CakePHP and WAMP: Configuring CakePHP to Handle Multiple Apps Around One Core Cake Library

I recently decided to start developing some applications based on the CakePHP MVC framework on my local machine using WAMP. The CakePHP default installation allows you to create one application for one set of core Cake library files. I wanted to separate my application files from the core Cake library files, so if there are any library updates, I wouldn’t need to mess with the application files. After some quick research, I found that this was pretty easy.

First, the CakePHP documentation provides instructions on an advanced installation of the framework. For my installation within my WAMP stack, I refered to this post over at the CakePHP Google Groups site.

The main file to modify is the ‘[app root]/webroot/index.php’ file. Here is a snippet of how one of my apps is configured:

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if (!defined('ROOT')) {
    define('ROOT', 'C:'.DS.'wamp'.DS.'www'.DS.'concepts');
}
if (!defined('APP_DIR')) {
    define('APP_DIR', 'cake_app1');
}
if (!defined('CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH')) {
    define('CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH', 'C:'.DS.'wamp'.DS.'www'.DS.'concepts'.DS.'cake_core');
}