CakePHP Default values for date select - php

Question

I have a set of selects for a date of birth:
<?php echo $this->Form->input('Profile.dob', array('label' => 'Date of Birth'
, 'dateFormat' => 'DMY'
, 'minYear' => date('Y') - 100
, 'maxYear' => date('Y') - 13)); ?>
and want to set the defaults to be the words "DAY MONTH YEAR" in the selects.
I have managed to do this with the gender with:
<?php echo $this->Form->input('Profile.gender', array('label' => 'Gender', 'type' => 'select',
'options' => array('Male'=>'Male','Female'=>'Female'),'empty'=>'Select Sex')); ?>
but I don't see how to do this with the automagic date input...
Can anyone help? Thanks

Answer 1

Simply add:
'selected'=>date('Y-m-d')
to your array of options.
That example will show the current date. If you need to have a static date, replace it as required. eg:
'selected'=>'2011-12-10'
Obviously for the date and time, use:
'selected'=>date('Y-m-d H:i:s')
or
'selected'=>'2011-12-10 11:13:45'

Answer 2

This way works:
<?php
echo $this->Form->input(
'Profile.dob',
array(
'label' => 'Date of Birth',
'dateFormat' => 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y') - 100,
'maxYear' => date('Y') - 13,
'empty' => array(
'day' => 'DAY',
'month' => 'MONTH',
'year' => 'YEAR'
)
)
);
?>

Answer 3

If you don't mind 2 more lines, you can try doing this?
<?php
echo $this->Form->year('Profile.dob', date('Y') - 100, date('Y') - 13, array('empty' => "YEAR"));
echo $this->Form->month('Profile.dob', array('empty' => "MONTH"));
echo $this->Form->day('Profile.dob', array('empty' => 'DAY'));
?>

Answer 4

I implemented it like this in cakephp 2.0 above
echo $this->Form->dateTime('dob', 'DMY','', array(
'value'=>'1987-02-12',
'empty'=>false,
'label'=>'Date Of Birth',
'minYear'=>date('Y')-60,
'maxYear'=>date('Y')-15)
);
'value' attribute has been added after 2.0 api of cakephp and 'selected' is remove.
Cakephp manual says :The $selected parameter was removed from several methods in FormHelper. All methods now support a $attributes['value'] key now which should be used in place of $selected. This change simplifies the FormHelper methods, reducing the number of arguments, and reduces the duplication that $selected created. The effected methods are:
FormHelper::select()
FormHelper::dateTime()
FormHelper::year()
FormHelper::month()
FormHelper::day()
FormHelper::hour()
FormHelper::minute()
FormHelper::meridian()

Answer 5

Also, are you really sure about what you really mean?
You seem to be confusing default value and empty value. If you set default value as DAY MONTH YEAR using 'selected', your code won't work because DAY MONTH YEAR isn't a valid date.
Using
'empty' => array(
'day' => 'DAY',
'month' =>'MONTH',
'year' =>'YEAR'
);
looks like what you're looking for, inviting the user to enter a date.

Answer 6

Cakephp set selected to the empty value if the corresponding date request data is null, therefore simply set it to null prior to echoing the date input fields:
$this->request->data['Profile']['dob'] = null;
echo $this->Form->month('Profile.dob', array('empty' => "MONTH"));
// do the same for year and day
the empty value (in your case "DATE", "MONTH", "YEAR" fields) will be pre-selected in the input form

Answer 7

This is what currently works for me in cakephp 2.5:
echo $this->Form->input('fecha_pos_fijacion', array(
'label' => 'Fecha de fijación',
'dateFormat' => 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y'),
'maxYear' => date('Y')+5,
'orderYear' => 'asc',
'selected' => date('Y-m-1')
)
);
This is a bit more elaborated, it'd give you a default value set to the 1st day of current month. Possible values for year are between current and 5 years ahead, displayed in ascending order.
Even more complete:
echo $this->Form->input('fecha_transporte', array(
'label' => '',
'dateFormat' => 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y'),
'maxYear' => date('Y')+5,
'orderYear' => 'asc',
'selected' => date('Y-m-1', strtotime("+30 days"))
)
);
Here default is 1st day of next month