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charset(string $charset=null)

Used to create a meta tag specifying the document's character. Defaults to UTF-8.

 
<?php echo $html->charset(); ?> 

1. <?php echo $html->charset(); ?>

Will output:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

Alternatively,

<?php echo $html->charset('ISO-8859-1'); ?>

1. <?php echo $html->charset('ISO-8859-1'); ?>

Will output:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />

css(mixed $path, string $rel = null, array $htmlAttributes = array(), boolean $inline = true)

Creates a link(s) to a CSS style-sheet. If $inline is set to false, the link tags are added to the $scripts_for_layout variable which you can print inside the head tag of the document.

This method of CSS inclusion assumes that the CSS file specified resides inside the /app/webroot/css directory.

<?php echo $html->css('forms'); ?> 

1. <?php echo $html->css('forms'); ?>

Will output:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/forms.css" />

The first parameter can be an array to include multiple files.

<?php echo $html->css(array('forms','tables','menu')); ?>

1. <?php echo $html->css(array('forms','tables','menu')); ?>

Will output:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/forms.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/tables.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/menu.css" />

meta(string $type, string $url = null, array $attributes = array(), boolean $inline = true)

This method is handy for linking to external resources like RSS/Atom feeds and favicons. Like css(), you can specify whether or not you'd like this tag to appear inline or in the head tag using the fourth parameter.

If you set the "type" attribute using the $htmlAttributes parameter, CakePHP contains a few shortcuts:

type	translated value
html	text/html
rss	application/rss+xml
atom	application/atom+xml
icon	image/x-icon

  <?php echo $html->meta(
    'favicon.ico',
    '/favicon.ico',
    array('type' => 'icon')
);?> //Output (line breaks added) </p>
<link
    href="http://example.com/favicon.ico"
    title="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"
    rel="alternate"
/>
 
<?php echo $html->meta(
    'Comments',
    '/comments/index.rss',
    array('type' => 'rss'));
?>
 
//Output (line breaks added)
<link
    href="http://example.com/comments/index.rss"
    title="Comments"
    type="application/rss+xml"
    rel="alternate"
/>

1. <?php echo $html->meta(
2. 'favicon.ico',
3. '/favicon.ico',
4. array('type' => 'icon')
5. );?> //Output (line breaks added) </p>
6. <link
7. href="http://example.com/favicon.ico"
8. title="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"
9. rel="alternate"
10. />
12. <?php echo $html->meta(
13. 'Comments',
14. '/comments/index.rss',
15. array('type' => 'rss'));
16. ?>
18. //Output (line breaks added)
19. <link
20. href="http://example.com/comments/index.rss"
21. title="Comments"
22. type="application/rss+xml"
23. rel="alternate"
24. />

This method can also be used to add the meta keywords and descriptions. Example:

<?php echo $html->meta(
    'keywords',
    'enter any meta keyword here'
);?>
//Output <meta name="keywords" content="enter any meta keyword here"/>
//

<?php echo $html->meta(
    'description',
    'enter any meta description here'
   );?> 

//Output <meta name="description" content="enter any meta description here"/>

1. <?php echo $html->meta(
2. 'keywords',
3. 'enter any meta keyword here'
4. );?>
5. //Output <meta name="keywords" content="enter any meta keyword here"/>
6. //
7. <?php echo $html->meta(
8. 'description',
9. 'enter any meta description here'
10. );?>
11. //Output <meta name="description" content="enter any meta description here"/>

If you want to add a custom meta tag then the first parameter should be set to an array. To output a robots noindex tag use the following code:

 echo $html->meta(array('name' => 'robots', 'content' => 'noindex')); 

1. echo $html->meta(array('name' => 'robots', 'content' => 'noindex'));

docType(string $type = 'xhtml-strict')

Returns a (X)HTML doctype tag. Supply the doctype according to the following table:

type	translated value
html	text/html
html4-strict	HTML4 Strict
html4-trans	HTML4 Transitional
html4-frame	HTML4 Frameset
xhtml-strict	XHTML1 Strict
xhtml-trans	XHTML1 Transitional
xhtml-frame	XHTML1 Frameset
xhtml11	XHTML 1.1

<?php echo $html->docType(); ?> 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<?php echo $html->docType('html4-trans'); ?> 
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

1. <?php echo $html->docType(); ?>
2. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
3. <?php echo $html->docType('html4-trans'); ?>
4. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

style(array $data, boolean $inline = true)

Builds CSS style definitions based on the keys and values of the array passed to the method. Especially handy if your CSS file is dynamic.

