Helpers

Every helper extends its CakePHP core counterpart and reads classes from the class map. Your existing $this->Form->control() calls work unchanged — they just emit Tailwind/DaisyUI markup instead of Bootstrap.

FormHelper

TailwindUi\View\Helper\FormHelper extends Cake\View\Helper\FormHelper.

Control markup (fieldset, daisyUI 5 idiom)

In the default alignment, every labeled control is wrapped in a <fieldset class="fieldset"> with its label rendered as <legend class="fieldset-legend">, matching daisyUI 5's recommended form idiom:

<fieldset class="fieldset">
  <legend class="fieldset-legend">Title</legend>
  <input class="input w-full" type="text" name="title">
  <p class="label text-base-content/60">Helper text</p>
</fieldset>

Single checkboxes keep their inline-flex label wrapper (no fieldset). Submit buttons and hidden fields are never wrapped.

Presets control the container markup via a templates block in the preset file — see the class map guide for details. The KTUI preset ships a <div class="mb-4"> wrapper instead, because KTUI has no fieldset-legend equivalent.

Alignment

$this->Form->create($article);                              // vertical, fieldset wrapper
$this->Form->create($article, ['align' => 'horizontal']);  // div wrapper, flex row
$this->Form->create($article, ['align' => 'inline']);     // search/filter bar layout

Horizontal layout keeps the <div> wrapper from form.containerHorizontal and a fixed-width label from form.labelHorizontal. Fieldsets are disabled in horizontal mode because a <legend> doesn't compose with the two-column flex layout.

Inline layout wraps all controls in a single <div class="flex flex-wrap items-end gap-3 mb-4"> (from form.inlineWrapper), hides each label as sr-only (still readable by screen readers), and suppresses help text. Intended for search bars and filter rows. Widths are user-controlled — pass ['class' => 'w-48'] or similar on each control to size them.

Every CakePHP input type

$this->Form->control('title');
$this->Form->control('email', ['type' => 'email']);
$this->Form->control('body', ['type' => 'textarea']);
$this->Form->control('status', ['type' => 'select', 'options' => [...]]);
$this->Form->control('active', ['type' => 'checkbox']);
$this->Form->control('tags._ids', ['type' => 'select', 'multiple' => 'checkbox', 'options' => $tags]);
$this->Form->control('role', ['type' => 'radio', 'options' => [...]]);
$this->Form->control('file', ['type' => 'file']);
$this->Form->control('published_date', ['type' => 'date']);

Switch checkbox

$this->Form->control('active', ['type' => 'checkbox', 'switch' => true]);

Renders with the form.switch class (DaisyUI: toggle, KTUI: kt-switch).

Help text

$this->Form->control('username', [
    'help' => 'Choose a unique username, 3–20 characters.',
]);

Rendered inside the fieldset as <p class="label text-base-content/60"> (daisyUI 5 helper-label styling) with an id and matching aria-describedby on the input. KTUI uses <div class="text-muted-foreground text-2sm">.

Size variants

$this->Form->control('title', ['size' => 'lg']);
$this->Form->control('status', ['options' => [...], 'size' => 'sm']);
$this->Form->control('body', ['size' => 'xl']);
$this->Form->control('published', ['size' => 'lg']);                       // checkbox
$this->Form->control('role', ['type' => 'radio', 'options' => [...], 'size' => 'sm']);
$this->Form->control('active', ['switch' => true, 'size' => 'lg']);
$this->Form->control('avatar', ['type' => 'file', 'size' => 'lg']);

Injects the daisyUI size modifier (input-lg, select-sm, textarea-xl, checkbox-lg, radio-sm, toggle-lg, file-input-lg) via the form.{type}.{size} class map keys. Available sizes: xs, sm, md, lg, xl. Unmapped combinations (e.g. KTUI has no size equivalents for inputs) are silently ignored.

Color variants

$this->Form->control('active', ['switch' => true, 'color' => 'primary']);
$this->Form->control('avatar', ['type' => 'file', 'color' => 'primary']);
$this->Form->control('logo', ['type' => 'file', 'color' => 'ghost']);

Currently supported on switches and file inputs. Resolves to form.switch.{color} / form.file.{color} class map keys. Available names: primary, secondary, neutral, accent, success, danger (maps to error), warning, info. File inputs additionally support ghost.

