Hey everyone!
So, I recently decided to dive into CakePHP, and I gotta say, it’s been quite the adventure! I’m pretty new to the whole framework scene, having mostly worked with plain PHP before, so this is a bit of a jump for me.
I was super intrigued by how elegant and structured CakePHP looks. I started with a small project to manage my recipes (yes, food is life, right?). It’s like turning your kitchen into a well-oiled machine! I’m still figuring out all the features, but I love how the conventions help you keep everything organized.
But I could really use some advice! What are some must-know tips or common pitfalls to watch out for? I already hit a snag trying to set up some associations between models. Like, why is it so complicated to connect the dots with my ingredients and recipes? 
Also, how do you all manage versions? I’ve heard it can be a hassle when you’re trying to keep things up to date. Any recommendations for good practices?
I’d really appreciate any guidance or personal anecdotes you might have. Looking forward to hearing from you all! Let’s share some CakePHP love! 
Cheers!
Reminds me how I felt 20 years ago 
But PHP and CakePHP for that matter have come sooo far since then, its definitely a whole new story now.
Stick to conventions. Thats your red line and makes it work smoothly.
That includes these relations.
Always go from minor to minor ASAP, keep the gaps small and managable
In my blog (dereuromark.de) you find tons of useful tips over those decades.
By conventions I’d recommend reading especially this page: Structure & Conventions | CakePHP
That’s the problem with cakephp I think, its like constantly new versions of the same thing. Without much new features or plugins being maintained. A lot of the plugins even break because the constant new versions with breakable things. I have not used Laravel but it seems they have a way better eco system when it comes to providing useable plugins, rather then constantly changing listing functionality that breaks everything ..
I still use 3.1 
but on the other hand, it works for 10 years now.
I rarely find something in new versions that I need and there was many changes in 3 like dirty() became setDirty / getDirty.
@AlbanLovense as a tip: debug($anything) is your friend. It is a prinf_f / var_dump on steroids.
Overloading dirty() was always an anti pattern. It makes also method types impossible