Question

my predecessor in the project didn’t save drop down list values in a table; they were in the html file…The guy also didn’t use $form->dropdownList() to create the selects…

Of course I had now huge problems for pre-selecting values on editing; thus I changed all <select> to $form->dropdownList().

But now I have a different problem, as

echo $form->dropdownList($model,'location',
        array("Art","Gallery","Bar","Club"));

Now produces integer values for the DB…

I know I can set the display value like so:
array(“Art” => “Art”)….
but I would rather like to avoid that – there are a bunch of views displaying the value directly… 🙁

Is there a way to tell yii that the DB values shall be the same as the display value?

Answer 1

You can override dropDownList method of CActiveForm widget as follows:

<?php
class ActiveForm extends CActiveForm
{
    public $valuesAsKeys = false;

    public function dropDownList($model,$attribute,$data,$htmlOptions=array())
    {
        if (!$this->valuesAsKeys)
            return parent::dropDownList($model, $attribute, $data, $htmlOptions);

        $newData = array();
        foreach ($data as $value)
            $newData[$value] = $value;
        return parent::dropDownList($model, $attribute, $newData, $htmlOptions);
    }
}

and then use it like this:

<?php
$form = $this->beginWidget("application.components.ActiveForm", array(
    'valuesAsKeys' => true,
    // other parameters here
));

// Rendering form's elements here
$this->endWidget();