with no clear organization.

Having these problems at hand, we wanted to accomplish a couple of goals:

  • Maintain a master branch which is reliable as a stable and versioned code base
  • Provide a staged code base that's stable and best represents the upcoming version
  • Allow new releases to be comprised of multiple milestones (or sprints)
  • Allow developers to create features from the code developed by others
  • Allow the next milestone to start while the QA process is still active on the previous
  • Allow QA to review code on an isolated branch without affecting the stage server
  • Isolate bug fixing on separate branches to avoid active development during QA
  • Provide a process which can be planned around and scheduled for QA and releases

So, we set out to define a process which would allow us to meet these goals, and help us deliver projects, without the pain of the managing that process itself.

Organize and coordinate

When working with a team of managers, developers and testers, it becomes very important to keep your sanity by organizing and coordinating efforts on projects. When these projects are large in size and scope, that can become a difficult task, especially if you don't have a clearly defined process at hand. And that doesn't just mean defining a series of steps to follow, but a process which sets the team's direction, and facilitates the desired results.

The CakeDC Git Workflow does just that, by setting out a clear path to follow, and key points in which members of the team are involved, from managers and developers, through to QA testers and client review. These break down as the following:

  • Development: After gathering requirements and planning out a milestone this is the first phase. During this time the code base is actively worked on, and can be considered unstable, in a bleeding edge state. Each ticket is developed on a feature branched from the develop branch. Peer review would take place on each feature branch before it reaches develop.
  • QA: Once the first phase of development is complete the QA process begins. This is performed on an isolated branch, so the next milestone could commence. The acceptance criteria defined from the requirements would be applied here. Any bugs found by the testers are fixed on an issue branched from the qa branch.
  • Review: Once testing has concluded and the code base is considered stable it's merged to the stage branch, and a milestone is tagged. The client or product manager would now review the results and provide feedback.
  • Release: Once the work completed in milestones constitutes a new version of the application the code from stage is merged to master, and a release is tagged.

Iterating through milestones

At the core of the workflow is the concept of milestone development. A milestone represents a deliverable, and is broken down into 3 phases: development, qa and staging. Each of these has a dedicated branch in the repository, which holds the work completed at each step of the process, and ensures that all work done on the project follows through these phases.

The milestone also helps organize the development team as well as the client (product owner), as the workflow keeps everyone in a cycle, which helps avoid feature creep and sets clear and coherent objectives and responsibilities at each point in the process.

Quality as the driving factor

At CakeDC our ultimate objective is to deliver the highest quality possible. This means that all members involved with a project need to provide the best possible to meet that common goal. We do it because we care about what we're building, and want the result to match our expectations as to what the "best" means in each case.

Our workflow keeps that philosophy in high regard, as its designed to protect the code base at all times from anything which doesn't meet the grade. Each phase acts as a barrier to avoid the master branch from being compromised.

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QA vs. Devs: a MEME tale of the IT environment

QA testing requires knowledge in computer science but still many devs think of us like  homer-simpson-meme   BUT... morpheus-meme   It is not like we want to detroy what you have created but... house-on-fire-meme   And we have to report it, it is our job... tom-and-jerry-meme   It is not like we think dev-vs-qa   I mean cat-meme   Plaeas do not consider us a thread :) willy-wonka-meme 0/0/0000 reaction-to-a-bug   Sometimes we are kind of lost seeing the application... futurama-meme   And sometimes your don't believe the crazy results we get... ironman-meme   I know you think aliens-meme   But remmember we are here to help xD the-office-meme   Happy Holidays to ya'll folks! the-wolf-of-wallstreet-meme   PS. Enjoy some more memes   feature-vs-user   hide-the-pain-harold-meme   idea-for-qa   peter-parker-meme   meme   dev-estimating-time-vs-pm    

Written by Rcardoso on December 17, 2025

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The Inflector (Or why CakePHP speaks better English than me)

This article is part of the CakeDC Advent Calendar 2025 (December 18th 2025) I have been working with CakePHP for more than 15 years now. I love the conventions. I also love that I don't have to configure every single XML file, like in the old Java days. But let's be honest: as a Spanish native speaker, naming things in English can sometimes be a nightmare. In Spanish, life is simple. You have a Casa (house), you add an "s", you have Casas (houses). You have a Camión (truck), you add "es", you have Camiones (trucks). Logic! But in English? You have a mouse, and suddenly you have mice. You have a person, and it becomes people. You have a woman and it becomes women. This is why the Inflector class is not just a utility for me. It is my personal English teacher living inside the /vendor folder.

