In CakePHP, how do I create a form to list models within a date range?

Question

I have a very simple model that includes the auto-filled field much like 'created'. (DateTime format).

I'd like to use the Form helpers if possible, to validate the date fields and whatnot.

I'd like a simple form with a "Begin Date" (YMD, 12 hours), and an "End Date" (same format).

There is already a controller action set up as follows:

function view_between($start_date = null, $end_date = null) { 
    // ... stuff that works correctly when the URL is manually entered.
}

Have I defined the controller wrong, or how can I pass these values into that function?

The reason I'm stuck is because I tried adding a $form->input('my_datetime_field' ...) twice, but obviously the name/id were the same on the respective elements.

I have also tried using $form->dateTime(...) with similar results.

I'm not sure how to uniquely identify a Begin and End date selection, when it should interact with a single field.

Am I going about this wrong? A kind shove in the right direction should suffice.

Answer 1

You can do an onsubmit that forms a get request that appends start/end dates:

echo $form->create('Foos', array('onsubmit'='submitDates(this)'));

javascript:

function submitDates(frm) {
    // grab dates from inputs, form get string and submit to form.action
    // get should be something like /controller/view_between/YYYY-MM-DD/YYYY-MM-DD
}

Answer 2

To specify multiple form elements with the same field name, use this syntax:

$form->input('Modelname.0.fieldname');
$form->input('Modelname.1.fieldname');

Which should return you an array of values to use.

From: http://book.cakephp.org/view/547/Field-naming-convention

Answer 3

When submitting a FORM, you can only submit it as GET or POST request.
A GET request will attach all form elements to the URL in a format like this:

/controller/action?data[Model][field]=value&data[Model][field2]=value

That doesn't correspond to Cake URL standards, so you'll have to do some URL rewriting or parsing anyway.

A POST request is just that, the data will end up in $this->data in your controller as usual.

Either way, you can't directly feed a form request into a function with parameters. You could use Javascript, but I suggest you shouldn't. The best is probably a usual POST request. You just need to rewrite your controller action to get the data from $this->data. Name the form fields whatever you want, just make sure you use them correctly in your controller action.