How to put yiibooster's textField inside /view/layout/main.php in Yii

Question

I'm using YiiBooster and trying to make a TextField within TbActiveForm inside the /views/layouts/main.php

For the controller I've added:

<?php
    class LayoutsController extends Controller
    {
        public function actionMain()
        {
                    $model=new Item;
                    $this->render('main',array('model'=>$model));
        }
    }
?>

And the views:

<?php 
 $this->beginWidget(
     'booster.widgets.TbActiveForm',
           array(
               'id' => 'inlineForm',
               'type' => 'inline',
                'htmlOptions' => array('class' => 'well'),
           )
      );
 echo $form->textFieldGroup($model, 'textField');
 $this->endWidget();
?>

But I have small problem, when tried to run it comes the error message:

 PHP notice Undefined variable: model 

Can anybody help me to fix this? Thanks.

Answer 1

Point: 1

If you only use $this->widget then the input elements of the form (eg., textFields, textAreas, dropdownlists, checkBoxes etc) will be placed out side the form. like

<form method="post" action="#">

</form>
<!-- and then the input elements of form, like -->
<input type="text" name="textField"> <!-- and so on.... -->

Point: 2

For including the elements inside the form you must start with

$this->beginWidget
// then the input elements , and finally
$this->endWidget();

So now the HTML look like

<form method="post" action="#">
    <input type="text" name="textField"> <!-- and so on.... -->
</form>

Point: 3

You must assign the beginWidget to a variable ( $form ) for including the inputs elements

An Example below

(i) In controller function

public function actionFunctionName()
{
     $model=new ModelClassName;
     $this->render('viewFileName',array('model'=>$model));
}

(ii) In view file

<?php
$form=$this->beginWidget(
    'booster.widgets.TbActiveForm',
    array(
        'id' => 'inlineForm',
        'type' => 'inline',
        'htmlOptions' => array('class' => 'well'),
    )
);
echo $form->textFieldGroup($model, 'textField');
// before the close tag of php
$this->endWidget();
?>

It works fine.

Point: 4

If it doesn't work for you then check your YiiBooster configuration. I hope it will be helpful for you. :)