<?php echo $html->style(array(
    'background'     => '#633',
    'border-bottom' => '1px solid #000',
    'padding' => '10px'
)); ?>

1. <?php echo $html->style(array(
2. 'background' => '#633',
3. 'border-bottom' => '1px solid #000',
4. 'padding' => '10px'
5. )); ?>

Will output:

  background:#633;
  border-bottom:1px solid #000;
  padding:10px; 

image(string $path, array $htmlAttributes = array())

Creates a formatted image tag. The path supplied should be relative to /app/webroot/img/.

<?php echo $html->image('cake_logo.png', array('alt' => 'CakePHP'))?> 

1. <?php echo $html->image('cake_logo.png', array('alt' => 'CakePHP'))?>

Will output:

<img src="/img/cake_logo.png" alt="CakePHP" /> 

To create an image link specify the link destination using the url option in $htmlAttributes.

<?php echo $html->image("recipes/6.jpg", array(
    "alt" => "Brownies",
    'url' => array('controller' => 'recipes', 'action' => 'view', 6)
)); ?>

1. <?php echo $html->image("recipes/6.jpg", array(
2. "alt" => "Brownies",
3. 'url' => array('controller' => 'recipes', 'action' => 'view', 6)
4. )); ?>

Will output:

<a href="/recipes/view/6">
    <img src="/img/recipes/6.jpg" alt="Brownies" />
</a>

You can also use this alternate method to create an image link, by assigning the image to a variable (e.g. $image), and passing it to $html->link() as the first argument:

    <?php
    $image = $html->image('recipes/6.jpg', array(
                'alt' => 'Brownies',
            ));

    //$image is passed as the first argument instead of link text
    echo $html->link($image, array(
            'controller' => 'recipies',
            'action' => 'view',
            6
            ),
            array(
                'escape' => false //important so htmlHelper doesn't escape you image link
            )
    );
    ?>

1. <?php
2. $image = $html->image('recipes/6.jpg', array(
3. 'alt' => 'Brownies',
4. ));
5. //$image is passed as the first argument instead of link text
6. echo $html->link($image, array(
7. 'controller' => 'recipies',
8. 'action' => 'view',
9. 6
10. ),
11. array(
12. 'escape' => false //important so htmlHelper doesn't escape you image link
13. )
14. );
15. ?>

This is useful if you want to keep your link and image a bit more separate, or if you want to sneak some markup into your link. Be sure to pass 'escape' => false in the options array for $html->link($string, $url, $options) to prevent htmlHelper from escaping the code.

link(string $title, mixed $url = null, array $htmlAttributes = array(), string $confirmMessage = false, boolean $escapeTitle = true)

General purpose method for creating HTML links. Use $htmlAttributes to specify attributes for the element.

<?php echo $html->link('Enter', '/pages/home', array('class'=>'button','target'=>'_blank')); ?>

1. <?php echo $html->link('Enter', '/pages/home', array('class'=>'button','target'=>'_blank')); ?>

Will output:

  
<a href="/pages/home" class="button" target="_blank">Enter</a>

Specify $confirmMessage to display a javascript confirm() dialog.

<?php echo $html->link(
    'Delete',
    array('controller'=>'recipes', 'action'=>'delete', 6),
    array(),
    "Are you sure you wish to delete this recipe?"
);?>

1. <?php echo $html->link(
2. 'Delete',
3. array('controller'=>'recipes', 'action'=>'delete', 6),
4. array(),
5. "Are you sure you wish to delete this recipe?"
6. );?>

Will output:

  
<a href="/recipes/delete/6" onclick="return confirm('Are you sure you wish to delete this recipe?');">Delete</a>

Query strings can also be created with link().

<?php echo $html->link('View image', array(
    'controller' => 'images',
    'action' => 'view',
    1,
    '?' => array( 'height' => 400, 'width' => 500))
);

1. <?php echo $html->link('View image', array(
2. 'controller' => 'images',
3. 'action' => 'view',
4. 1,
5. '?' => array( 'height' => 400, 'width' => 500))
6. );

Will output:

  
<a href="/images/view/1?height=400&width=500">View image</a>

HTML special characters in $title will be converted to HTML entities. To disable this conversion, set the escape option to false in the $htmlAttributes, or set $escapeTitle to false.