Floating labels

$this->Form->control('email', ['floating' => true]);
$this->Form->control('status', ['options' => $opts, 'floating' => true]);

Wraps the input in a daisyUI <label class="floating-label"> with an inline <span> for the label text. A placeholder is automatically set (daisyUI's floating-label needs :placeholder-shown to detect emptiness), or you can supply your own. Supported on text-style inputs, selects, and textareas; ignored for checkbox/radio. Class map key: form.floatingLabel.

'floating' => true is also a no-op in inline alignment mode (floating labels need vertical headroom and sr-only labels can't host visible floating text) and on the KTUI preset (KTUI has no floating-label component, so the option silently degrades to normal rendering).

Rating

$this->Form->rating('quality');                                // 5 stars, default
$this->Form->rating('quality', ['max' => 10, 'value' => 7]);
$this->Form->rating('quality', ['size' => 'lg', 'allowEmpty' => false]);

Renders a daisyUI rating component as a horizontal row of radio inputs styled as star masks. Wrapped in the standard fieldset/horizontal container so it composes with the rest of the form. Options:

• max — number of stars (default 5).
• value — currently selected rating (null/0 for no rating).
• size — xs/sm/md/lg/xl.
• allowEmpty — whether to render a hidden "no rating" radio at value 0 so users can clear the rating (default true).
• label, help — same semantics as control().

Class map keys: form.rating, form.ratingItem, form.ratingHidden, form.rating.{size}. KTUI renders a fallback flex row of plain checkboxes — KTUI has no rating component natively.

Out-of-range values are clamped: value greater than max highlights the highest star, negative value snaps to the empty radio. Field validation errors don't currently propagate onto rating inputs (the underlying widget bypasses CakePHP's standard error class injection); if you need a visible error state for a rating, render an error paragraph manually below it.

Validation errors

When a field has errors, the input gets the form.validator class (validator in daisyUI 5, which triggers the built-in error ring). The error message renders as <p class="label text-error"> inside the same fieldset.

Tooltip error feedback

$this->Form->control('email', ['feedbackStyle' => 'tooltip']);

When the field has errors, the input is wrapped in a daisyUI tooltip tooltip-error tooltip-open div containing the error text, and the block error paragraph below the input is suppressed.

Label tooltips

$this->Form->control('username', ['tooltip' => 'Must be unique']);

Appends a small info icon to the label text, wrapped in a daisyUI tooltip span with the tooltip text as data-tip. Uses form.labelTooltip and form.labelTooltipIcon class map keys.

Static control (read-only)

$this->Form->staticControl('slug', ['value' => 'my-post-slug']);

Renders the value as a <p class="py-2 text-base-content"> (from form.staticControl) and adds a hidden field so the value still submits with the form. Wrapped in the same fieldset/div container as a regular control, so forms stay visually consistent.

Input groups (prepend/append)

$this->Form->control('price', ['prepend' => '$']);
$this->Form->control('website', ['prepend' => 'https://']);
$this->Form->control('email', ['append' => '@example.com']);

Note: prepend/append is not supported on type => 'file' controls. CakePHP's core file widget doesn't compose with the daisyUI join wrapper, so the keys are silently dropped if passed.

Submit buttons with variants

$this->Form->submit('Save');                          // primary (default)
$this->Form->submit('Delete', ['class' => 'danger']);
$this->Form->submit('Cancel', ['class' => 'secondary outline sm']);

Color variants (primary, secondary, neutral, accent, success, danger, warning, info), style modifiers (outline, soft, dash, ghost, link), and sizes (xs, sm, md, lg, xl) are stripped from the class list and replaced with the equivalent class map values (e.g. danger → btn-error). Colors and modifiers combine freely — ['class' => 'soft primary'] emits btn btn-soft btn-primary.

The set of recognized keywords is derived from the class map at runtime, so adding a custom key (e.g. btn.brand => 'btn-brand' via TailwindUi.classMapOverrides) makes brand recognized as a modifier without any helper changes — meaning ['class' => 'brand'] emits btn btn-brand btn-primary, because the default primary color still applies to modifiers.

If you want brand to act as a standalone color (suppressing the primary default), promote it via Configure:

Configure::write('TailwindUi.colorVariants', ['brand']);

Then ['class' => 'brand'] emits btn btn-brand, and ['class' => 'soft brand'] stacks to btn btn-soft btn-brand.

Validation errors

When a field has errors, the input gets the appropriate error class (form.inputError / form.selectError / form.textareaError) and the error message is rendered with form.error.

