#li3 > Lithium Documentation > lithium/template/helper/Form::field()

Extends

Generates a form field with a label, input, and error message (if applicable), all contained within a wrapping element.

{{{ echo $this->form->field('name'); echo $this->form->field('present', array('type' => 'checkbox')); echo $this->form->field(array('email' => 'Enter a valid email')); echo $this->form->field(array('name','email','phone'), array('div' => false)); }}}

Parameters

mixed $name The name of the field to render. If the form was bound to an object passed in `create()`, `$name` should be the name of a field in that object. Otherwise, can be any arbitrary field name, as it will appear in POST data. Alternatively supply an array of fields that will use the same options array($field1 => $label1, $field2, $field3 => $label3)
array $options Rendering options for the form field. The available options are as follows: - `'label'` _mixed_: A string or array defining the label text and / or parameters. By default, the label text is a human-friendly version of `$name`. However, you can specify the label manually as a string, or both the label text and options as an array, i.e.: `array('Your Label Title' => array('class' => 'foo', 'other' => 'options'))`. - `'type'` _string_: The type of form field to render. Available default options are: `'text'`, `'textarea'`, `'select'`, `'checkbox'`, `'password'` or `'hidden'`, as well as any arbitrary type (i.e. HTML5 form fields). - `'template'` _string_: Defaults to `'template'`, but can be set to any named template string, or an arbitrary HTML fragment. For example, to change the default wrapper tag from `<div />` to `<li />`, you can pass the following: `'<li{:wrap}>{:label}{:input}{:error}</li>'`. - `'wrap'` _array_: An array of HTML attributes which will be embedded in the wrapper tag. - `list` _array_: If `'type'` is set to `'select'`, `'list'` is an array of key/value pairs representing the `$list` parameter of the `select()` method.

Returns

string Returns a form input (the input type is based on the `'type'` option), with label and error message, wrapped in a `<div />` element.

Source

						public function field($name, array $options = array()) {
		if (is_array($name)) {
			return $this->_fields($name, $options);
		}
		list(, $options, $template) = $this->_defaults(__FUNCTION__, $name, $options);
		$defaults = array(
			'label' => null,
			'type' => isset($options['list']) ? 'select' : 'text',
			'template' => $template,
			'wrap' => array(),
			'list' => null
		);
		list($options, $field) = $this->_options($defaults, $options);

		$label = $input = null;
		$wrap = $options['wrap'];
		$type = $options['type'];
		$list = $options['list'];
		$template = $options['template'];
		$notText = $template == 'field' && $type != 'text';

		if ($notText && $this->_context->strings('field-' . $type)) {
			$template = 'field-' . $type;
		}
		if (($options['label'] === null || $options['label']) && $options['type'] != 'hidden') {
			if (!$options['label']) {
				$options['label'] = Inflector::humanize(preg_replace('/[\[\]\.]/', '_', $name));
			}
			$label = $this->label(isset($options['id']) ? $options['id'] : '', $options['label']);
		}

		$call = ($type == 'select') ? array($name, $list, $field) : array($name, $field);
		$input = call_user_func_array(array($this, $type), $call);
		$error = ($this->_binding) ? $this->error($name) : null;
		return $this->_render(__METHOD__, $template, compact('wrap', 'label', 'input', 'error'));
	}