CakePHP with ACL+LDAP

So, I’m using CakePHP to create a rather large web application and the first step is getting the auth to work the way I need because the rest of the application depends on it.  Although auth in CakePHP is not incredibly complicated adding LDAP and ACLs can be quite confusing so I plan on documenting the setup in my posts here.

I need to setup ACL, and I will be using this: http://book.cakephp.org/view/641/Simple-Acl-controlled-Application from the cook book with the database method.

I need a GUI type ACL management so I will integrate the ACL Management Plugin. There are some broken links on that page so I will need to go here for the latest ACL Plugin and I can go here for the icons.  Jeff Loiselle’s page is where I found some links.  The plugin is still in development but looks like the best option that will keep the CakePHP ACL component in its original form.

As far as LDAP goes I need to have my users authenticate through LDAP but have their records added to the database so I can ACL them.  I will be starting with this by Nathaniel Price and modifying the code using some other posts that I have found like CakePHP with full CRUD, a living example! by analogrithems.  Both posts are excellent and I would not know where to begin without them.

I am using Apache2, PHP5, MySQL and CakePHP 1.2.5 stable which is 1.2.4.8284 according to my CakePHP info page.  I be using this blog to document the details of this project.  If you come across any of these posts and can offer any helpful info please, please do.