Custom label text in cakephp

Question

I want to get two field values from a database table and combine them together and use that as the display text in the label. Also I want to make another field value in the table as the label id.

The AgeCat table stores the different age categories. The table definition is

age_cat_id ---> primary key
range_start
range_end

e.g:

age_cat_id=>1
range_start=>18
range_end=>24

What I want is to have the label text set as '"range_start" to "range_end"' e.g: '18 to 24'

and the label id to be the age_cat_id.

What is the proper way to format the label text to display as above? I have retrieved all the records of the AgeCat table, and stored them in a string array ($agecats) using find(all). I'm having trouble retrieving values from that array and then format it according to above way and set as the label text. Please suggest if there is a better way to do this.

The purpose of this is to display each record in the AgeCat table following the format of 'range_start to range_end' but having their value set as the corresponding age_cat_id. E.g: 18 to 24 is displayed using some form element but the value should be 1. It's like having a drop down list with custom strings, but each linked to a unique value. So once an option is selected, the value is passed, not the string.

If the label is not good enough, what form element is suitable for this?

L. Sanna L. Sanna · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-30T15:20:50

Virtual fields:cakephp documentation.

public $virtualFields = array(
'cat_date' => 'CONCAT(AgeCat.range_start, " to ", AgeCat.range_end)'
);

P.S.: according to Cakephp conventions the primary key should be named id.

Edit: take a look there: form helper

echo $this->Form->select('id', $cat_date)

In the controller something like this:

$cat_date=$this->Model->find('list',array('fields'=>array('id','cat_name')));

with $cat_date an array containing the desired values in the select.

Custom label text in cakephp

1 Answers