CakePHP Form Helper input date - cakephp

Question

I have the following code in my view:
$this->Form->input('born');
Which is a date field and I'm look to see if it is possible to have different empty text for each select box like: [Month |v][Day |v][Year |v].
Has anyone come across doing this? Much help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You can do something like this:
echo $this->Form->input('born', array( 'label' => 'Date of birth',
'dateFormat' => 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y') - 70,
'maxYear' => date('Y') - 18 ));
They will be dropdowns not empty text fields. You can read more about the form helper and automagic forms here:
http://book.cakephp.org/#!/view/1390/Automagic-Form-Elements

Answer 2

I have resorted to using jquery to update the cake empty date values
Cake:
echo $this->Form->input('born', array( 'label' => 'Date of birth',
'dateFormat' => 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y') - 70,
'maxYear' => date('Y') - 18,
'empty' => true
));
jQuery:
$(function() {
$('.input.date select[name$="[day]"] option[value=""]').html('-- Day --');
$('.input.date select[name$="[month]"] option[value=""]').html('-- Month --');
$('.input.date select[name$="[year]"] option[value=""]').html('-- Year --');
});

Answer 3

echo $this->Form->input('born', array( 'label' => 'Date of birth',
'type'=>'date',
'dateFormat'=> 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y') - 70,
'maxYear' => date('Y') - 18 ));

Answer 4

this works form me (CakePHP 2x)
echo $this->Form->input('born', array( 'label' => 'Date of birth',
'dateFormat' => 'DMY',
'minYear' => date('Y') - 70,
'maxYear' => date('Y') - 18,
'empty' => array(
'day' => '-- Day --', 'month' => '-- Month --', 'year' => '-- Year --',
)
));

Answer 5

If you can leave the input blank, try this:
echo $this->Form->input('born', array('empty' => true));
If not, check this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11610483/1001673
It's a bit hacky but it'll do wha you want.