Class Helper

Abstract base class for all other Helpers in CakePHP. Provides common methods and features.

Object
Extended by Helper

Direct known subclasses

AppHelper, InterceptContentHelper

Indirect known subclasses

CacheHelper, FlashHelper, PrototypeEngineHelper, RssHelper, SessionHelper, TextHelper, TimeHelper, FormHelper, HtmlHelper, JqueryEngineHelper, JsBaseEngineHelper, JsHelper, MootoolsEngineHelper, NumberHelper, PaginatorHelper
Package: Cake\View
Copyright: Copyright (c) Cake Software Foundation, Inc. (http://cakefoundation.org)
License: MIT License
Located at Cake/View/Helper.php

Method Detail

__callsource public

__call( string $method , array $params )

Provide non fatal errors on missing method calls.

Parameters

string $method
Method to invoke
array $params
Array of params for the method.

__constructsource public

__construct( View $View , array $settings array() )

Default Constructor

Parameters

View $View
The View this helper is being attached to.
array $settings optional array()
Configuration settings for the helper.

Overrides

Object::__construct()

__getsource public

__get( string $name )

Lazy loads helpers. Provides access to deprecated request properties as well.

Deprecated

3.0.0 Accessing request properties through this method is deprecated and will be removed in 3.0.

Parameters

string $name
Name of the property being accessed.

Returns

mixed
Helper or property found at $name

__setsource public

__set( string $name , mixed $value )

Provides backwards compatibility access for setting values to the request object.

Deprecated

3.0.0 This method will be removed in 3.0

Parameters

string $name
Name of the property being accessed.
mixed $value
Value to set.

_cleansource protected

_clean( )

Removes harmful content from output

_confirmsource protected

_confirm( string $message , string $okCode , string $cancelCode '' , array $options array() )

Returns a string to be used as onclick handler for confirm dialogs.

Parameters

string $message
Message to be displayed
string $okCode
Code to be executed after user chose 'OK'
string $cancelCode optional ''
Code to be executed after user chose 'Cancel'
array $options optional array()
Array of options

Returns

string
onclick JS code

_encodeUrlsource protected

_encodeUrl( string $url )

Encodes a URL for use in HTML attributes.

Parameters

string $url
The URL to encode.

Returns

string
The URL encoded for both URL & HTML contexts.

_formatAttributesource protected

_formatAttribute( string $key , string $value , boolean $escape true )

Formats an individual attribute, and returns the string value of the composed attribute. Works with minimized attributes that have the same value as their name such as 'disabled' and 'checked'

Deprecated

3.0.0 This method will be moved to HtmlHelper in 3.0

Parameters

string $key
The name of the attribute to create
string $value
The value of the attribute to create.
boolean $escape optional true
Define if the value must be escaped

Returns

string
The composed attribute.

_initInputFieldsource protected

_initInputField( string $field , array $options array() )

Sets the defaults for an input tag. Will set the name, value, and id attributes for an array of html attributes.

Parameters

string $field
The field name to initialize.
array $options optional array()
Array of options to use while initializing an input field.

Returns

array
Array options for the form input.

_namesource protected

_name( array|string $options array() , string $field null , string $key 'name' )

Gets the input field name for the current tag. Creates input name attributes using CakePHP's data[Model][field] formatting.

Parameters

array|string $options optional array()
If an array, should be an array of attributes that $key needs to be added to. If a string or null, will be used as the View entity.
string $field optional null
Field name.
string $key optional 'name'
The name of the attribute to be set, defaults to 'name'

Returns

mixed
If an array was given for $options, an array with $key set will be returned. If a string was supplied a string will be returned.

_parseAttributessource protected

_parseAttributes( array $options , array $exclude null , string $insertBefore ' ' , string $insertAfter null )

Returns a space-delimited string with items of the $options array. If a key of $options array happens to be one of those listed in Helper::$_minimizedAttributes

And its value is one of:

  • '1' (string)
  • 1 (integer)
  • true (boolean)
  • 'true' (string)

Then the value will be reset to be identical with key's name. If the value is not one of these 3, the parameter is not output.

'escape' is a special option in that it controls the conversion of attributes to their html-entity encoded equivalents. Set to false to disable html-encoding.

If value for any option key is set to null or false, that option will be excluded from output.

Deprecated

3.0.0 This method will be moved to HtmlHelper in 3.0

Parameters

array $options
Array of options.
array $exclude optional null
Array of options to be excluded, the options here will not be part of the return.
string $insertBefore optional ' '
String to be inserted before options.
string $insertAfter optional null
String to be inserted after options.

Returns

string
Composed attributes.

_resetsource protected

_reset( )

Resets the vars used by Helper::clean() to null

_selectedArraysource protected

_selectedArray( string|array $data , string $key 'id' )

Transforms a recordset from a hasAndBelongsToMany association to a list of selected options for a multiple select element

Parameters

string|array $data
Data array or model name.
string $key optional 'id'
Field name.

Returns

array
array

addClasssource public

addClass( array $options array() , string $class null , string $key 'class' )

Adds the given class to the element options

Parameters

array $options optional array()
Array options/attributes to add a class to
string $class optional null
The class name being added.
string $key optional 'class'
the key to use for class.

