CakePHP vs. Ruby on Rails

I am planning to create a website for e-commerce as a part of my college project and I am planning to make it by use of PHP as the base language. But I don’t know if I should use CakePHP or Ruby on Rails for it. I know both of the web development languages and I can make website on any of it. The problem is that I don’t have any industry experience of making a website and thus I am confused among these two frameworks should I use. I have to take into consideration the reliability, stability and resources. So can someone tell me which of the two will be best for developing an e-commerce website?

If you make a comparison between CakePHP and Ruby on Rails then the first thing you will notice is that blocks of the meta-programming are almost similar. In both the frameworks, the blocks of code are sent to the methods in form of the parameters. Also in both the frameworks one can declare methods on an object. Also the directory structures used in both the frameworks is almost same. But the directory structure of Ruby on Rails seems to be more useful than that of CakePHP. The model based relations used in both the frameworks are also same except for ‘HasAndBelongsToMany’. When working on Ruby on Rails, this model based relation becomes ‘has_many :through => relationship’.

While building a website using CakePHP, I think one of the best feature it provides is ‘on the fly’ binding. This is available in Ruby on Rails but developer needs to use much of the meta-programming and add some class methods to model for purpose of adding additional features. One best feature that is common between both te3 frameworks is that ‘on the fly’ binding CakePHP and Ruby on Rails is both models heavy. But just to add more weight to the model, it shouldn’t happen that you add too much of scaffolding. The RESTful code generator that we get in Ruby on Rails is good but it creates a lot of scaffolding which should be avoided as the code gets complex. It is fine to use in start when the code is light and not complex.

One thing about Ruby on Rails is that it is much slower in interpreting lines of code that that if CakePHP. If CakePHP can interpret 20 lines of code in one minute then Ruby on Rails will interpret around 6 lines in one minute. But on advantageous side, one has to right less amount of code to generate a specific effect. This has one advantage, less the code lesser number of bugs and glitches will be generated. But one thing that Ruby on Rails is better than CakePHP is that of internal caching. The internal caching of Ruby on Rails is bigger than that of CakePHP. Thus on long run or when the code becomes large, Ruby on Rails interprets code faster than CakePHP.

I think that CakePHP is much better than Ruby on Rails as it provides better migration for databases and other third party collections of applications. When it comes to website like e-commerce, maintaining a database is very important. Usually the database is created using SQL. Being a website developer, I think that CakePHP provides better connectivity with SQL database than Ruby on Rails. The events that are needed for migration of data from website’s can be easily transferred by use of a minor code. But in Ruby on Rails framework, implementation of smallest events like adding data or updating data needs complex codes.

Another problem that Ruby on Rails faces is the deployment of the website along with the Apache servers. This feature is properly developed and easy to use in CakePHP. Many people still depend on the ftp and scp deployment for the website. But I feel that methods can be changed for better if CakePHP is used. One thing I really like about Ruby on Rails is that instance variables in controllers can be directly accessed to be viewed which is a good feature. By simple use of Set(), one can access instance variables. But this method is somewhat risky as it can lead to creation of lot of bugs.

The caching part in CakePHP is very weak as compared to Ruby on Rails. You will not find much information about caching in CakePHP which means that you yourself have to find it out and learn it. Cleaning and using the memcache in CakePHP is very much complex if compared with that of Ruby on Rails. If anyone has worked on caching in Ruby on Rails then one thing he/she will surely tell you is that it is awesome. Various options like object caching, query caching and fragment caching makes the things easy and also good for use and give proper results.

I don’t think that people that use CakePHP regularly or more than Ruby on Rails will be using the caching features in it as efficiently and regularly as that in case of Ruby on Rails users.

The process of routing and RESTful routing in CakePHP is not so well developed as that in Ruby on Rails. I think this one of the major drawback of using CakePHP. Though developers have now made RESTful routing available for use in CakePHP, it seems that they are rarely used by the developers. I think that this is because most of the people have got habituated to the routing process of Ruby on Rails so well that they don’t want to leave it for some new technique. Although RESTful routing has been made available in CakePHP, it is not efficient as that in Ruby on Rails. One reason can be because, RESTful routing in Ruby on Rails automatically generates CRUD automatically.

Another bad things about CakePHP is that it lacks Polymorphic associations like that in Ruby on Rails. I can’t say that Polymorphic associations are missing from CakePHP, they must be present somewhere deep inside the whole structure. It is just that I can’t find it. One of my friends who had used Polymorphic associations in past told me that it is an complex method to get it in CakePHP. It is better if not done through CakePHP and thus developers prefer to use Polymorphic associations from Ruby on Rails.

Being a web developer, who depends on PHP to make web page and websites, I would like to say that CakePHP has helped us developers to make work easier more than Ruby on Rails has ever done. Though they are almost similar, when any difference occurs between them, these differences are very large and extreme. For example, if CakePHP has some feature than Ruby on Rails will not have that feature anywhere close. One will have to crate module for it f4om scratch or leave it. But one thing can be said that Ruby on Rails is good for developing from scratch while CakePHP is good for enhancing the developed content much further.