In my last posting I talked about alternating table row colors with plain PHP. But how is this handled in different frameworks like CakePHP, Zend Framework, Rails or Smarty?

[UPDATE: My CakePHP-Cycle-Helper is described here: http://functino.com/2009/07/cakephp-cycle-helper-alternating-row-colors-with-cake/]

I’m going to show you simple examples for each of this tools.

In Smarty you can alternate table row colors (or any other thing) with the simple cycle function like this:

{section name=rows loop=$animals}
<tr class="{cycle values="odd,even"}">
  <td>
    {$animals[rows]}
  </td>
</tr>
{/section}

Ruby on Rails

In Ruby on Rails there is a very similar solution: The cycle helper. Use it like this:

  <% @animals.each do |animal| %>
    <tr class="<%= cycle("even", "odd") %>">
      <td>
        <%= animal.name %>
      </td>
   </tr>
 <% end %>

Documentation is here:  http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/TextHelper.html#M001721

Zend Framework

Within Zend there is currently no such solution in the core. However there is a proposal for a rails-like cycle helper:

<?php $cycle=$this->cycle(array("odd","even"));?> 
<?php foreach ($this->animals as $animal):?> 
  <tr class="<?=$cycle->next()?>"> 
  <td><?=$animal['name']) ?></td> 
</tr> 
<?php endforeach;?>

Instead of just using a cycle-function you have to create an instance of a cycle object and use that. The full proposal is here:  http://framework.zend.com/wiki/display/ZFPROP/Zend_View_Helper_Cycle+-+Kamil+Nowakowski

And finally Cake

Cake has no built in cycle helper. If you use the cake bake generator you’ll get code like this for alternating row classes/colors:

<?php
$i = 0;
foreach ($animals as $animal):
        $class = null;
        if ($i++ % 2 == 0) {
                $class = ' class="altrow"';
        }
?>
<tr<?php echo $class;?>>

It’s ugly, isn’t it?
Like I said in my last posting, I think this would be a prettier solution:

<?php foreach($animals as $animal):?>
  <tr <?php echo $class = empty($class) ? ' class="altrow"' : '';?>>

But I think we can do even better: Create a cycle helper for cake that behaves like the solution in Rails, Smarty or Zend. I’ve written a little helper that does exactly that and in my next posting I’m going to show you how I did it.

UPDATE:
My CakePHP-Cycle-Helper is described here:
http://functino.com/2009/07/cakephp-cycle-helper-alternating-row-colors-with-cake/