Form

The form helper is primarily aimed at creating forms for adding and editing data. Its workhorse method is input(), which checks the field type in the database schema and outputs a form element appropriate to the data type (e.g. a text input for VARCHAR, a textarea for TEXT, etc).

It also provides methods for creating inputs for associations, as shown below.

<?php

// controllers/admin/events_controller.php

class AdminEventsController extends MvcAdminController {

  public function edit() {
    $this->set_speakers();
    $this->set_venues();
    $this->verify_id_param();
    $this->set_object();
    $this->create_or_save();
  }
  
  private function set_speakers() {
    $this->load_model('Speaker');
    $speakers = $this->Speaker->find(array('selects' => array('id', 'first_name', 'last_name')));
    $this->set('speakers', $speakers);
  }
  
  private function set_venues() {
    $this->load_model('Venue');
    $venues = $this->Venue->find(array('selects' => array('id', 'name')));
    $this->set('venues', $venues);
  }
  
}
?>

<?php

// views/admin/events/edit.php

$formatted_time = preg_replace('/:00$/', '', $object->time);

?>

<h2><?php echo MvcInflector::titleize($this->action); ?> <?php echo MvcInflector::titleize($model->name); ?></h2>

<?php echo $this->form->create($model->name); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->belongs_to_dropdown('Venue', $venues, array('style' => 'width: 200px;', 'empty' => true)); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->input('date', array('label' => 'Date (YYYY-MM-DD)')); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->input('time', array('label' => 'Time (24-hour clock)', 'value' => $formatted_time)); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->input('description'); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->has_many_dropdown('Speaker', $speakers, array('style' => 'width: 200px;', 'empty' => true)); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->input('is_public'); ?>
<?php echo $this->form->end('Update'); ?>

Methods

create($model_name, $options=array())

end($label='Submit')

input($field_name, $options=array())

text_input($field_name, $options=array())

textarea_input($field_name, $options=array())

checkbox_input($field_name, $options=array())

hidden_input($field_name, $options=array())

select($field_name, $options=array())

select_tag($field_name, $options=array())

button($text, $options=array())

belongs_to_dropdown($model_name, $select_options, $options=array())

has_many_dropdown($model_name, $select_options, $options=array())