Returns

array
Array of options with $key set.

afterLayoutsource public

afterLayout( string $layoutFile )

After layout callback. afterLayout is called after the layout has rendered.

Overridden in subclasses.

Parameters

string $layoutFile
The layout file that was rendered.

afterRendersource public

afterRender( string $viewFile )

After render callback. afterRender is called after the view file is rendered but before the layout has been rendered.

Overridden in subclasses.

Parameters

string $viewFile
The view file that was rendered.

afterRenderFilesource public

afterRenderFile( string $viewFile , string $content )

After render file callback. Called after any view fragment is rendered.

Overridden in subclasses.

Parameters

string $viewFile
The file just be rendered.
string $content
The content that was rendered.

assetTimestampsource public

assetTimestamp( string $path )

Adds a timestamp to a file based resource based on the value of Asset.timestamp in Configure. If Asset.timestamp is true and debug > 0, or Asset.timestamp === 'force' a timestamp will be added.

Parameters

string $path
The file path to timestamp, the path must be inside WWW_ROOT

Returns

string
Path with a timestamp added, or not.

assetUrlsource public

assetUrl( string|array $path , array $options array() )

Generate URL for given asset file. Depending on options passed provides full URL with domain name. Also calls Helper::assetTimestamp() to add timestamp to local files

Parameters

string|array $path
Path string or URL array
array $options optional array()
Options array. Possible keys: fullBase Return full URL with domain name pathPrefix Path prefix for relative URLs ext Asset extension to append plugin False value will prevent parsing path as a plugin

Returns

string
Generated URL

beforeLayoutsource public

beforeLayout( string $layoutFile )

Before layout callback. beforeLayout is called before the layout is rendered.

Overridden in subclasses.

Parameters

string $layoutFile
The layout about to be rendered.

beforeRendersource public

beforeRender( string $viewFile )

Before render callback. beforeRender is called before the view file is rendered.

Overridden in subclasses.

Parameters

string $viewFile
The view file that is going to be rendered

beforeRenderFilesource public

beforeRenderFile( string $viewFile )

Before render file callback. Called before any view fragment is rendered.

Overridden in subclasses.

Parameters

string $viewFile
The file about to be rendered.

cleansource public

clean( string|array $output )

Used to remove harmful tags from content. Removes a number of well known XSS attacks from content. However, is not guaranteed to remove all possibilities. Escaping content is the best way to prevent all possible attacks.

Deprecated

3.0.0 This method will be removed in 3.0

Parameters

string|array $output
Either an array of strings to clean or a single string to clean.

Returns

string|array|null
Cleaned content for output

domIdsource public

domId( array|string $options null , string $id 'id' )

Generates a DOM ID for the selected element, if one is not set. Uses the current View::entity() settings to generate a CamelCased id attribute.

Parameters

array|string $options optional null
Either an array of html attributes to add $id into, or a string with a view entity path to get a domId for.
string $id optional 'id'
The name of the 'id' attribute.

Returns

mixed
If $options was an array, an array will be returned with $id set. If a string was supplied, a string will be returned.

entitysource public

entity( )

Returns the entity reference of the current context as an array of identity parts

Returns

array
An array containing the identity elements of an entity

fieldsource public

field( )

Gets the currently-used model field of the rendering context. Strips off field suffixes such as year, month, day, hour, min, meridian when the current entity is longer than 2 elements.

Returns

string
string

modelsource public

model( )

Gets the currently-used model of the rendering context.

Returns

string
string

outputsource public

output( string $str )

Returns a string generated by a helper method

This method can be overridden in subclasses to do generalized output post-processing

Deprecated

3.0.0 This method will be removed in future versions.

Parameters

string $str
String to be output.

Returns

string
string

setEntitysource public

setEntity( string $entity , boolean $setScope false )

Sets this helper's model and field properties to the dot-separated value-pair in $entity.

Parameters

string $entity
A field name, like "ModelName.fieldName" or "ModelName.ID.fieldName"
boolean $setScope optional false
Sets the view scope to the model specified in $tagValue

urlsource public

url( string|array $url null , boolean $full false )

Finds URL for specified action.

Returns a URL pointing at the provided parameters.

Parameters

string|array $url optional null
Either a relative string url like /products/view/23 or an array of URL parameters. Using an array for URLs will allow you to leverage the reverse routing features of CakePHP.
boolean $full optional false
If true, the full base URL will be prepended to the result

Returns

string
Full translated URL with base path.

Link

http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/views/helpers.html

valuesource public

value( array|string $options array() , string $field null , string $key 'value' )

Gets the data for the current tag

Parameters

array|string $options optional array()
If an array, should be an array of attributes that $key needs to be added to. If a string or null, will be used as the View entity.
string $field optional null
Field name.
string $key optional 'value'
The name of the attribute to be set, defaults to 'value'

Returns

mixed
If an array was given for $options, an array with $key set will be returned. If a string was supplied a string will be returned.

webrootsource public

webroot( string $file )

Checks if a file exists when theme is used, if no file is found default location is returned

Parameters

string $file
The file to create a webroot path to.

