How to Useful Resources in CakePHP

Useful Resources in CakePHP

The software comes with features such as code generation and scaffolding, which allow developers to build prototypes of websites quickly without having to worry about complicated XML or YAML files. Cake PHP has become a useful technology for almost everyone regardless if they are developers or no. If you want to get on the delicious CakePHP training, it is not yet too late. Here are a few resources that you can use to start learning CakePHP.

The following resources contain additional information on CakePHP. Please use them to get more in-depth knowledge on this.

Useful Links on CakePHP

Useful Books on CakePHP

  • CakePHP 2 Application Cookbook
  • Beginning CakePHP
  • CakePHP Application Development
  • Learn Cakephp
  • Instant CakePHP Starter
  • Practical CakePHP Projects

 

Tutorials on Form Handling, Building HTML in CakePHP

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 ‘

‘.$this->Form->checkbox(‘terms’). ‘

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

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

Output