Welcome to the Cookbook

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DataSources are the link between models and the source of data that models represent. In many cases, the data is retrieved from a relational database such as MySQL, PostgreSQL or MSSQL. CakePHP is distributed with several database-specific datasources (see the dbo_* class files in cake/libs/model/datasources/dbo/), a summary of which is listed here for your convenience:

• dbo_mssql.php
• dbo_mysql.php
• dbo_mysqli.php
• dbo_oracle.php
• dbo_postgres.php
• dbo_sqlite.php

Additional DataSources and those that were removed from the core in 1.3 can be found in the community-maintained CakePHP DataSources repository at github.

When specifying a database connection configuration in app/config/database.php, CakePHP transparently uses the corresponding database datasource for all model operations. So, even though you might not have known about datasources, you've been using them all along.

All of the above sources derive from a base DboSource class, which aggregates some logic that is common to most relational databases. If you decide to write a RDBMS datasource, working from one of these (e.g. dbo_mysql.php or dbo_mssql.php is your best bet.

Most people, however, are interested in writing datasources for external sources of data, such as remote REST APIs or even an LDAP server. So that's what we're going to look at now.