09 Feb 2010 | (0) | Category: Forms

Drop-down select fields in CakePHP

For anyone wishing to make dropdown select fields in CakePHP forms happen automagically, here are some facts.

• Name your fields field_name_id in your tables.
• When setting data for the view, make sure it is variableized such as fieldNames. If you are in doubt, use Inflector::variable() to figure out what you need to do
• Bake will cry about missing tables, so make sure to be verbose when using Bake scripts, otherwise you will have issues
• If you want some field other than the Model::displayField to be used in a dropdown resulting from a find('list'), do the following:

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<?php
   $categories = $this->Category->find('list', array('fields' => array('my_field_here')));
?>

There are more things to share, but thats just a brief summary of what you need to do. Correct me if I'm wrong.