Loud Baking

Been busy as hell and I’m afraid it will be like this for another month or so, but here is a quick one I felt like sharing because I hope it will be helpful to some.

Haven’t you ever wished to only have to write something like this in your views:

e($grid->create($results));

Note: It’s still unfinished and I know I will have lots of revisions to it while working on this app, so if you have any suggestions/critics or better ways of doing it, please let me know.

/app/views/helpers/grid.php:

/**
 * GridHelper - easily creating grids
 *
 * Licensed under The MIT License
 * Redistributions of files must retain the above copyright notice.
 *
 * @author     Jad Bitar
 * @copyright  Copyright 2007, loudbaking.com
 */
class GridHelper extends AppHelper
{
   /**
    * Field/Title inflections
    *
    * @var     array
    * @access  public
    */
   var $inflections = array(
      'commission' => 'Earned',
      'created' => 'Created on',
      'email' => 'Email address',
      'ip' => 'IP address',
      'is_active' => 'Status',
      'joined' => 'Date',
      'ref_code' => 'Code',
      'url' => 'URL address',
      );
   /**
    * Defines how to format values in cells
    *
    * @var     array
    * @access  public
    */
   var $formats = array(
      'date' => 'Y-m-d',
      'currency' => 'USD',
      'is_active' => array('Not active', 'Active'),
      );
   /**
    * Dependent on the following helpers
    *
    * @var     array
    * @access  public
    */
   var $helpers = array('Html', 'Number', 'String', 'Time');
   /**
    * Patterns to use when creating the HTML
    *
    * @var     array
    * @access  public
    */
   var $tags = array(
      'table' => '
%s %s
‘,
      );
   /**
    *
    * @param   array
    * @param   array
    * @return  string
    * @access  public
    */
   function create($records, $options = null)
   {
      if (Set::countDim($records) > 2)
      {
         trigger_error(’Make use of the model and/or controller to prepare the resultset’.
            ‘ before sending to the view’, E_USER_ERROR);
      }


  $default = array(
     'table' => array(
        ),
     'headers' => array(),
     'cells' => array(),
     'before' => 'before',
     'after' => 'after',
     'empty' => 'No records found',
     );

  $headers = $this->Html->tableHeaders($this->_inflect(array_keys($records[0])));
  $rows = '';
  foreach ($records as $record)
  {
     $rows .= $this->Html->tableCells(array_values($this->_format($record)));
  }
  return sprintf($this->tags['table'], $headers, $rows);


}
   /**
    * Formats values in recordset
    *
    * @param   array
    * @return  array
    * @access  private
    */
   function _format($cols)
   {
      foreach($cols as $field => $value)
      {
         switch ($field)
         {
            case ‘created’:
            case ‘modified’:
            case ‘joined’:
            case ‘last_login’:
               $cols[$field] = $this->Time->format($this->formats[’date’], $value);
               break;
            case ‘is_active’:
               $cols[$field] = $this->formats[’is_active’][$value != 0];
               break;
            case ‘email’:
               $cols[$field] = $this->String->obfuscate($value, 5);
               break;
            case ‘commission’:
               $cols[$field] = $this->Number->currency($value, $this->formats[’currency’]);
               break;

        default:
           ;
     } // switch
  }
  return $cols;


}
   /**
    * Transforms keys into titles
    *
    * @param   array
    * @return  array
    * @access  private
    */
   function _inflect($keys)
   {
      foreach ($keys as $k => $key)
      {
         if (!isset($this->inflections[$key]))
         {
            trigger_error(sprintf(__(’No inflection found for %s’, true), $key),
               E_USER_ERROR);
         }
         $keys[$k] = $this->inflections[$key];
      }
      return $keys;
   }
}

As you can see from this code, it’s still pretty simplistic but the idea is to completely separate resultset preparation from rendering re-enforcing the fat models, skinny controllers by adding skinny views (maybe?).

If you think it could help you at the stage it is at, copy it here - WP seems to eat chunks of it when saving.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 6:40 am and is filed under CakePHP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.