Yii2 - automatically generate placeholder attribute - php

Question

I'm trying to create an 'auto-placeholder' element using Yii2 and since I couldn't find an actual answer to my question, I thought I'd try it here.
For example, I have this field:
<?= $form->field($model, 'username',
[
'template'=>'{input}{label}{error}'
])
->textInput(['placeHolder'=>'{name}')
->label(false);
?>
However this case would obviously render "name" in the placeholder attribute.
But I would like to generate the placeholder attribute automatically depending on the model's variable I'm using, causing it to render the following:
<input type="text" id="loginform-username" class="form-control" name="LoginForm[username]" placeholder="Username">
Is there a known way of accessing and inserting the form->field's attribute and displaying it inside its own element?

Answer 1

Yes we can do by defining the attributes labels in model file like below.
public function attributeLabels() {
return [
'username' => 'Username',
];
}
then you can fetch the label automatically based on fields like following.
<?= $form->field($model, 'username',
[
'template'=>'{input}{label}{error}'
])
->textInput(['placeholder' => $model->getAttributeLabel('username'))
->label(false);
?>
I hope this will sort it out your problem.

Answer 2

If you are in for some extra hassle you can extend ActiveField class for that.
class MyActiveField extends \yii\widgets\ActiveField
{
public function textInput($options = [])
{
if (empty($options['placeholder'])) {
$options['placeholder'] = $this->model->getAttributeLabel($this->attribute);
}
return parent::textInput($options);
}
}
Now just need to use your class instead of default one.
You can do every time in view:
<?php $form = ActiveForm::begin([
'fieldClass' => 'fully\qualified\name\of\MyActiveField'
]); ?>
Or extend ActiveForm:
class MyActiveForm extends \yii\widgets\ActiveForm
{
$fieldClass = 'fully\qualified\name\of\MyActiveField';
}
and use it instead of default ActiveForm widget:
<?php $form = MyActiveForm::begin(); ?>
Now you can use <?= $form->field($model, 'attribute')->textInput() ?> (or just <?= $form->field($model, 'attribute') ?> since textInput is default) and placeholder should be there.