Returns

string
Web accessible path to file.

Methods inherited from Object

_mergeVarssource protected

_mergeVars( array $properties , string $class , boolean $normalize true )

Merges this objects $property with the property in $class' definition. This classes value for the property will be merged on top of $class'

This provides some of the DRY magic CakePHP provides. If you want to shut it off, redefine this method as an empty function.

Parameters

array $properties
The name of the properties to merge.
string $class
The class to merge the property with.
boolean $normalize optional true
Set to true to run the properties through Hash::normalize() before merging.

_setsource protected

_set( array $properties array() )

Allows setting of multiple properties of the object in a single line of code. Will only set properties that are part of a class declaration.

Parameters

array $properties optional array()
An associative array containing properties and corresponding values.

_stopsource protected

_stop( integer|string $status 0 )

Stop execution of the current script. Wraps exit() making testing easier.

Parameters

integer|string $status optional 0
see http://php.net/exit for values

dispatchMethodsource public

dispatchMethod( string $method , array $params array() )

Calls a method on this object with the given parameters. Provides an OO wrapper for call_user_func_array

Parameters

string $method
Name of the method to call
array $params optional array()
Parameter list to use when calling $method

Returns

mixed
Returns the result of the method call

logsource public

log( string $msg , integer $type LOG_ERR , null|string|array $scope null )

Convenience method to write a message to CakeLog. See CakeLog::write() for more information on writing to logs.

Parameters

string $msg
Log message
integer $type optional LOG_ERR
Error type constant. Defined in app/Config/core.php.
null|string|array $scope optional null
The scope(s) a log message is being created in. See CakeLog::config() for more information on logging scopes.

Returns

boolean
Success of log write

requestActionsource public

requestAction( string|array $url , array $extra array() )

Calls a controller's method from any location. Can be used to connect controllers together or tie plugins into a main application. requestAction can be used to return rendered views or fetch the return value from controller actions.

Under the hood this method uses Router::reverse() to convert the $url parameter into a string URL. You should use URL formats that are compatible with Router::reverse()

Passing POST and GET data

POST and GET data can be simulated in requestAction. Use $extra['url'] for GET data. The $extra['data'] parameter allows POST data simulation.

Parameters

string|array $url
String or array-based URL. Unlike other URL arrays in CakePHP, this URL will not automatically handle passed and named arguments in the $url parameter.
array $extra optional array()
if array includes the key "return" it sets the AutoRender to true. Can also be used to submit GET/POST data, and named/passed arguments.

Returns

mixed
Boolean true or false on success/failure, or contents of rendered action if 'return' is set in $extra.

toStringsource public

toString( )

Object-to-string conversion. Each class can override this method as necessary.

Returns

string
The name of this class

Properties summary

$_Viewsource

protected View

The View instance this helper is attached to

$_associationsource

protected string

The name of the current model association entities are in scope of.

See

Helper::setEntity()

$_attributeFormatsource

protected string

Format to attribute

'%s="%s"'

$_cleanedsource

protected mixed

Holds the cleaned content.

null

$_entityPathsource

protected string

The dot separated list of elements the current field entity is for.

See

Helper::setEntity()

$_fieldSuffixessource

protected array

A list of strings that should be treated as suffixes, or sub inputs for a parent input. This is used for date/time inputs primarily.

array(
    'year', 'month', 'day', 'hour', 'min', 'second', 'meridian'
)

$_helperMapsource

protected array

A helper lookup table used to lazy load helper objects.

array()

$_minimizedAttributeFormatsource

protected string

Format to attribute

'%s="%s"'

$_minimizedAttributessource

protected array

Minimized attributes

array(
    'allowfullscreen',
    'async',
    'autofocus',
    'autoplay',
    'checked',
    'compact',
    'controls',
    'declare',
    'default',
    'defaultchecked',
    'defaultmuted',
    'defaultselected',
    'defer',
    'disabled',
    'enabled',
    'formnovalidate',
    'hidden',
    'indeterminate',
    'inert',
    'ismap',
    'itemscope',
    'loop',
    'multiple',
    'muted',
    'nohref',
    'noresize',
    'noshade',
    'novalidate',
    'nowrap',
    'open',
    'pauseonexit',
    'readonly',
    'required',
    'reversed',
    'scoped',
    'seamless',
    'selected',
    'sortable',
    'spellcheck',
    'truespeed',
    'typemustmatch',
    'visible'
)

$_modelScopesource

protected string

The name of the current model entities are in scope of.

See

Helper::setEntity()

$_taintedsource

protected mixed

Holds the content to be cleaned.

null

$fieldsetsource

public array

Holds the fields array('field_name' => array('type' => 'string', 'length' => 100), primaryKey and validates array('field_name')

array()

$helperssource

public array

List of helpers used by this helper

array()

$pluginsource

public string

Plugin path

null

$requestsource

public CakeRequest

Request object

null

$settingssource

public array

Settings for this helper.

array()

$tagssource

public array

Holds tag templates.

array()

$themesource

public string

The current theme name if any.

null

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http://api.cakephp.org/2.7/class-Helper.html