Code¶

Initial setup¶

Before working on patches for CakePHP, it’s a good idea to get your environment setup. You’ll need the following software:

• Git

• PHP 5.3.0 or greater

• ext/mcrypt

• ext/mbstring

• PHPUnit 3.7.0 or greater (3.7.38 recommended)

• MySQL, SQLite, or Postgres

Set up your user information with your name/handle and working email address:

git config --global user.name 'Bob Barker'
git config --global user.email '[email protected]'

Get a clone of the CakePHP source code from GitHub:

• If you don’t have a GitHub account, create one.

• Fork the CakePHP repository by clicking the Fork button.

After your fork is made, clone your fork to your local machine:

git clone git@github.com:YOURNAME/cakephp.git

Add the original CakePHP repository as a remote repository. You’ll use this later to fetch changes from the CakePHP repository. This will let you stay up to date with CakePHP:

cd cakephp
git remote add upstream git://github.com/cakephp/cakephp.git

Now that you have CakePHP setup you should be able to define a $test database connection, and run all the tests.

Working on a patch¶

Each time you want to work on a bug, feature or enhancement create a topic branch.

The branch you create should be based on the version that your fix/enhancement is for. For example if you are fixing a bug in 2.3 you would want to use the 2.3 branch as the base for your branch. If your change is a bug fix for the current stable release, you should use the master branch. This makes merging your changes in later much simpler:

# fixing a bug on 2.3
git fetch upstream
git checkout -b ticket-1234 upstream/2.3

The above will create a local branch based on the upstream (CakePHP) 2.3 branch. Work on your fix, and make as many commits as you need; but keep in mind the following:

• Follow the Coding Standards.

• Add a test case to show the bug is fixed, or that the new feature works.

• Keep your commits logical, and write good clear and concise commit messages.

Submitting a pull request¶

Once your changes are done and you’re ready for them to be merged into CakePHP, you’ll want to update your branch:

git checkout 2.3
git fetch upstream
git merge upstream/2.3
git checkout <branch_name>
git rebase 2.3

This will fetch + merge in any changes that have happened in CakePHP since you started. It will then rebase - or replay your changes on top of the current code. You might encounter a conflict during the rebase. If the rebase quits early you can see which files are conflicted/un-merged with git status. Resolve each conflict, and then continue the rebase:

git add <filename> # do this for each conflicted file.
git rebase --continue

Check that all your tests continue to pass. Then push your branch to your fork:

git push origin <branch-name>

Once your branch is on GitHub, you can submit a pull request on GitHub.