CakePHP 1.3 helper auto-complete in netbeans

CakePHP 1.3 introduced a new way to use helpers. This was added to prevent confusion between helper variables and local variables added to the view file. You can access helper methods in a view by using $this->Helper->method(). This way make a problem if you want to use auto-complete for helpers introduced in a previous article

With a small trick you can make netbeans supports this method auto-complete. To do this add a file in your project folder, or preferable to be in CakePHP core folder, with a name dummy_view.php for example. Now add the following code to this file.

<?php

class DummyView extends View {

    /**
     * @var HtmlHelper
     */
    public $Html;

    /**
     * @var JsHelper
     */
    public $Js;

    /**
     * @var AjaxHelper
     */
    public $Ajax;

    /**
     * @var JavascriptHelper
     */
    public $Javascript;

    /**
     * @var FormHelper
     */
    public $Form;

    /**
     * @var SessionHelper
     */
    public $Session;

    /**
     * @var TextHelper
     */
    public $Text;

    /**
     * @var PaginationHelper
     */
    public $Paginator;

    /**
     * @var RssHelper
     */
    public $Rss;

    /**
     * @var XmlHelper
     */
    public $Xml;

    /**
     * @var CacheHelper
     */
    public $Cache;

    /**
     * @var TimeHelper
     */
    public $Time;

}

Now put the following line of code in end of your view file:

<?php /* @var $this DummyView */ ?>

Now you’ll see that netbeans displays auto-complete for those helper methods and view methods too like $this->element() for example.

Autocomplete for CakePHP 1.3 helpers in netbeans

How does this work?

The idea here is simple we tell netbeans that there is a new class that extends View class. Then when in view file we tell netbeans to consider that $this has the type DummyView. CakePHP run the code in view files inside render() method in View class so $this is really an instance of View class. Now as netbeans knows the type of $this variable and knows the types of its variables, which are CakePHP helpers, it shows their autocomplete options.

Finally, you should be aware of the following:

• Make sure to include your CakePHP core path in netbeans include path or it is inside your project source folder.
• This will not load helpers in run time, so make sure you include required helpers in your controller.
• You can add your own custom helper in DummyView class using the same method as core helpers.

I know this has been late but it is still useful