Question

So, in CakePHP, there is a way to turn off labels by default by putting 'label'=>false in ‘inputDefaults’ in the Form->create() statement.

Is there a way to, instead of removing labels altogether, to change labels into element placeholder attributes? This is equivalent to doing the 'inputDefaults'=>array('label'=>false) on the Form->create while adding a 'placeholder'=>'Placeholder' to each element… but is there a way to do it without having to add it to each element and have CakePHP do it for you?

Answer 1

You could run your own copy of FormHelper that contains your modifications. You can copy the version of FormHelper from lib/Cake/View/Helper/FormHelper.php and paste it into your app at app/View/Helper/FormHelper.php and make the required modifications to your copy. The copy in your app folder takes precedence over the one provided in the core. As always, never ever ever make modifications to files in Core.

Alternatively, you could extend FormHelper into your own Helper class:

class MyFormHelper extends FormHelper {
    ...
}

Don’t forget to add ‘MyForm’ into your $helpers array!

At any rate, what you’re asking is not currently possible using Cake 2.x. Without any changes, you’ll need to add a ‘placeholder’ => ‘…’ in the options array of each input() call. If you make this change, please consider contributing it back to the CakePHP community so others can benefit from your work!