Laravel image submit button

Question

I'd like to know if there is a way to customize the look of a submit button (to be an Image instead) in Laravel 3.

Currently, my submit button code looks like this :

{{ Form::open('project/delete', 'DELETE') }}
{{ Form::hidden('id', $project->id) }}
{{ Form::submit('Delete project', array('class'=>'btn')); }}
{{ Form::close() }}

And it's doing his job correctly. But I don't see how I could customize the submit button and put it as a bootstrap icon for example with ; <i class="icon-trash"></i>

I tried using :

{{ HTML::decode(HTML::link_to_route('project_delete', '<i class="icon-trash"></i>', array($project->id))); }}

But then I have a problem with my route/ function call.

Answer 1

You can't use HTML for the value of an input. If you tried <input type="submit" value='<i class="icon-trash"></i>'> you would see it didn't work. Furthermore, using a link like your second approach won't work because it doesn't actually submit the form.

Your best bet would be to use a button.

<button type="submit"><i class="icon-trash"></i></button>

Answer 2

You can't use HTML class to generate a link in this way and it's (HTML) been removed from L4 as best practice, it'll be easier if you use raw HTML markup for this, though there are alternative ways like (bootstrapper, I didn't tried tho) for this in L3 but it's overwhelming in (IMO). Check this forum link.

Alternatively you can use a custom macro, just create a new file (myMacros.php) in app\libraries, it should be as app\libraries\myMacros.php and put following code in this file

HTML::macro('link_nested', function($route, $title = null, $attributes = array(), $secure = null, $nested = null, $params = array()) 
{
    $url = URL::to_route($route, $params, $secure);
    $title = $title ?: $url;
    if (empty($attributes)) {
        $attributes = null;
    }
    return '<a href="'.$url.'"'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>'.$nested.''.HTML::entities($title).'</a>';
});

Then, include it in your start.php like

require path('app').'/libraries/myMacros.php';

Finally, use it ln your template like

HTML::link_nested('user.accountview', 'Delete', array('class'=>'btn'), '', '<i class="icon-trash"></i>', array($project->id));

For a submit button add this in your myMacros.php

HTML::macro('submit_nested', function($title = null, $attributes = array(), $nested = null) 
{
    $title = $title ?: 'Submit';
    if (empty($attributes)) {
        $attributes = null;
    }
    return '<button type="submit" ' . HTML::attributes($attributes).'>' . $nested  .' '. HTML::entities($title).'</button>';
});

Finally, use it like

HTML::submit_nested('Search', array('class'=>'someClass', 'name' => 'submit'), '<i class="icon-trash"></i>');