<?php 
echo $html->link(
    $html->image("recipes/6.jpg", array("alt" => "Brownies")),
    "recipes/view/6",
    array('escape'=>false)
);

echo $html->link(
    $html->image("recipes/6.jpg", array("alt" => "Brownies")),
    "recipes/view/6",
    null, null, false
);
?>

1. <?php
2. echo $html->link(
3. $html->image("recipes/6.jpg", array("alt" => "Brownies")),
4. "recipes/view/6",
5. array('escape'=>false)
6. );
7. echo $html->link(
8. $html->image("recipes/6.jpg", array("alt" => "Brownies")),
9. "recipes/view/6",
10. null, null, false
11. );
12. ?>

Both will output:

<a href="/recipes/view/6">
    <img src="/img/recipes/6.jpg" alt="Brownies" />
</a>

Also check HtmlHelper::url method for more examples of different types of urls.

tag(string $tag, string $text, array $htmlAttributes, boolean $escape = false)

Returns text wrapped in a specified tag. If no text is specified then only the opening <tag> is returned.

<?php echo $html->tag('span', 'Hello World.', array('class' => 'welcome'));?>
 
//Output
<span class="welcome">Hello World</span>
 
//No text specified.
<?php echo $html->tag('span', null, array('class' => 'welcome'));?>
 
//Output
<span class="welcome">

1. <?php echo $html->tag('span', 'Hello World.', array('class' => 'welcome'));?>
3. //Output
4. <span class="welcome">Hello World</span>
6. //No text specified.
7. <?php echo $html->tag('span', null, array('class' => 'welcome'));?>
9. //Output
10. <span class="welcome">

div(string $class, string $text, array $htmlAttributes, boolean $escape = false)

Used for creating div-wrapped sections of markup. The first parameter specifies a CSS class, and the second is used to supply the text to be wrapped by div tags. If the last parameter has been set to true, $text will be printed HTML-escaped.

If no text is specified, only an opening div tag is returned.

 
<?php echo $html->div('error', 'Please enter your credit card number.');?>

//Output
<div class="error">Please enter your credit card number.</div>

1. <?php echo $html->div('error', 'Please enter your credit card number.');?>
2.  
3. //Output
4. <div class="error">Please enter your credit card number.</div>

para(string $class, string $text, array $htmlAttributes, boolean $escape = false)

Returns a text wrapped in a CSS-classed <p> tag. If no text is supplied, only a starting <p> tag is returned.

<?php echo $html->para(null, 'Hello World.');?>
 
//Output
<p>Hello World.</p>

1. <?php echo $html->para(null, 'Hello World.');?>
3. //Output
4. <p>Hello World.</p>

tableHeaders(array $names, array $trOptions = null, array $thOptions = null)

Creates a row of table header cells to be placed inside of <table> tags.

<?php echo $html->tableHeaders(array('Date','Title','Active'));?> //Output 
<tr><th>Date</th><th>Title</th><th>Active</th></tr>
 
<?php echo $html->tableHeaders(
    array('Date','Title','Active'),
    array('class' => 'status'),
    array('class' => 'product_table')
);?>
 
//Output
<tr class="status">
     <th class="product_table">Date</th>
     <th class="product_table">Title</th>
     <th class="product_table">Active</th>
</tr>

1. <?php echo $html->tableHeaders(array('Date','Title','Active'));?> //Output
2. <tr><th>Date</th><th>Title</th><th>Active</th></tr>
4. <?php echo $html->tableHeaders(
5. array('Date','Title','Active'),
6. array('class' => 'status'),
7. array('class' => 'product_table')
8. );?>
10. //Output
11. <tr class="status">
12. <th class="product_table">Date</th>
13. <th class="product_table">Title</th>
14. <th class="product_table">Active</th>
15. </tr>

tableCells(array $data, array $oddTrOptions = null, array $evenTrOptions = null, $useCount = false, $continueOddEven = true)

Creates table cells, in rows, assigning <tr> attributes differently for odd- and even-numbered rows. Wrap a single table cell within an array() for specific <td>-attributes.

<?php echo $html->tableCells(array(
    array('Jul 7th, 2007', 'Best Brownies', 'Yes'),
    array('Jun 21st, 2007', 'Smart Cookies', 'Yes'),
    array('Aug 1st, 2006', 'Anti-Java Cake', 'No'),
));
?>
 
//Output
<tr><td>Jul 7th, 2007</td><td>Best Brownies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jun 21st, 2007</td><td>Smart Cookies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>Aug 1st, 2006</td><td>Anti-Java Cake</td><td>No</td></tr>
 
<?php echo $html->tableCells(array(
    array('Jul 7th, 2007', array('Best Brownies', array('class'=>'highlight')) , 'Yes'),
    array('Jun 21st, 2007', 'Smart Cookies', 'Yes'),
    array('Aug 1st, 2006', 'Anti-Java Cake', array('No', array('id'=>'special'))),
));
?>
 
