Display Image next to HABTM checkboxes - cakephp

Question

Cane Somebody give me an ideas on this Please!
I Generate multiple checkboxes from a table that is related with another table with HABTM relationship association.
I would like to generate multiple checkboxes with an image along with the text in the label.
My two tables are items and items_characteristics. So an Item HasAndBelongToMany characteristics, and an ItemCharacteristic HasAndBelongToMany Items.
echo $this->Form->input('Item.ItemCharacteristic',array(
'label' =>false,
'type'=>'select',
'multiple'=>'checkbox',
'options' => $itemCharacteristics ,
'selected' => $this->Html->value('ItemCharacteristic.ItemCharacteristic')
));
This code generate the list of the checkboxes properly and works perfect:
This is what i have:
Which is generated from DB from the table items_characteristics.
And this is what i wanna have:
Does Anyone have any Idea how i can achieve this Please?

Answer 1

I assume that in your controller you did something like:
$this->request->data = $this->Item->find('first', ... );
so that $data contains the information about selected characteristics in form of a subarray,
edit: I also assume that Item habtm ItemCharacteristic
then in your view
$checked_characteristics = Hash::extract($this->data, 'ItemCharacteristic.{n}.id');
foreach($itemCharacteristics as $id => $itemCharacteristic )
{
$checked = in_array($id, $checked_characteristics );
$img = $this->Html->image('cake.icon.png'); // put here the name
// of the icon you want to show
// based on the charateristic
// you are displayng
echo $this->Form->input(
'ItemCharacteristic.ItemCharacteristic.',
array(
'between' => $img,
'label' => $itemCharacteristic,
'value' => $id,
'type' => 'checkbox',
'checked' => $checked
)
);
}
edit: from your comment I understand that $itemCharacteristics come from a find('list') statement.
change it into a find('all', array('recursive' => -1));
now your code becomes
foreach($itemCharacteristics as $itemCharacteristic )
{
$id = $itemCharacteristic['ItemCharacteristic']['id'];
$icon_name = $itemCharacteristic['ItemCharacteristic']['icon_name']; //or wherever you get your icon path
$img = $this->Html->image($icon_name);
$itemCharacteristicName = $itemCharacteristic['ItemCharacteristic']['name'];
// same as above
}