CakePHP 4 Common Helpers
Asyraf Wahi Anuar
CakePHP 4 helper and examples.
This tutorial may be outdated
It was last reviewed 3 years ago. Some steps may differ in newer versions.
Tech stack
- CakePHP 4.x
Here are some common helpers used in the CakePHP project.
Form Helper
Form Creation:
<?= $this->Form->create($documents); ?>Form with file upload:
<?= $this->Form->create($documents, ['type' => 'file']); ?>Input:
<?= $this->Form->control('name', ['class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input label change:
<?= $this->Form->control('dob', ['label' => 'Date of Birth','class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input remove label:
<?= $this->Form->control('dob', ['label' => false,'class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input placeholder:
<?= $this->Form->control('dob', ['placeholder' => 'Date of Birth','class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input options [eg: user_id] - data from database relationship:
<?= $this->Form->control('user_id', ['options' => $users]); ?>Input options - custom data:
<?php echo $this->Form->control('size', [
'options' => ['s' => 'Small', 'm' => 'Medium', 'l' => 'Large'],
'empty' => 'Select size',
'class' => 'form-control',
'required' => false
]);?>Input checkbox:
<?= $this->Form->control('published', ['type' => 'checkbox']); ?>Input year with minimum and maximum (current) year:
<?= $this->Form->control('year', [
'min' => 1985,
'max' => date('Y'),
'class' => 'form-control',
'required' => false
]); ?>or
<?= $this->Form->control('year', [
'label' => 'Date of birth',
'min' => date('Y') - 70,
'max' => date('Y') - 18,
'class' => 'form-control',
'required' => false
]); ?>Input email:
<?= $this->Form->control('email', ['type' => 'email', 'class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input hide:
<?= $this->Form->hidden('title', ['class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input Textarea (usually if DB is configured as text, it will automatically generate textbox:
<?= $this->Form->textarea('notes', ['escape' => false, 'class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Input time picker
<?= $this->Form->control('operation_time', [
'type' => 'time',
'value' => '12:30:00',
'class' => 'form-control',
'required' => false,
'label' => 'Operation Time'
]); ?>or
<?= $this->Form->time('operation_time', [
'value' => '12:30:00',
'class' => 'form-control',
'required' => false,
'label' => 'Operation Time'
]); ?>Input date picker:
<?= $this->Form->control('dob', [
'type' => 'date',
'value' => date('dd/mm/yyyy'),
'class' => 'form-control',
'required' => false,
'label' => 'Date of Birth'
]); ?>Input radio button:
<?= $this->Form->radio('gender', ['Male', 'Female']); ?>Input file select:
<?= $this->Form->control('attachment', ['type' => 'file', 'class' => 'form-control','required' => false]); ?>Label only:
<?= $this->Form->label('name'); ?>HTML Helper
Include CSS:
<?= $this->Html->css('bootstrap.css') ?>Include script:
<?= $this->Html->script('bootstrap.bundle.min.js'); ?>Include CSS/script to load at the end of the page:
<?= $this->Html->script('bootstrap.bundle.min.js', ['block' => 'scriptBottom']); ?>
//Others codes.
//At the end of the page, load the following script
<?= $this->fetch('scriptBottom') ?>Include element:
<?= $this->element('menu'); ?>Insert image:
<?= $this->Html->image('logo.png', ['alt' => 'Logo', 'class' => '']); ?>Link:
<?= $this->Html->link('Dashboard',
['controller' => 'Dashboards', 'action' => 'index', '_full' => true]
); ?>Link [External]:
<?php echo $this->Html->link('XAMPP','https://www.apachefriends.org', ['target'=>'_blank']); ?>Button [Bootstrap]:
<?= $this->Html->link('Dashboard',
['controller' => 'Dashboards', 'action' => 'index', '_full' => true],
['class' => 'btn btn-primary']
); ?>Button [Bootstrap & Font Awesome icon]
<?= $this->Html->link(__('<i class="fas fa-list"></i> Reset'), ['action' => 'add'], ['class' => 'btn btn-primary', 'escapeTitle' => false]) ?>Video player:
<video controls disablePictureInPicture controlsList="nodownload" name="media" height="500px" width="100%">
<source src="/<?= ('../../files/movies/video/' . $vod->video_dir . '/' . $movie->video) ?>" type="audio/mpeg">
<track label="English" kind="subtitles" srclang="en" src="/<?= ('../../files/movies/sub/' . $vod->sub_dir . '/' . $movie->sub) ?>" default>
</video>Number Helper
Number to readable format:
<?php echo $this->Number->toReadableSize(1321205.76); ?>Formatting floating-point number:
<?= $this->Number->precision(456.91873645, 2); ?>Formatting percentage:
<?= $this->Number->toPercentage(45.691873645); ?>Formatting Currency/ Before and after value:
<?= $this->Number->format('123456.7897', [
'places' => 2,
'before' => 'RM ',
'after' => ' Cent'
]); ?>Hours ago:
<?php
use Cake\I18n\Time;
$time = new Time($user->last_login);
$result = $time->timeAgoInWords([
'accuracy' => 'hour']);
echo $result;
?>Text Helper
Text Truncation
<?php
use Cake\Utility\Text; //load at the beginning of file
?>
<?= Text::truncate(
$this->Text->autoParagraph($document->summary),
30,
[
'ellipsis' => '...',
'exact' => false
]
); ?>URL
Request URL
<?php
use Cake\Routing\Router; //load at the beginning of file
?>
<?php
echo Router::url(null, true); //output: http://localhost/folder/articles/view/11
echo Router::url(null, false); //output: /folder/articles/view/11
echo $this->request->getUri(); //output: http://localhost/articles/view/11
echo $this->request->getUri()->getPath(); //output: /articles/view/11
echo $this->request->getRequestTarget(); //output: /articles/view/11
echo Router::url("/", true); //output: http://localhost/folder/
echo Router::url("/", false); //output: /folder/
?>Get parameter from URL using query string parameters request
<?php
use Cake\Routing\Router;
?>
<?php
//if URL: codethepixel.com/documents?page=2&limit=10
//to get the limit value:
$limit = $this->request->getQuery('limit');
?>CLEAR CACHE
bin/cake cache clear_all[will be updated...]
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