//Output
<tr><td>Jul 7th, 2007</td><td class="highlight">Best Brownies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jun 21st, 2007</td><td>Smart Cookies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>Aug 1st, 2006</td><td>Anti-Java Cake</td><td id="special">No</td></tr>
 
<?php echo $html->tableCells(
    array(
        array('Red', 'Apple'),
        array('Orange', 'Orange'),
        array('Yellow', 'Banana'),
    ),
    array('class' => 'darker')
);
?>
 
//Output
<tr class="darker"><td>Red</td><td>Apple</td></tr>
<tr><td>Orange</td><td>Orange</td></tr>
<tr class="darker"><td>Yellow</td><td>Banana</td></tr>

1. <?php echo $html->tableCells(array(
2. array('Jul 7th, 2007', 'Best Brownies', 'Yes'),
3. array('Jun 21st, 2007', 'Smart Cookies', 'Yes'),
4. array('Aug 1st, 2006', 'Anti-Java Cake', 'No'),
5. ));
6. ?>
8. //Output
9. <tr><td>Jul 7th, 2007</td><td>Best Brownies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
10. <tr><td>Jun 21st, 2007</td><td>Smart Cookies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
11. <tr><td>Aug 1st, 2006</td><td>Anti-Java Cake</td><td>No</td></tr>
13. <?php echo $html->tableCells(array(
14. array('Jul 7th, 2007', array('Best Brownies', array('class'=>'highlight')) , 'Yes'),
15. array('Jun 21st, 2007', 'Smart Cookies', 'Yes'),
16. array('Aug 1st, 2006', 'Anti-Java Cake', array('No', array('id'=>'special'))),
17. ));
18. ?>
20. //Output
21. <tr><td>Jul 7th, 2007</td><td class="highlight">Best Brownies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
22. <tr><td>Jun 21st, 2007</td><td>Smart Cookies</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
23. <tr><td>Aug 1st, 2006</td><td>Anti-Java Cake</td><td id="special">No</td></tr>
25. <?php echo $html->tableCells(
26. array(
27. array('Red', 'Apple'),
28. array('Orange', 'Orange'),
29. array('Yellow', 'Banana'),
30. ),
31. array('class' => 'darker')
32. );
33. ?>
35. //Output
36. <tr class="darker"><td>Red</td><td>Apple</td></tr>
37. <tr><td>Orange</td><td>Orange</td></tr>
38. <tr class="darker"><td>Yellow</td><td>Banana</td></tr>

url(mixed $url = NULL, boolean $full = false)

Returns an URL pointing to a combination of controller and action. If $url is empty, it returns the REQUEST_URI, otherwise it generates the url for the controller and action combo. If full is true, the full base URL will be prepended to the result.

<?php echo $html->url(array(
    "controller" => "posts",
    "action" => "view",
    "bar"));?>
 
// Output
/posts/view/bar

1. <?php echo $html->url(array(
2. "controller" => "posts",
3. "action" => "view",
4. "bar"));?>
6. // Output
7. /posts/view/bar

Here are a few more usage examples:

URL with named parameters

<?php echo $html->url(array(
    "controller" => "posts",
    "action" => "view",
    "foo" => "bar"));
?>
 
// Output
/posts/view/foo:bar

1. <?php echo $html->url(array(
2. "controller" => "posts",
3. "action" => "view",
4. "foo" => "bar"));
5. ?>
7. // Output
8. /posts/view/foo:bar

URL with extension

<?php echo $html->url(array(
    "controller" => "posts",
    "action" => "list",
    "ext" => "rss"));
?>
 
// Output
/posts/list.rss

1. <?php echo $html->url(array(
2. "controller" => "posts",
3. "action" => "list",
4. "ext" => "rss"));
5. ?>
7. // Output
8. /posts/list.rss

URL (starting with '/') with the full base URL prepended.

<?php echo $html->url('/posts', true); ?>

//Output
http://somedomain.com/posts

1. <?php echo $html->url('/posts', true); ?>
2.  
3. //Output
4. http://somedomain.com/posts

URL with GET params and named anchor

<?php echo $html->url(array(
    "controller" => "posts",
    "action" => "search",
    "?" => array("foo" => "bar"),
    "#" => "first"));
?>

//Output
/posts/search?foo=bar#first

1. <?php echo $html->url(array(
2. "controller" => "posts",
3. "action" => "search",
4. "?" => array("foo" => "bar"),
5. "#" => "first"));
6. ?>
7.  
8. //Output
9. /posts/search?foo=bar#first

For further information check Router::url in the API.