Tutorials on Form Handling, Building HTML in CakePHP

Form is a simple input taker in applications, defined inputs by users need authentication and formatting to be stored. Cakephp makes easy FormHelper to work with form. It is quick and will streamline validation, re-population and layout.

CakePHP – Form Handling

CakePHP provides various in built tags to handle HTML forms easily and securely. Like many other PHP frameworks, major elements of HTML are also generated using CakePHP. Following are the various functions used to generate HTML elements.

The following functions are used to generate select options.

Syntax	_selectOptions( array $elements array(), array $parents array(), boolean $showParents null, array $attributes array() )
Parameters	Elements to format Parents for OPTGROUP Whether to show parents HTML attributes
Returns	array
Description	Returns an array of formatted OPTION/OPTGROUP elements

The following functions are used to generate HTML select element.

Syntax	select( string $fieldName, array $options array(), array $attributes array() )
Parameters	Name attribute of the SELECT Array of the OPTION elements (as ‘value’=>’Text’ pairs) to be used in the SELECT element The HTML attributes of the select element.
Returns	Formatted SELECT element
Description	Returns a formatted SELECT element

The following functions are used to generate button on HTML page.

Syntax	Button (string $title, array $options array() )
Parameters	The button’s caption. Not automatically HTML encoded. Array of options and HTML attributes.
Returns	HTML button tag.
Description	Creates a <button> tag. The type attribute defaults to type=”submit“. You can change it to a different value by using $options[‘type’].

The following functions are used to generate checkbox on HTML page.

Syntax	Checkbox (string $fieldName, array $options array() )
Parameters	Name of a field, like this “Modelname.fieldname” Array of HTML attributes. Possible options are value, checked, hiddenField, disabled, default.
Returns	An HTML text input element.
Description	Creates a checkbox input widget.

The following functions are used to create form on HTML page.

Syntax	create( mixed $model null, array $options array() )
Parameters	The model name for which the form is being defined. Should include the plugin name for plugin models. e.g. ContactManager.Contact. If an array is passed and $options argument is empty, the array will be used as options. If false no model is used. An array of html attributes and options. Possible options are type, action, url, default, onsubmit, inputDefaults, encoding
Returns	A formatted opening FORM tag.
Description	Returns an HTML FORM element.

The following functions are used to provide file uploading functionality on HTML page.

Syntax	file(string $fieldName, array $options array() )
Parameters	Name of a field, in the form “Modelname.fieldname” Array of HTML attributes.
Returns	A generated file input.
Description	Creates file input widget.

The following functions are used to create hidden element on HTML page.

Syntax	hidden( string $fieldName, array $options array() )
Parameters	Name of a field, in the form of “Modelname.fieldname” Array of HTML attributes.
Returns	A generated hidden input
Description	Creates a hidden input field

The following functions are used to generate input element on HTML page.

Syntax	Input (string $fieldName, array $options array() )
Parameters	This should be “Modelname.fieldname” Each type of input takes different options
Returns	Completed form widget
Description	Generates a form input element complete with label and wrapper div

The following functions are used to generate radio button on HTML page.

Syntax	Radio (string $fieldName, array $options array(), array $attributesarray() )
Parameters	Name of a field, like this “Modelname.fieldname” Radio button options array. Array of HTML attributes, and special attributes above.
Returns	Completed radio widget set
Description	Creates a set of radio widgets. Will create a legend and fieldset by default. Use $options to control this.

The following functions are used to generate submit button on HTML page.

Syntax	Submit (string $caption null, array $options array() )
Parameters	The label appearing on the button OR if string contains :// or the extension .jpg, .jpe, .jpeg, .gif, .png use an image if the extension exists, AND the first character is /, image is relative to webroot, OR if the first character is not /, image is relative to webroot/img. Array of options. Possible options are div, before, after, type etc.
Returns	An HTML submit button
Description	Creates a submit button element. This method will generate <input/> elements that can be used to submit, and reset forms by using $options. Image submits can be created by supplying an image path for $caption.

The following functions are used to generate textarea element on HTML page.

Syntax	Textarea (string $fieldName, array $options array() )
Parameters	Name of a field, in the form “Modelname.fieldname” Array of HTML attributes, special option like escape
Returns	A generated HTML text input element
Description	Creates a textarea widget

Example

Make changes in the config/routes.php file as shown in the following code.

config/routes.php

<?php use CakeCorePlugin; use CakeRoutingRouteBuilder; use CakeRoutingRouter; Router::defaultRouteClass(‘DashedRoute’); Router::scope(‘/’, function (RouteBuilder $routes) { $routes->connect(‘register’,[‘controller’=>’Registrations’,’action’=>’index’]); $routes->fallbacks(‘DashedRoute’); }); Plugin::routes();

Create a RegistrationController.php file at src/Controller/RegistrationController.php. Copy the following code in the controller file.

src/Controller/RegistrationController.php

<?php namespace AppController; use AppControllerAppController; class RegistrationsController extends AppController{ public function index(){ $country = array(‘India’,’United State of America’,’United Kingdom’); $this->set(‘country’,$country); $gender = array(‘Male’,’Female’); $this->set(‘gender’,$gender); } } ?>

Create a directory Registrations at src/Template and under that directory create a View file called index.ctp. Copy the following code in that file.

src/Template/Registrations/index.ctp

<?php echo $this->Form->create(“Registrations”,array(‘url’=>’/register’)); echo $this->Form->input(‘username’); echo $this->Form->input(‘password’); echo $this->Form->input(‘password’); echo ‘<label for=”country”>Country</label>’; echo $this->Form->select(‘country’,$country); echo ‘<label for=”gender”>Gender</label>’; echo $this->Form->radio(‘gender’,$gender); echo ‘<label for=”address”>Address</label>’; echo $this->Form->textarea(‘address’); echo $this->Form->file(‘profilepic’); echo ‘

‘; echo $this->Form->button(‘Submit’); echo $this->Form->end(); ?>

Execute the above example by visiting the following URL − http://localhost:85/CakePHP/register

Output