Using CakePHP FormHelper with Bootstrap Forms - php

Question

CakePHP's FormHelper is how you generate forms when making CakePHP applications. As one might assume, this includes generating input elements, like so:
$this->Form->input('abc');
Which will produce HTML something like this:
<div class="input text">
<label for="ModelAbc">Abc</label>
<input name="data[Model][Abc]" class="" maxlength="250" type="text" id="ModelAbc">
</div>
Now, sadly, Bootstrap wants something like the following:
<div class="control-group">
<label for="ModelAbc" class="control-label">Abc</label>
<div class="controls">
<input name="data[Model][Abc]" class="" maxlength="250" type="text" id="ModelAbc">
</div>
</div>
How do I make CakePHP produce this output?

Answer 1

Inspired by lericson's answer, this is my final solution for CakePHP 2.x:
<?php echo $this->Form->create('ModelName', array(
'class' => 'form-horizontal',
'inputDefaults' => array(
'format' => array('before', 'label', 'between', 'input', 'error', 'after'),
'div' => array('class' => 'control-group'),
'label' => array('class' => 'control-label'),
'between' => '<div class="controls">',
'after' => '</div>',
'error' => array('attributes' => array('wrap' => 'span', 'class' => 'help-inline')),
)));?>
<fieldset>
<?php echo $this->Form->input('Fieldname', array(
'label' => array('class' => 'control-label'), // the preset in Form->create() doesn't work for me
)); ?>
</fieldset>
<?php echo $this->Form->end();?>
Which produces:
<form...>
<fieldset>
<div class="control-group required error">
<label for="Fieldname" class="control-label">Fieldname</label>
<div class="controls">
<input name="data[Fieldname]" class="form-error" maxlength="255" type="text" value="" id="Fieldname"/>
<span class="help-inline">Error message</span>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
</form>
I basically added the 'format' and 'error' keys, and added the control-label class to the label element.

Answer 2

Here's a solution for Bootstrap 3
<?php echo $this->Form->create('User', array(
'class' => 'form-horizontal',
'role' => 'form',
'inputDefaults' => array(
'format' => array('before', 'label', 'between', 'input', 'error', 'after'),
'div' => array('class' => 'form-group'),
'class' => array('form-control'),
'label' => array('class' => 'col-lg-2 control-label'),
'between' => '<div class="col-lg-3">',
'after' => '</div>',
'error' => array('attributes' => array('wrap' => 'span', 'class' => 'help-inline')),
))); ?>
<fieldset>
<legend><?php echo __('Username and password'); ?></legend>
<?php echo $this->Form->input('username'); ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->input('password'); ?>
</fieldset>
<?php echo $this->Form->end(__('Login')); ?>
In case a field needs its own label:
<?php echo $this->Form->input('username', array('label' => array('text' => 'Your username', 'class' => 'col-lg-2 control-label'))); ?>

Answer 3

Here's one way:
<?php echo $this->Form->create(null, array(
'inputDefaults' => array(
'div' => array('class' => 'control-group'),
'label' => array('class' => 'control-label'),
'between' => '<div class="controls">',
'after' => '</div>',
'class' => '')
)); ?>

Answer 4

Your answer is correct, but for the benefit of other users there's some other tweaks you can do to take advantage of the error/help text:
Add form-horizontal to class in the Form->create() for more compact forms (labels on the left of the input, rather than on top)
Here's how to put help text underneath a field (has to be done for each field), not forgetting to close the </div>.
echo $this->Form->input('field_name', array(
'after'=>'<span class="help-block">This text appears
underneath the input.</span></div>'));
and to correctly display errors:
// cake 2.0
echo $this->Form->input('abc', array(
'error' => array('attributes' => array('class' => 'controls help-block'))
));
Outputs:
<div class="control-group required error">
<label for="ModelAbc" class="control-label">Abc</label>
<div class="controls">
<input name="data[Model][Abc]" class="" maxlength="250" type="text" id="ModelAbc">
</div>
<!-- error message -->
<div class="controls help-block">This is the error validation message.</div>
<!-- error message -->
</div>
It's extra mark-up and not as neat as bootstrap but it's a quick fix. The alternative is to do each error message individually.
and it lines up nicely. I haven't discovered an easy way to make use of inline messages yet however.

Answer 5

Applying the same principle as above to the form->end function as follows:
<?php echo $this->Form->end(array(
'label' => __('Submit'),
'class' => 'btn',
'div' => array(
'class' => 'control-group',
),
'before' => '<div class="controls">',
'after' => '</div>'
));?>
To produce:
<div class="control-group">
<div class="controls">
<input class="btn" type="submit" value="Submit">
</div>
</div>

Answer 6

small add for another comments:
if you whant add class and change label base text, you can write next
<?php echo $this->Form->input('Fieldname', array(
'label' => array('class' => 'control-label','text'=>'HERE YOU LABEL TEXT')
)); ?>

Answer 7

I had the same problem using slywalker / cakephp-plugin-boost_cake, I open a ticket and he had it fix in a few hours, he updated to 1,03 and told me to use it like this
<?php echo $this->Form->input('email', array(
'label' => array(
'text' => __('Email:'),
),
'beforeInput' => '<div class="input-append">',
'afterInput' => '<span class="add-on"><i class="icon-envelope"></i></span></div>'
)); ?>
I hope it helps some one else too

Answer 8

To get it working with a horizontal form in bootstrap with bootswatch I had to use:
echo $this->Form->create(
'User',
array(
'action' => 'add',
'admin' => 'false',
'class' => 'form-horizontal',
'inputDefaults' => array(
'format' => array( 'before', 'label', 'between',
'input', 'error', 'after' ),
'class' => 'form-control',
'div' => array( 'class' => 'form-group' ),
'label' => array( 'class' => 'col-lg-2 control-label' ),
'between' => '<div class="col-lg-10">',
'after' => '</div>',
'error' => array( 'attributes' => array( 'wrap' => 'span',
'class' => 'text-danger' ) ),
)
)
);
Then you can just use it as normal:
echo $this->Form->input( 'User.username' );

Answer 9

Luc Franken posted this link in his comment: http://github.com/slywalker/cakephp-plugin-boost_cake
It took me a while to notice it, so for those who are still looking for the simplest solution:
Simply add the CakePHP Bootstrap plugin from GitHub and let the helper do the job for you!