PaginatorHelper

TailwindUi\View\Helper\PaginatorHelper adds a links() method that wraps first/prev/numbers/next/last in a container with the pagination class:

<?= $this->Paginator->links() ?>
<?= $this->Paginator->links(['first' => false, 'last' => false]) ?>

DaisyUI output:

<div class="join">
    <a class="join-item btn btn-sm" href="...">«</a>
    <a class="join-item btn btn-sm" href="...">‹</a>
    <a class="join-item btn btn-sm btn-active" aria-current="page">2</a>
    <a class="join-item btn btn-sm" href="...">3</a>
    <a class="join-item btn btn-sm" href="...">›</a>
    <a class="join-item btn btn-sm" href="...">»</a>
</div>

KTUI output uses flex items-center gap-1 for the container and kt-btn kt-btn-sm kt-btn-outline for the items.

You can still use the individual first(), prev(), numbers(), next(), last() methods from CakePHP core.

FlashHelper

TailwindUi\View\Helper\FlashHelper:

<?= $this->Flash->render() ?>

In your controller:

$this->Flash->success('Record saved.');
$this->Flash->error('Could not delete record.');
$this->Flash->warning('This is irreversible.');
$this->Flash->info('Updates available.');

Each message is rendered with the alert base class plus the type variant (e.g. alert alert-success), an inline SVG icon, and a dismiss button carrying data-tailwind-ui-dismiss="[role=alert]". To wire the click-to- dismiss behavior under a strict Content-Security-Policy (no 'unsafe-inline' in script-src), include the bundled handler:

$this->Html->script('TailwindUi.dismiss', ['block' => true]);

The script (in the plugin's webroot/js/dismiss.js) attaches a single delegated click listener that removes the closest ancestor matching the selector in the data-tailwind-ui-dismiss attribute. Run bin/cake plugin assets symlink (or copy) once so CakePHP serves the asset from /tailwind_ui/js/dismiss.js.

BreadcrumbsHelper

TailwindUi\View\Helper\BreadcrumbsHelper:

$this->Breadcrumbs->add('Home', '/');
$this->Breadcrumbs->add('Articles', '/articles');
$this->Breadcrumbs->add('Edit');          // no URL → active crumb
echo $this->Breadcrumbs->render();

Output:

<div class="breadcrumbs text-sm">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="/articles">Articles</a></li>
        <li><span class="font-semibold">Edit</span></li>
    </ul>
</div>

The last crumb automatically gets the breadcrumbs.active class.

HtmlHelper

TailwindUi\View\Helper\HtmlHelper adds three methods on top of CakePHP's core HtmlHelper:

alert()

<?= $this->Html->alert('Heads up') ?>                          // info (default)
<?= $this->Html->alert('Saved', ['class' => 'success']) ?>
<?= $this->Html->alert('Failed', ['class' => 'danger']) ?>     // → alert-error
<?= $this->Html->alert('Heads up', ['class' => 'warning']) ?>
<?= $this->Html->alert('<strong>raw</strong>', ['escape' => false]) ?>
<?= $this->Html->alert('Note', ['tag' => 'aside']) ?>

Renders a daisyUI alert for one-shot inline notices that don't go through the session/flash pipeline. Variants (success, danger/ error, warning, info) resolve through the same class-map machinery as badge() and form buttons; danger is accepted as an alias for daisyUI's error. Default variant is info. Always emits role="alert" for screen readers unless overridden.

badge()

<?= $this->Html->badge('New') ?>                                  // secondary
<?= $this->Html->badge('Active', ['class' => 'success']) ?>
<?= $this->Html->badge('Draft', ['class' => 'warning outline']) ?>
<?= $this->Html->badge('Soft', ['class' => 'soft primary']) ?>
<?= $this->Html->badge('Ghost', ['class' => 'ghost']) ?>
<?= $this->Html->badge('3', ['class' => 'primary sm']) ?>

Color variants (primary, secondary, neutral, accent, success, danger, warning, info), style modifiers (outline, soft, dash, ghost), and sizes (xs, sm, md, lg, xl) are resolved from the class map. Colors and modifiers stack — ['class' => 'soft primary'] produces a soft-primary badge.

icon()

<?= $this->Html->icon('search') ?>
<?= $this->Html->icon('pencil', ['size' => 'size-4']) ?>

Renders an icon tag using the icon.* class map keys. DaisyUI preset outputs inline SVG for the bundled default icon set (check, check-circle, exclamation-triangle, information-circle, pencil, search); KTUI preset outputs <i class="ki-filled ki-search"></i>.

For app-specific SVGs, pass path content explicitly:

<?= $this->Html->icon('brand', ['content' => '<path d="..." />']) ?>