Class yii\gii\generators\form\Generator

Returns the attribute labels.

Attribute labels are mainly used for display purpose. For example, given an attribute firstName, we can declare a label First Name which is more user-friendly and can be displayed to end users.

By default an attribute label is generated using generateAttributeLabel(). This method allows you to explicitly specify attribute labels.

Note, in order to inherit labels defined in the parent class, a child class needs to merge the parent labels with child labels using functions such as array_merge().

Generates the code based on the current user input and the specified code template files.

This is the main method that child classes should implement. Please refer to yii\gii\generators\controller\Generator::generate() as an example on how to implement this method.

Returns the list of hint messages.

The array keys are the attribute names, and the array values are the corresponding hint messages. Hint messages will be displayed to end users when they are filling the form for the generator.

Returns a list of code template files that are required.

Derived classes usually should override this method if they require the existence of certain template files.

Returns the validation rules for attributes.

Child classes should override this method like the following so that the parent rules are included:

return array_merge(parent::rules(), [
    ...rules for the child class...
]);

Validation rules are used by validate() to check if attribute values are valid. Child classes may override this method to declare different validation rules.

Each rule is an array with the following structure:

[
    ['attribute1', 'attribute2'],
    'validator type',
    'on' => ['scenario1', 'scenario2'],
    //...other parameters...
]

where

• attribute list: required, specifies the attributes array to be validated, for single attribute you can pass a string;
• validator type: required, specifies the validator to be used. It can be a built-in validator name, a method name of the model class, an anonymous function, or a validator class name.
• on: optional, specifies the scenarios array in which the validation rule can be applied. If this option is not set, the rule will apply to all scenarios.
• additional name-value pairs can be specified to initialize the corresponding validator properties. Please refer to individual validator class API for possible properties.

A validator can be either an object of a class extending yii\validators\Validator, or a model class method (called inline validator) that has the following signature:

// $params refers to validation parameters given in the rule
function validatorName($attribute, $params)

In the above $attribute refers to the attribute currently being validated while $params contains an array of validator configuration options such as max in case of string validator. The value of the attribute currently being validated can be accessed as $this->$attribute. Note the $ before attribute; this is taking the value of the variable $attribute and using it as the name of the property to access.

Yii also provides a set of built-in validators. Each one has an alias name which can be used when specifying a validation rule.

Below are some examples:

[
    // built-in "required" validator
    [['username', 'password'], 'required'],
    // built-in "string" validator customized with "min" and "max" properties
    ['username', 'string', 'min' => 3, 'max' => 12],
    // built-in "compare" validator that is used in "register" scenario only
    ['password', 'compare', 'compareAttribute' => 'password2', 'on' => 'register'],
    // an inline validator defined via the "authenticate()" method in the model class
    ['password', 'authenticate', 'on' => 'login'],
    // a validator of class "DateRangeValidator"
    ['dateRange', 'DateRangeValidator'],
];

Note, in order to inherit rules defined in the parent class, a child class needs to merge the parent rules with child rules using functions such as array_merge().

Returns the list of sticky attributes.

A sticky attribute will remember its value and will initialize the attribute with this value when the generator is restarted.

Returns the message to be displayed when the newly generated code is saved successfully.

Child classes may override this method to customize the message.

Validates $viewPath to make sure it is a valid path or path alias and exists.