It covers my back

When I started with CakePHP 15 years ago, I was always scared to name a database table categories. I was 100% sure that I would break the framework because I would name the model Categorys or something wrong. But! CakePHP knows better. It knows irregular verbs and weird nouns better than I do. use Cake\\Utility\\Inflector; // The stuff I usually get right echo Inflector::pluralize('User'); // Users // The stuff I would definitely get wrong without coffee echo Inflector::pluralize('Person'); // People echo Inflector::pluralize('Child'); // Children

Variable Naming (CamelCase vs underscore)

The other battle I have fought for 15 years is the variable naming convention. Is it camelCase? Is it PascalCase? Is it underscore_case? My brain thinks in Spanish, translates to English, and then tries to apply PSR-12 standards. It is a lot of processing power. Fortunately, when I am building dynamic tools, I just let the Inflector handle the formatting: // Converting my database column to a nice label echo Inflector::humanize('published_date'); // Output: Published Date // Converting a string to a valid variable name echo Inflector::variable('My Client ID'); // Output: myClientId

When Spanglish happens

Of course, after so many years, sometimes a Spanish word slips into the database schema. It happens to the best of us. If I create a table called alumnos (students), CakePHP tries its best, but it assumes it is English.
Inflector::singularize('alumnos') -> Alumno (It actually works! Lucky.)
But sometimes it fails funny. If I have a Jamon (Ham), Cake thinks the plural is Jamons. So, for those rare moments where my English fails, I can teach the Inflector a bit of Spanish in bootstrap.php: Inflector::rules('plural', \[ '/on$/i' \=\> 'ones' // Fixing words ending in 'on' like Cajon, Jamon... \]);

Conclusion

We talk a lot about the ORM, Dependency Injection, and Plugins. Today however, I wanted to say "Gracias" to the humble Inflector. It has saved me from typos and grammar mistakes since 2008. Challenge for today: Go check your code. Are you manually formatting strings? Stop working so hard and let the Inflector do it for you. This article is part of the CakeDC Advent Calendar 2025 (December 18th 2025)

Written by Ajibarra on December 16, 2025

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Uploading Files with CakePHP and Uppy directly to Amazon S3

Uploading Files with CakePHP and Uppy: Direct to S3

Modern web applications increasingly require fast, resilient, and user‑friendly file uploads. Whether it’s profile photos, documents, or large media files, users expect progress indicators, drag‑and‑drop, and reliable uploads even on unstable connections. In this article, we’ll look at how to combine CakePHP on the backend with Uppy on the frontend, and how to upload files directly to Amazon S3 using signed requests.

Why Uppy for Direct S3 Uploads??

Uppy is a modular JavaScript file uploader built by the team behind Transloadit. It provides a polished upload experience out of the box and integrates well with modern backends.

Key advantages

  • Direct-to-Cloud Uploads: File data flows directly from the user's browser to the S3 bucket, without passing through your CakePHP server.
    • Lower Server Load and Cost: Your server only generates a short-lived, secure pre-signed URL. The actual file transfer avoids the “double handling,” drastically reducing your application's bandwidth consumption and infrastructure footprint.
    • Better Performance: By eliminating your application server as a middleman, uploads complete faster. Uppy can also utilize S3's multipart upload capabilities for improved throughput and reliability for large files.
  • Excellent UX: Drag-and-drop support, progress bars, previews, and retry support.
  • Modular Architecture: Only load the necessary plugins.
  • Framework‑agnostic: Works seamlessly with CakePHP.

Architecture Overview

  • This scalable and production-friendly approach uses the following flow:
  • The browser initializes Uppy.
  • CakePHP provides temporary S3 credentials or signed URLs (Authorization).
  • Uppy uploads files directly to S3 (Data Transfer).
  • CakePHP stores metadata (filename, path, size, etc.) if needed (Database Record).

Architecture Overview

This scalable and production-friendly approach uses the following flow:
  1. The browser initializes Uppy
  2. CakePHP provides temporary S3 credentials or signed URLs (Authorization)
  3. Uppy uploads files directly to S3 (Data Transfer).
  4. CakePHP stores metadata (filename, path, size, etc.) if needed (Database Record).

