How to deploy a CakePHP application to a production server?

@ryan.murray 

Since CakePHP is built on the PHP programming language, the deployment of a CakePHP application to a production server can be quite straightforward. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Make sure that the production server meets the requirements of running CakePHP, which includes PHP 7.2.0 or higher, MySQL 5.5.3 or higher, and other extensions.
2. Copy all the files and folders of your CakePHP application to the webroot directory of your production server. Depending on your web server setup, the webroot directory could be named differently (such as “htdocs” or “public_html”).
3. Create a database on your production server. Make sure that the database credentials (such as database name, username, and password) in your CakePHP application are updated to match the newly created database.
4. Set up the database schema on your production server by using migration or importing SQL dump of the database structure.
5. Configure the CakePHP application to run in production mode. This is done by setting the environment variable APP_ENV to 'production'.
6. Ensure that the file/folder permissions are correctly set. CakePHP needs certain files and folders to be writeable to function correctly. Check with your hosting provider if you are not sure what these permissions should be.
7. Set up SSL if required. This could be obtained through your hosting provider or through a service like Let's Encrypt.
8. Finally, test your CakePHP application on the production server. If there are any issues, check the server logs and debug accordingly.

If you are new to deploying a web application on a server, it is always good to seek the help of a professional for the initial setup.