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HTML

The role of the HtmlHelper in CakePHP is to make HTML-related options easier, faster, and more resilient to change. Using this helper will enable your application to be more light on its feet, and more flexible on where it is placed in relation to the root of a domain.

The HtmlHelper’s role has changed significantly since CakePHP 1.1. Form related methods have been deprecated and moved to the new FormHelper. If you’re looking for help with HTML forms, check out the new FormHelper.

Before we look at HtmlHelper’s methods, you’ll need to know about a few configuration and usage situations that will help you use this class. First in an effort to assuage those who dislike short tags (<?= ?>) or many echo() calls in their view code all methods of HtmlHelper are passed to the output() method. If you wish to enable automatic output of the generated helper HTML you can simply implement output() in your AppHelper.

function output($str) {
    echo $str;
}

Doing this will remove the need to add echo statements to your view code.

Many HtmlHelper methods also include a $htmlAttributes parameter, that allow you to tack on any extra attributes on your tags. Here are a few examples of how to use the $htmlAttributes parameter:

Desired attributes: <tag class="someClass" />
Array parameter: array('class'=>'someClass')

Desired attributes: <tag name="foo" value="bar" />
Array parameter:  array('name' => 'foo', 'value' => 'bar')

The HtmlHelper is available in all views by default. If you’re getting an error informing you that it isn’t there, it’s usually due to its name being missing from a manually configured $helpers controller variable.

Inserting Well-Formatted elements

The most important task the HtmlHelper accomplishes is creating well formed markup. Don’t be afraid to use it often - you can cache views in CakePHP in order to save some CPU cycles when views are being rendered and delivered. This section will cover some of the methods of the HtmlHelper and how to use them.

charset

charset(string $charset=null)

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

<?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'); ?>

Will output:

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

css

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'); ?>

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')); ?>

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

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"
/>

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"/>

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'));

docType

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">

style

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'
)); ?>

Will output:

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

image

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'))?>

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)
)); ?>

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
        )
);
?>

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.

tag

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">

div

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>

para

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>

tableHeaders

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>

tableCells

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>

url

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

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

URL with extension

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

// Output
/posts/list.rss

URL (starting with ‘/’) with the full base URL prepended.

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

//Output
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

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

Changing the tags output by HtmlHelper

The built in tag sets for HtmlHelper are XHTML compliant, however if you need to generate HTML for HTML4 you will need to create and load a new tags config file containing the tags you’d like to use. To change the tags used create app/config/tags.php containing:

$tags = array(
    'metalink' => '<link href="%s"%s >',
    'input' => '<input name="%s" %s >',
    //...
);

You can then load this tag set by calling $html->loadConfig('tags');