Question

Q1 : How to call a function of component from view?

one of my function is using most of the controllers.

public function actionDynamicdepartment()
    {

            //Department
            $data = Department::model()->findAll('p_id=0 AND company_id=:company_id', array(':company_id'=>(int) $_POST['company_id']));
            $data = CHtml::listData($data,'id','name');
            $dddepatment = "<option value=''>Please select a department</option>"; 
            foreach($data as $value=>$name)
                $dddepatment .= CHtml::tag('option', array('value'=>$value),CHtml::encode($name),true);

            //Section and Team
            $ddsection = "<option value=''>Please select a section</option>";
            $ddteam = "<option value=''>Please select a team</option>";

            // return data (JSON formatted)
            echo CJSON::encode(array(
              'dddepartment'=>$dddepatment,
              'ddsection'=>$ddsection,
              'ddteam'=>$ddteam
            ));
    }

I want to put it into component or some place.

And I want to call those function from my views. e.g

<div class="row">
    <?php echo $form->labelEx($model,'company_id'); ?>
    <?php
        $records = Company::model()->findAll();
        $company = CHtml::listData($records, 'id', 'name');

        echo $form->dropDownList($model,'company_id', $company, array('prompt'=>'Please select a company',
                'ajax' => array(
                    'type'=>'POST', //request type
                    'url'=>CController::createUrl('department/dynamicdepartment'), //url to call.
                    'dataType'=>'json',
                    'data'=>array('company_id'=>'js:this.value'),  
                    'success'=>'function(data) {
                        $("#FaMovehistory_department_id").html(data.dddepartment);
                        $("#FaMovehistory_section_id").html(data.ddsection);
                        $("#FaMovehistory_team_id").html(data.ddteam);
                    }',
                )
            )
        ); 
    ?>
    </div>

Or
Q2 : put those function at one of the controller (department.php). And can I call those function from different view?

Q3 : if do as Q2, is there any traffic?

Answer 1

What I use to do is to define a CWidget (like Dmitry said) and then I create some functions (I tend to make them static, as if it was a library), so if, for instance, your Widget is called “Departments”, you could do something like this:

Yii::import("application.components.Departments");
Departments::actionDynamicdepartment();

Pretty straightforward. You could, for this situation, return that CJson instead of echoing. However, you may not be interested in having a static response from this method.

For your last questions, I tend to approach the population of dropdowns in a more classic manner, having an ajax call (I use jquery) requesting a central controller and passing some variables to it. That, of course, generates traffic.

So, to sum up, if you want to recieve a list of departments and avoid changing it during the current page, you could go for a widget/component. If, on the other side, your dropdown needs to be responsive along with the rest of the items in a form, a controller’s action is your best (and probably unique) option.