CakeDC Blog

TIPS, INSIGHTS AND THE LATEST FROM THE EXPERTS BEHIND CAKEPHP

10 guidelines to outsourcing web development

Written by Megan on June 22, 2016
9008 VIEWS

 

One issue that has recently attained center stage in the business world is the debate over whether outsourcing web development is a good business strategy or not.

Proponents point among other things to local shortage of highly qualified web developers and to cost savings. Critics on the other hand remain skeptical and often point to the potential loss of control over some aspects of a company’s business processes that outsourcing requires. To add to the dilemma, some use the term interchangeably with offshoring.

So let us begin by defining exactly what outsourcing is and how it differs from offshoring.

Outsourcing is a general term used to describe the act of delegating an entire business function or part of a business process to a third party or contractor. Despite its techie-sounding name, the idea of outsourcing, is a very ordinary one.

When you don’t have money, you borrow from those that have it and when you lack talent or experience in one area, you seek it from those that have it. That is what outsourcing is all about.

Businesses outsource when they determine that they either do not have the expertise they need to accomplish a given objective or, when they just want to maximize benefits and reduce cost. Outsourcing allows businesses to lower costs, take advantage of skilled experts, and to increase productivity and efficiency. Unlike offshoring, it does not imply work done in a different country and therefore does not entail the same risks inherent in offshoring such as project delivery failures due to political unrest, poor communication, and language barriers in the contractor’s country.

 

In this article, we will focus on outsourcing web development as a major business venture that should be carefully planned and executed.

Here are 10 guidelines to help you outsource web development successfully.

1. The first thing you need to do before even considering who to partner with for your outsourcing needs is to specify exactly what business objective you want fulfilled with the finished website. Will the website be a fully functional, highly interactive website where people can conduct commercial transactions at all times of the day or will it used to simply list detailed information about the business? Do you expect the website to evolve at some point or will this development be the final rendition? In general, most websites evolve in response to changing business demands. So it is wiser to plan ahead with changes in mind. Having a clear vision of what you want the website to do for you will help the contractor and you to tailor the project to the specific long term goals of your business.

2. After defining the general business objective, consider what functionality you want the website to provide. Will the website or some parts of it require a secure login? If so, what will be the requirements or access levels? Will the website include an online demo or a forum? How about databases and calculations?

3. Specify exactly how you will measure success. The main reason why you would develop a website in the first place is to enable people to do certain tasks at your website. So you need a way to measure this and a means to evaluate success or failure when the contractor completes the project. There are many tools you can use including one free one: Google Analytics.

4. Research similar sites. Visit websites of businesses that have already created sites similar to the one you are envisioning. The goal is not to simply copy or emulate them but to learn from them. Examine the design and functionality of these websites and write your impressions about what you like and what you don’t like about them. You can also request friends or other dis-interested parties to visit these sites and give you their opinions. Additionally, read customer comments (if available) and carefully note what problems users complain about and what they like or do not like about such websites. With this knowledge under your belt, you can then craft a better website that avoids the common pitfalls and incorporates all the features visitors find valuable. This will give you a definitive edge over your competitors.

5. Prioritize your needs. It is not always possible to include all the things you want in a website due to budget, time, and other constraints. It is therefore important to begin by categorizing your needs into “must haves” and “wish to haves.” Then make sure you consider optional features only after you have budgeted for those features that you absolutely must have.

6. Prepare a brief or summary for prospective contractors. This should include a short introduction of your company; what it does; and what its overall goals are. The brief should also include the purpose of the website; who the target audience will be; anticipated functionality (ecommerce, advertising etc…); how you will evaluate success; and who will be responsible for creating and maintaining content. You should also state whether you will be doing maintenance in-house or expect the contractor to do it for you.

7. After you have completed the above steps, it is time to look for a business partner. Make phone calls to several businesses who have the expertise you need and then draw up a list of those that meet the criteria you set in your brief (step #6 above). You can then send your brief to the few you have selected along with a request for a proposal. When you receive a proposal, look over its provisions very carefully. It is more important particularly at this stage to make sure that you get the most important features you identified in step #4. Price is important of course but don’t make the mistake of focusing only on cost. Though cost saving is a major reason for outsourcing, it should never be at the expense of quality. Moreover, a well developed site will save you more money in the long run than a mediocre site.

8. Ask prospective contractors for details about the staff that will be handling your project. If you will be outsourcing the entire web development life cycle, you want to know if subject-matter experts will be managing each phase of the project. In other words, you want to know if the task will be divided in such a way that dedicated web design specialists will be doing the design phase while software developers will handle the nuts and bolts of software development.

It should be noted here that there are some web developers who are also excellent web designers and vice versa. This should not be a problem and in fact can be preferable because such an expert can match development to design more easily to create a well-balanced and harmonious website.

9. Discuss a timeline for in-person or electronic progress report. How often will the prospective contractor provide you with a progress report? Does their proposal give a phased outline of what will be accomplished when? If they can’t provide a reasonable response to this, look elsewhere.

