CakePHP 3 Modeless Form Persistence - php

Question

I am creating a modeless form based on the example given here. Once the user clicks the submit button, I retrieve some information from the database and display it in a table beneath the form. When I click on the submit button, the form displays the default values for start and end every time which is causing some confusion from my users using the page.
Is there any way to have the FormHelper display the values submitted by the end user rather than the defaults?
src/Form/StartEndForm.php
namespace App\Form;
use Cake\Form\Form;
class StartEndForm extends Form{
protected function _buildSchema(Schema $schema) {
return $schema->addField('start', [
'type' => 'date',
'default' => new Time('-1 month')
])
->addField('end', [
'type' => 'date',
'default' => new Time()
]);
}
protected function _buildValidator(Validator $validator) {
return $validator->add('start', 'date', [
'rule' => ['date'],
'message' => 'Please provide a valid date'
])
->add('end', 'date', [
'rule' => ['date'],
'message' => 'Please provide a valid date'
]);
}
protected function _execute(array $data) {
//do some SQL stuff and return the value
}
}
src/Template/Logs/index.ctp
echo $this->Form->create($form, [
'class' => 'start-end-date',
'type' => 'get'
]);
echo $this->Form->input('start');
echo $this->Form->input('end');
echo $this->Form->submit('Submit');
echo $this->Form->end();
//If values were returned, create a table
foreach(....)....

Answer 1

You are using a GET based form, ie the form values are being sent via the query string, and by default the form helper does not take the query string into account when looking for possible data to populate its controls, hence you'll end up with the forms being populated with the schema defaults.
You can either enable query string lookup (available as of CakePHP 3.4):
echo $this->Form->create($article, [
'class' => 'start-end-date',
'type' => 'get'
'valueSources' => [
'query', // < add this _before_ the default `context` source
'context'
]
]);
which will make the form helper explicitly look up the query data in the current request, or you could switch to using a POST form, which will automatically pick up the data as POST data is by default looked up by all built-in form contexts (Array, Entity, Form, Null), either as fallback, or as the primary source.
See also
Cookbook > Views > Helpers > Form > Getting form values from the query string