Andrew Dorokhov
The main way to work with forms in Yii is the yii\widgets\ActiveForm widget. Use it whenever a form is backed by a model.
The model can be based on either of these classes:
yii\base\Model— when the form is not tied to a database table.yii\db\ActiveRecord— when it is.
Form model
For a standalone form, extend Model and declare the attributes as public properties:
namespace app\models;
use yii\base\Model;
class ContactForm extends Model
{
public $name;
public $email;
public $subject;
public $body;
public function attributeLabels()
{
return [
'name' => 'Your name',
'email' => 'Your email address',
'subject' => 'Subject',
'body' => 'Content',
];
}
}
For a model bound to a table, generate the Active Record class with Gii.
Rendering the form
<?php
use yii\helpers\Html;
use yii\widgets\ActiveForm;
$form = ActiveForm::begin([
'id' => 'login-form',
'options' => ['class' => 'form-horizontal'],
]) ?>
<?= $form->field($model, 'username') ?>
<?= $form->field($model, 'password')->passwordInput() ?>
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-lg-offset-1 col-lg-11">
<?= Html::submitButton('Log in', ['class' => 'btn btn-primary']) ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php ActiveForm::end() ?>
The action is given as a route and converted to a URL automatically:
$form = ActiveForm::begin([
'id' => 'new-spreadsheet-form',
'action' => ['add'],
]); ?>
Form fields (ActiveField)
Without extra parameters you get a text input (input type="text"):
<?= $form->field($model, 'username') ?>
To customise the field, chain ActiveField methods:
// Password input:
$form->field($model, 'password')->passwordInput();
// A hint and a custom label:
echo $form->field($model, 'username')->textInput()->hint('Please enter your name')->label('Name');
// An HTML5 email input:
echo $form->field($model, 'email')->input('email');
// No label:
echo $form->field($model, 'username')->label(false);
Placeholder
<?= $form->field($model, 'url')->textInput(['placeholder' => 'https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...']); ?>
AJAX submission
An example of submitting an ActiveForm over AJAX: open_in_new riptutorial.com .