10. Finally, ask for references and check them thoroughly. Inquire about their customer service, their task completion history, and their general professionalism.

 

If you follow the above steps faithfully, you will be rewarded with the proven cost-saving benefits of outsourcing. Carefully managed and executed, outsourcing is a strategic business move and a great boon to all types of businesses.

Latest articles

63 Views

Goodbye to 2025!

Well bakers… another advent calendar is coming to an end. I hope you enjoyed all of the topics covered each day. We are also closing the year with so much gratitude.    2025 was the 20th year of CakePHP, can you believe it? We had an amazing year with our team, the community and the CakePHP core. It was great connecting with those who attended CakeFest in Madrid, and we hope to have the opportunity to see more of you in 2026.    I cannot let the year end without getting a little sentimental. There is no better way to say it… THANK YOU. Thank you to the team who worked so hard, the core team that keeps pumping out releases, and most of all … thank you to our clients that trust us with their projects. CakeDC is successful because of the strong relationships we build with our network, and we hope to continue working with all of you for many years.    There are a lot of great things still to come in year 21! Could 2026 will be bringing us CakePHP 6?! Considering 2 is rhe legal drinking age in the US, maybe CakePHP 6 should be beer cake? Delicious. Stay tuned to find out.    Before I go, I am leaving you with something special. A note from Larry!   As we close out this year, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Twenty years ago, CakePHP started as a simple idea shared by a few of us who wanted to make building on the web easier and more enjoyable. Seeing how far it has come, and more importantly, seeing how many lives and careers it has impacted, is something I never take for granted. I am deeply grateful for our team, the core contributors, the community, and our clients who continue to believe in what we do. You are the reason CakePHP and CakeDC are still here, still growing, and still relevant after two decades. Here is to what we have built together, and to what is still ahead. Thank you for being part of this journey. Larry

Written by Amanda on December 24, 2025

77 Views

Pagination of multiple queries in CakePHP

Pagination of multiple queries in CakePHP

A less typical use case for pagination in an appication is the need to paginate multiples queries. In CakePHP you can achieve this with pagination scopes.

Users list

Lest use as an example a simple users list. // src/Controller/UsersController.php class UsersController extends AppController { protected array $paginate = [ 'limit' => 25, ]; public function index() { // Default model pagination $this->set('users', $this->paginate($this->Users)); } } // templates/Users/index.php <h2><?= __('Users list') ?>/h2> <table> <thead> <tr> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('name', __('Name')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('email', __('Email')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('active', __('Active')) ?></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <?php foreach ($users as $user): ?> <tr> <td><?= h($user->name) ?></td> <td><?= h($user->email) ?></td> <td><?= $user->active ? 'Yes' : 'No' ?></td> </tr> <?php endforeach; ?> </tbody> </table> <?= $this->Paginator->counter() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->prev('« Previous') ?> <?= $this->Paginator->numbers() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->next('Next »') ?>

Pagination of multiple queries

Now, we want to display two paginated tables, one with the active users and the other with the inactive ones. // src/Controller/UsersController.php class UsersController extends AppController { protected array $paginate = [ 'Users' => [ 'scope' => 'active_users', 'limit' => 25, ], 'InactiveUsers' => [ 'scope' => 'inactive_users', 'limit' => 10, ], ]; public function index() { $activeUsers = $this->paginate( $this->Users->find()->where(['active' => true]), [scope: 'active_users'] ); // Load an additional table object with the custom alias set in the paginate property $inactiveUsersTable = $this->fetchTable('InactiveUsers', [ 'className' => \App\Model\Table\UsersTable::class, 'table' => 'users', 'entityClass' => 'App\Model\Entity\User', ]); $inactiveUsers = $this->paginate( $inactiveUsersTable->find()->where(['active' => false]), [scope: 'inactive_users'] ); $this->set(compact('users', 'inactiveUsers')); } } // templates/Users/index.php <?php // call `setPaginated` first with the results to be displayed next, so the paginator use the correct scope for the links $this->Paginator->setPaginated($users); ?> <h2><?= __('Active Users') ?>/h2> <table> <thead> <tr> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('name', __('Name')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('email', __('Email')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('active', __('Active')) ?></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <?php foreach ($users as $user): ?> <tr> <td><?= h($user->name) ?></td> <td><?= h($user->email) ?></td> <td><?= $user->active ? 'Yes' : 'No' ?></td> </tr> <?php endforeach; ?> </tbody> </table> <?= $this->Paginator->counter() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->prev('« Previous') ?> <?= $this->Paginator->numbers() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->next('Next »') ?> <?php // call `setPaginated` first with the results to be displayed next, so the paginator use the correct scope for the links $this->Paginator->setPaginated($inactiveUsers); ?> <h2><?= __('Inactive Users') ?>/h2> <table> <thead> <tr> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('name', __('Name')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('email', __('Email')) ?></th> <th><?= $this->Paginator->sort('active', __('Active')) ?></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <?php foreach ($inactiveUsers as $inactiveUser): ?> <tr> <td><?= h($inactiveUser->name) ?></td> <td><?= h($inactiveUser->email) ?></td> <td><?= $inactiveUser->active ? 'Yes' : 'No' ?></td> </tr> <?php endforeach; ?> </tbody> </table> <?= $this->Paginator->counter() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->prev('« Previous') ?> <?= $this->Paginator->numbers() ?> <?= $this->Paginator->next('Next »') ?> And with this you have two paginated tables in the same request.

