I mention that Neil's code would make a really cool plugin. This sparked a discussion as to whether this was possible with Cake's current plugin architecture. The issues where: how to get the datasource configuration, which would normally go in /app/config/database.php, how to reference the datasource class itself and how to handle the custom route.

The created the plugin with a ConnectionManager instance that goes out and loads in a configuration file inside of his search model in his application.

I'm pleased to announce the first release of Horde_Routes, a new URL mapping system for PHP 5. This package provides classes for mapping URLs into the controllers and actions of an MVC system, inspired by Ruby on Rails.

They came up with the system because they "wanted RESTful routing, named routes, sophisticated matching, PHP 5 E_STRICT, and extensive test coverage" and nothing else seemed to meet them all. Horde_Routes includes features like route recognition and generation, named routes, being PHP 5 E_STRICT compliant and has a comprehensive unit test suite. Right now, the Routes system is in a beta stage but should be quickly moving to stable.