Prerequisites

  • CakePHP 5.x (or 4.x with minor adjustments)
  • AWS account with an S3 bucket
  • AWS SDK for PHP
  • A modern browser to use Uppy's MJS modules

Installing Dependencies

Backend (CakePHP)

Install the required AWS SDK for PHP via Composer: composer require aws/aws-sdk-php Configure your AWS credentials (environment variables recommended): AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret AWS_REGION=eu-west-1 AWS_BUCKET=your-bucket-name

Frontend (Uppy)

Instead of a build step, we will use Uppy's modular JS files directly from a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which is simpler for many CakePHP applications. We will load the required modules—Uppy, Dashboard, and AwsS3—directly within the <script type="module"> tag in your view.

Creating the CakePHP Endpoint

We need a CakePHP endpoint to securely generate and return the necessary S3 upload parameters (the pre-signed URL) to the browser.

Controller

// src/Controller/UploadsController.php namespace App\Controller; use Aws\S3\S3Client; use Cake\Http\Exception\UnauthorizedException; class UploadsController extends AppController { public function sign() { $this->getRequest()->allowMethod(['post']); // 1. Initialize S3 Client using credentials from environment $s3Client = new S3Client([ 'version' => 'latest', 'region' => env('AWS_REGION'), 'credentials' => [ 'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'), 'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'), ], ]); // Define a unique path with a placeholder for the actual filename $path = 'uploads/' . uniqid() . '/${filename}'; // 2. Create the command for a PutObject request $command = $s3->getCommand('PutObject', [ 'Bucket' => env('AWS_BUCKET');, 'Key' => $path, 'ACL' => 'private', 'ContentType' => '${contentType}', ]); // 3. Generate the pre-signed URL (valid for 15 minutes) $presignedRequest = $s3->createPresignedRequest($command, '+15 minutes'); $this->set([ 'method' => 'PUT', 'url' => (string)$presignedRequest->getUri(), '_serialize' => ['method', 'url'], ]); } } Add a route: // config/routes.php $routes->post('/uploads/s3-sign', ['controller' => 'Uploads', 'action' => 'sign']);

Frontend: Initializing Uppy and the S3 Plugin

Place the following code in your CakePHP view along with the HTML container for the uploader: <div id="uploader"></div> <script type="module"> // Load Uppy modules directly from CDN (v5.2.1 example) import { Uppy, Dashboard, AwsS3 } from 'https://releases.transloadit.com/uppy/v5.2.1/uppy.min.mjs' const uppy = new Uppy({ autoProceed: false, restrictions: { maxNumberOfFiles: 5, allowedFileTypes: ['image/*', 'application/pdf'], }, }) uppy.use(Dashboard, { inline: true, target: '#uploader', }) // Configure the AwsS3 plugin to fetch parameters from the CakePHP endpoint uppy.use(AwsS3, { async getUploadParameters(file) { const response = await fetch('/uploads/s3-sign', { method: 'POST', headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', }, }) const data = await response.json() // 2. Return the parameters Uppy needs for the direct upload return { method: data.method, url: data.url, headers: { 'Content-Type': file.type, }, } }, }) uppy.on('complete', (result) => { console.log('Upload complete:', result.successful) }) </script>

Storing File Metadata (Optional but Recommended)

Once the direct S3 upload is successful, you must notify your CakePHP application to save the file's metadata (e.g., the S3 key) in your database. uppy.on('upload-success', (file, response) => { fetch('/files/save', { method: 'POST', headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }, body: JSON.stringify({ name: file.name, size: file.size, type: file.type, s3_key: response.uploadURL, }), }) })

Security Considerations

Remember to implement robust security checks in your sign controller action:
  • Authenticate users: Ensure the user is logged in and authorized before issuing S3 parameters.
  • Restrict Input: Restrict allowed MIME types and maximum file size.
  • Access Control: Use private S3 buckets and serve files via signed URLs to maintain security.
  • Time Limit: Set short expiration times for the pre-signed requests (e.g., the +15 minutes in the example).

Conclusion

Combining CakePHP and Uppy gives you the best of both worlds: a robust PHP backend and a modern, user‑friendly upload experience. By uploading directly to Amazon S3, you reduce server load, successfully reduce server load, improve scalability, and ensure reliable, fast large file uploads. This setup allows your backend to focus on validation, authorization, and business logic rather than raw data transfer.

Written by Areveron on December 15, 2025

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