How do I use PHP variables as values for the <script> tag when rendering jQuery code in my CakePHP view?

Question

I m new to CakePhp and JQuery. I am getting an error in using the cakephp code inside my JQuery.

My code

   <script type="text/javascript">
     $(document).ready(function(){
     var attributeid;var fieldname;
     $("#"+<?=$r['Attribute']['id'];?>).change(function () {

     fieldname=<?=$r['Attribute']['label'];?>; 
              alert(fieldname);//this show me that undefined 
             attributeid=<?=$r['Attribute']['id'];?>; 
             alert(attributeid);//But this works

    });//attribute change
});//ready function 

if I echoed ($r['Attribute']['label'];) this value is coming inside my <?php ?> . But not inside my JQuery.

Note :

attributeid=<?=$r['Attribute']['id'];?>; 
alert(attributeid);//But this works  


Error: 
Name is not defined
fieldname=name; 
alert(fieldname);

Answer 1

You are not thinking about how this is translating over once the variables are echoed.

If you have a variable $x with the contents "test", doing this:

var x = <?=$myvar?>;

Will result in:

var x = test;

This is not valid (unless test is a variable) because you need quotations around it to make it a string:

var x = "<?=$myvar?>";

Which then results in the valid:

var x = "test";

The reason it works with the other variable is because you are echoing an ID, which is an integer:

var x = <?=$myid?>;

Would translate to:

var x = 5;

Which is perfectly valid.

All this being said, you should put all the stuff you want to send over to Javascript in an array and call json_encode on it to easily and safely print the values over. Without it, you have to worry above about escaping quotes in the string and such.