Written by Rperez on December 23, 2025

148 Views

Clean DI in CakePHP 5.3: Say Goodbye to fetchTable()

This article is part of the CakeDC Advent Calendar 2025 (December 23rd, 2025)

Introduction: The Death of the "Hidden" Dependency

For years, accessing data in CakePHP meant "grabbing" it from the global state. Whether using TableRegistry::getTableLocator()->get() or the LocatorAwareTrait’s $this->fetchTable(), your classes reached out to a locator to find what they needed. While convenient, this created hidden dependencies. A class constructor might look empty, despite the class being secretly reliant on multiple database tables. This made unit testing cumbersome, forcing you to stub the global TableLocator just to inject a mock. CakePHP 5.3 changes the game with Inversion of Control. With the framework currently in its Release Candidate (RC) stage and a stable release expected soon, now is the perfect time to explore these architectural improvements. By using the new TableContainer as a delegate for your PSR-11 container, tables can now be automatically injected directly into your constructors. This shift to explicit dependencies makes your code cleaner, fully type-hinted, and ready for modern testing standards. The Old Way (Hidden Dependency): public function execute() { $users = $this->fetchTable('Users'); // Where did this come from? } The 5.3 Way (Explicit Dependency): public function __construct(protected UsersTable $users) {} public function execute() { $this->users->find(); // Explicit and testable. }

Enabling the Delegate

Open src/Application.php and update the services() method by delegating table resolution to the TableContainer. // src/Application.php use Cake\ORM\TableContainer; public function services(ContainerInterface $container): void { // Register the TableContainer as a delegate $container->delegate(new TableContainer()); }

How it works under the hood

When you type-hint a class ending in Table (e.g., UsersTable), the main PSR-11 container doesn't initially know how to instantiate it. Because you've registered a delegate, it passes the request to the TableContainer, which then:
  1. Validates: It verifies the class name and ensures it is a subclass of \Cake\ORM\Table.
  2. Locates: It uses the TableLocator to fetch the correct instance (handling all the usual CakePHP ORM configuration behind the scenes).
  3. Resolves: It returns the fully configured Table object back to the main container to be injected.
Note: The naming convention is strict. The TableContainer specifically looks for the Table suffix. If you have a custom class that extends the base Table class but is named UsersRepository, the delegate will skip it, and the container will fail to resolve the dependency.

Practical Example: Cleaner Services

Now, your domain services no longer need to know about the LocatorAwareTrait. They simply ask for what they need. namespace App\Service; use App\Model\Table\UsersTable; class UserManagerService { // No more TableRegistry::get() or $this->fetchTable() public function __construct( protected UsersTable $users ) {} public function activateUser(int $id): void { $user = $this->users->get($id); // ... logic } } Next, open src/Application.php and update the services() method by delegating table resolution to the TableContainer. // src/Application.php use App\Model\Table\UsersTable; use App\Service\UserManagerService; use Cake\ORM\TableContainer; public function services(ContainerInterface $container): void { // Register the TableContainer as a delegate $container->delegate(new TableContainer()); // Register your service with the table as constructor argument $container ->add(UserManagerService::class) ->addArgument(UsersTable::class); }

Why this is a game changer for Testing

Because the table is injected via the constructor, you can now swap it for a mock effortlessly in your test suite without touching the global state of the application. $mockUsers = $this->createMock(UsersTable::class); $service = new UserManagerService($mockUsers); // Pure injection!

Conclusion: Small Change, Big Impact

At first glance, adding a single line to your Application::services() method might seem like a minor update. However, TableContainer represents a significant shift in how we approach CakePHP architecture. By delegating table resolution to the container, we gain:
  • True Type-Safety: Your IDE and static analysis tools now recognize the exact Table class being used. This is a massive win for PHPStan users—no more "Call to an undefined method" errors or messy @var docblock workarounds just to prove to your CI that a method exists.
  • Zero-Effort Mocking: Testing a service no longer requires manipulating the global TableRegistry state. Simply pass a mock object into the constructor and move on.
  • Standardization: Your CakePHP code now aligns with modern PHP practices found in any PSR-compliant ecosystem, making your application more maintainable and easier for new developers to understand.
If you plan to upgrade to CakePHP 5.3 upon its release, this is one of the easiest wins for your codebase. It’s time to stop fetching your tables and start receiving them. This article is part of the CakeDC Advent Calendar 2025 (December 23rd, 2025)

Written by Arusinowski on December 23, 2025

We Bake with CakePHP