PHP - Blog App For Cakephp To Learn From?

Should one learn object oriented programming first, before getting to learn a framework?   I have been interested in CakePHP.

This topic has been moved to Miscellaneous.

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=323879.0

hey, i need some help if possible.

I basicly have 2 tables, one has the blog posts and one has the blog comments. I'm trying to display the latest 5 blog posts (which works) but underneath each of the blog posts i need to display about 3 of the latest comments for that post but it isn't showing any.

any ideas?

here's my code:
Code: [Select]
<?
session_start();
$myusername = $_SESSION['myusername'];

$db_host = 'localhost';
$db_user = 'HIDDEN';
$db_pwd = 'HIDDEN';

$database = 'tjwebsol_dev';
$table  = 'posts';
$table2 = 'blog_comments';
$tab = '&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;&#38;#38;#160;';
if (!mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pwd))
    die("Can't connect to database");

if (!mysql_select_db($database))
    die("Can't select database");

// sending query
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM {$table} ORDER BY blog_id DESC LIMIT 5");
if (!$result) {
    die("Query to show fields from table failed");
}


$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM {$table2} ORDER BY comment_id ASC LIMIT 5 ");

$fields_num = mysql_num_fields($result);
$fields_num2 = mysql_num_fields($sql);

while($row2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql))
{
$blog_comments    = $row2['comment_content'];
$date_commented   = $row2['date_commented'];
$time_commented   = $row2['time_commented'];
$blog_username2   = $row2['username'];
$blogid           = $row2['blogid'];
$comment_id       = $row2['comment_id'];
}

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$blog_title      = $row['title'];
$blog_content    = $row['content'];
$blog_username   = $row['username'];
$blog_date       = $row['date_posted'];
$blog_time       = $row['time_posted'];
$blog_id         = $row['blog_id'];
echo "<hr>";
echo "<div class='post'>";
echo "<h2 class='title'><a href='#'>$blog_title</h2></a>";
echo "<p class='byline'>posted by <b>$blog_username</b> on <b>$blog_date</b> ($blog_time)</p>";
echo "<br>";
echo "<div class='entry'>$blog_content</div><br>";
if ($blogid == $blog_id)
{
echo "<b>User Posted Comments:</b><br><br>";
echo "$tab<b>$comment_id</b>.  $blog_comments";
echo "<br><br>";
echo "Commented posted by <b>$blog_username2</b> on <b>$date_commented ($time_commented)</b>";
echo "<br><br><br>";
}
if (!isset($_SESSION['logged'])
    || $_SESSION['logged'] !== true) {

     // not logged in, move to login page
     echo "<b><a href='login.php'>Login</a></b> to post your comments!";
}
echo "<br><br><br>";
include('blognewcomment.php');
echo "";
echo "</div>";

}
mysql_free_result($result);

?>

I am looking to learn CakePHP are there recommendations for tutorials on CakePHP?

I have a php file with a ton of vars that i need to access in a number of controllers. How can i simply include this file into a controller in cakephp?

~John