How to create manual inputs in CakePHP 2 using SecurityComponent? - php

Question

I want to create a form in CakePHP whilst having the SecurityComponent active. So far so good, now I want to add custom input elements which I can't generate using the FormHelper. I do however to have these fields included in the security and validation checks.
The main problem is that I can't render radio buttons outside of their labels. So I render them myself like so:
<div class="radio radio-inline">
<input id="genderMALE" type="radio" name="data[User][gender]" value="MALE"/>
<label for="genderMALE">Male</label>
</div>
<div class="radio radio-inline">
<input id="genderFEMALE" type="radio" name="data[User][gender]" value="FEMALE"/>
<label for="genderFEMALE">Female</label>
</div>
Which in itself works perfectly. Yet the FormHelper has no notice of them so the SecurityComponent registers this as tampering with the form. Blackholing my request.
I tried to generate the inputs using the FormHelper but radio support is limited. The format option does not work here since:
Radio buttons cannot have the order of input and label elements controlled with these settings.
-- Cookbook
Next to that I couldn't find any way to render a plain detached radio button. And the only way I found to have the input accepted was through ignoring it in the SecurityComponent.
What is the Cake way to fix this?
Update 14-09 09:16
My current fix/hack would be to create the custom radio buttons in plain HTML as shown above. Then link the value of those radio inputs to an input field created using the FormHelper. Using CSS I can hide this input allowing it to be changed by JavaScript, as opposed to using type="hidden".
Are there any dangers/problems that could occur using this method?
side note: In the end this is a styling issue. Yet I'm forced to use Bootstrap and have only 2 days left to finish my task. And I don't feel like going down the path of writing custom CSS/JS to get this working.

Answer 1

At the point of getting content with the hack solution, I stumbled upon the FormHelper::$fields field. This field keeps track of all inputs created using the FormHelper and is later used by the SecurityComponent to check whether the form has been tampered with.
The solution does require some additional work as you need to implement the following steps:
Add custom form element the the fields array
Restore value from previous submit (if redirect back to form)
Add default option so field won't be omitted from post data
Working CTP
<div class="radio radio-inline">
<input id="genderMALE" type="radio" name="data[User][gender]" value="MALE"
<?= $this->request->data('User.gender') == 'MALE' ? 'checked' : ''?> />
<label for="genderMALE">Male</label>
</div>
<div class="radio radio-inline">
<input id="genderFEMALE" type="radio" name="data[User][gender]" value="FEMALE"
<?= $this->request->data('User.gender') == 'FEMALE' ? 'checked' : ''?> />
<label for="genderFEMALE">Female</label>
</div>
<input type="radio" name="data[User][gender]" value="" class="hidden"
<?= $this->request->data('User.gender') ? '' : 'checked'?> />
<?php $this->Form->fields[] = 'User.gender' ?>
It is far from pretty, yet I recon it is close to the internals of Cake itself. Might want to create a helper instead of manually implementing the inputs every time.