ChosenHelper for CakePHP 2

ChosenHelper is a class for integrating HarvestHQ Chosen select boxes in CakePHP 2. Check out HarvestHQ's demo for documentation and usage.

Changelog

A Changelog Wiki page is now available. Review it carefully to make sure you do not upgrade permaturely. For example: the latest version (2.1.0) includes a backwards compatability break with CakePHP 2.0.x.

Installation

Chosen CakePHP 2 plugin supports Composer and Packagist. After you download composer.phar and put it in your path:

Composer will take care of installing the plugin into the correct location. Include the following composer.json file at path/to/app

{
    "require": {
        "paulredmond/chosen-cakephp": "*"
    }
}

Use a sensible stable version for the plugin. The above '*' is only intended as an example.

cd path/to/app
php composer.phar install

Bootstrap the plugin in app/Config/bootstrap.php:

<?php

// ...

CakePlugin::load('Chosen');

?>

Optional webroot symlink

cd /path/to/app/webroot
ln -s ../Plugin/Chosen/webroot chosen

Setup

In /app/Controller/AppController.php:

<?php

public $helpers = array(
    'Chosen.Chosen',
);

Out of the box, the ChosenHelper will work with jQuery; but you might want prototype or a custom class:

<?php

public $helpers = array(
    'Chosen.Chosen' => array(
        'framework' => 'prototype',
        'class'     => 'chosen-custom', // Deselect-enabled class would be 'chosen-custom-deselect'
    ),
);

Now all classes rendered with the helper, or other <select> inputs with your configured class will be targeted.

JQuery / Prototype

Make sure that you are loading JQuery (1.4+) or Prototype however you want:

<?php

// One way in In default.ctp
echo $this->Html->script('jquery'); // sets src to /js/jquery.js

• Note: Chosen CSS/JS files are only loaded if the helper select method is called at least once.*

Testing

You can run tests for Chosen with phpunit from the app folder. Learn more about Testing in CakePHP 2

Ensure that you have installed the vendor dependencies for this plugin through composer or some other means.

./Console/cake testsuite Chosen View/Helper/ChosenHelper

Examples

Chosen inputs behave identically to the FormHelper::input() method.

Multi-select:

<?php
echo $this->Chosen->select(
    'Article.category_id',
    array(1 => 'Category 1', 2 => 'Category 2'),
    array('data-placeholder' => 'Pick categories...', 'multiple' => true)
);
?>

Default selected:

<?php
echo $this->Chosen->select(
    'Article.category_id',
    array(1 => 'Category 1', 2 => 'Category 2'),
    array(
        'data-placeholder' => 'Pick categories...',
        'default' => 1,
    ) 
);
?>

Grouped:

<?php
echo $this->Chosen->select(
    'Profile.favorite_team',
    array(
        'NFC East' => array(
            'Dallas Cowboys',
            'New York Giants',
            'Philadelphia Eagles',
            'Washington Redskins'
        ),
        'NFC North' => array(
            'Chicago Bears',
            'Detroit Lions',
            'Greenbay Packers',
            'Minnesota Vikings'
        ),
        // ....
    ),
    array(
        'data-placeholder' => 'Pick your favorite NFL team...',
        'style' => 'width: 350px'
    )
);
?>

Deselect on Single Select:

<?=
$this->Chosen->select(
    'Profile.optional',
    $options,
    array('data-placeholder' => 'Please select...', 'deselect' => true),
);
?>

Do not use 'empty' => 'Please Select...' attribute with deselect, use 'data-placeholder' => 'Please Select...' instead.

License

Copyright 2013 Paul Redmond. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the LICENSE file. License is also available online.