BasicTableHelper

A very basic Helper for CakePHP2.4 that creates HTML tables from Models.

Instructions

When showing results stored in a Model in CakePHP sometimes you will need to iterate through the rows in the model with code like this:

<?php foreach ($model as $row): ?>
<tr>
	<td><?php echo ..?>&nbsp;</td>
	<td><?php echo ..?>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>

However, this is a long and error-prone task. Furthermore, if you need to modify the class attribute in table, rows or cells frequent changes will be necesary. Replace all your loops with a single call to this TableHelper as shown:

$options=array(
	"modelname"=>"Users",
	"results"=>$results_model_obtained_in_controller,
	"fields"=>array("id", "username"),
	"labels"=>array("Public ID", "User"),
	"row_class"=>array("row", "user_row"),
	"table_class"=>array("a_table", "users_table")
);
	$this->Table->render($options);

Mandatory keys

The modelname and results keys are mandatory:

• modelname stores the name of the model we want to show as a table. Remember that CakePHP retrieve not only results but also related rows from a database. In case your model contains many sub-models this option will make this Helper which one should be used in order to create a table.

• results is the model that stores results extracted by the Controller class.

Optional keys

• fields is used to show only certain fields of the model.
• labels makes the table to show this labels instead of column names.
• row_class allows certain classes to be applied to rows.
• table_class applies these classes to the tables.