CakePHP Paginator Table Header Directional Icons

Question

I'm trying to implement a function to be able to add directional (up / down) icons next to each of the table headers for a pagination table within CakePHP.

My current code is as follows:

$sort_key = $this->Paginator->sortKey();
$type = $this->Paginator->sortDir() === 'asc' ? 'up' : 'down';

function sortArrows($key, $title, $sort_key, $type)
{

    $type_opposite = ($type === 'asc' ? 'down' : 'up');

    if($key == $sort_key)
    {
        $icon = "&nbsp;<i class='fa fa-angle-" . $type . "'></i>";
    }
    else
    {
        $icon = "&nbsp;<i class='fa fa-angle-" . $type_opposite  . "'></i>";
    }

    return "'$key', '$title' " . "$icon";
}

Which I am calling on the page as (on each of the table header fields):

<?php echo $this->Paginator->sort(sortArrows('street_suburb', 'Suburb', $sort_key, $type), array('escape' => false)); ?>

This produces the following error:

Notice (8): Array to string conversion [CORE/Cake/View/Helper/HtmlHelper.php, line 372]

I think I am quite close to what I need, I just cannot figure out what I am returning incorrectly from the function to get this to work.

Thanks

CakePHP already provides the sort arrow requirements in form of css classes you can leverage. No need to rebuilt the same this complicated with custom PHP code. — mark
Does it? I could't find anything about this on the cakephp docs. — sluggerdog
Yes, it automatically sets the asc/desc classes. Check the source code after paginating. This you can leverage - and is a more sane and advanced approach than injecting custom strings of HTML. — mark

lightbyte lightbyte · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-19T16:44:39

Inspired by your solution I have created a Helper extending PaginatorHelper to solve the problem.

Here is the code of file name MyPaginatorHelper.php:

<?php

namespace App\View\Helper;

use Cake\View\Helper\PaginatorHelper;
use Cake\Utility\Inflector;

class MyPaginatorHelper extends PaginatorHelper
{

    public function sort($key, $title = null, array $options = [])
    {
        if (empty($title)) {
            $title = $key;

            if (strpos($title, '.') !== false) {
                $title = str_replace('.', ' ', $title);
            }

            $title = __(Inflector::humanize(preg_replace('/_id$/', '', $title)));
        }

        $sortKey = $this->sortKey();
        if (strpos($sortKey, '.') !== false) {
            $sortKey = substr($sortKey, strpos($sortKey, '.')+1);
        }

        $sortDir = $this->sortDir() === 'asc' ? 'up' : 'down';

        if($key == $sortKey)
        {
            $title .= "&nbsp;<i class='fa fa-angle-" . $sortDir . "'></i>";
            $options['escape'] = false;
        }

        return parent::sort($key, $title, $options);
    }
}

To use this helper you have to add this line in the AppView::initialize() method:

$this->loadHelper('Paginator', ['className' => 'MyPaginator']);

And then all the Paginator->sort() calls will have this feature by default.

CakePHP Paginator Table Header Directional Icons

2 Answers