Question

So I understand that CakePHP automatically loads the error message into the view if you validate it against the Model’s validators. I am trying to setup a date dropbox validation, and I want to control where the error message shows up.

Before submitting to validate form:

<div class="input text required">
<label for="UserEmail">Email</label>
<input name="data[User][email]" maxlength="50" type="text" id="UserEmail">
</div>

After validating, error shows up here:

<div class="input text required error">
<label for="UserEmail">Email</label>
<input name="data[User][email]" maxlength="50" type="text" value="" id="UserEmail" class="form-error">
<div class="error-message">An email is required</div>
</div>

Is it possible to control it where I can have it show up here?

<div class="input text required error">
<div class="error-message">An email is required</div>
<label for="UserEmail">Email</label>
<input name="data[User][email]" maxlength="50" type="text" value="" id="UserEmail" class="form-error">
</div>

Or here:

<div class="error-message">An email is required</div>
<div class="input text required error">
<label for="UserEmail">Email</label>
<input name="data[User][email]" maxlength="50" type="text" value="" id="UserEmail" class="form-error">
</div>

Answer 1

In the VIEW:

1) Disable automatic error display:

echo $this->Form->create('Mymodel', array(
    'inputDefaults' => array(
        'error' => false
    )
));

2) Get the current form errors from $this->validationErrors

3) Display them where ever you prefer with your own markup or Cake’s default markup via $this->Form->error()

UPDATE:
I misunderstood your original question. The order of the elements can be specified via either the create() call (to apply to all fields) or an input() call (for an individual field):

echo $this->Form->create('Mymodel', array(
    'inputDefaults' => array(
        'format' => array('before', 'error', 'label', 'between', 'input', 'after')
    )
));

The above would place the error div before the label div. You can re-arrange that array in any order you prefer.