There are <select> populated with (key->value), and field "key" in a model. How I can display it's "value" in a view, instead of "key"?

Question

In model:

public function getOptionsGender()
{
    array(0=>'Any', 1=>Male', 2=>'Female');
}

In view (edit):

echo $form->dropDownList($model, 'gender', $model->optionsGender);

but I have a CDetailView with "raw" attributes, and it displays numbers instead of genders.

$attributes = array(
    ...
    'gender',
)

1. What is appropriate way to convert these numbers back to genders? Should I do it in a model, replacing fields such as $this->gender = getOptionsGender($this->gender)? Any github examples will be very appreciated.

2. I had to choose gender, age, city, country etc. in a few views that are not related to this one. Where should I place my getOptionsGender function definitions?

---

Thank for your help, the problem is solved. In model:

public function getGenderOptions() { ... }

public function genderText($key)
{
    $options = $this->getGenderOptions();
    return $options[$key];
}

In view:

$attributes = array(
    array (
        'name'=>'gender',
        'type'=>'raw',
        'value'=>$model->genderText($model->gender), //or $this->genderText(...)
    ),
);

$this->widget('zii.widgets.CDetailView', array(
    'data'=>$model,
    'attributes'=>$attributes,
));

The working example can be found here: https://github.com/cdcchen/e23passport/blob/c64f50f9395185001d8dd60285b0798098049720/protected/controllers/UserController.php

Answer 1

In Jeffery Winsett's book "Agile Web Application Development with Yii 1.1", he deals with the issue using class constants in the model you are using. In your case:

class Model extends CActiveRecord
{
    const GENDER_ANY=0;
    const GENDER_MALE=1;
    const GENDER_FEMALE=2;

    public function getGenderOptions(){
        return array(
            self::GENDER_ANY=>'Any',
            self::GENDER_MALE=>'Male',
            self::GENDER_FEMALE=>'Female',
        );
    }
    public function getGenderText(){
        $genderOptions=$this->genderOptions();
        return isset($genderOptions[$this->gender]) ? $genderOptions[$this->gender] : "unkown gender({$this->gender})";
    }
}

Then in your CDetailView you would have to alter it from gender to:

array(
    'name'=>'gender',
    'value'=>CHtml::encode($model->genderText()),
),

If several models have the same data, you may want to create a base model that extends CActiveRecord and then extend the new model instead of CActiveRecord. If this model is the only one with that data (ie User model only has gender), but other views use that model to display data, then I would leave it just in the single model class. Also keep in mind that if you place getGenderOptions in the extended class, and you extend ALL your models, they will all have that option available, but may not have the attributes needed and will throw an error if you aren't checking for it.

All this being said, I still think it is a matter or preference. You can handle it however you want, wherever you want. This is just one example from a book I have specifically on Yii.