Show Multiple Values in Drop Down list, CakePHP - forms

Question

I have a drop down list, which shows a list of 'Product Categories'
The problem is, that there are multiple product categories of the same name.
Each product category has an associated 'System', so my question is, is there a way to modify:
echo $this->Form->input('product_cat_id');
which shows Product Category to show System >> Product Category

Answer 1

Okay, I figured it out.
I couldn't do it at view level easily, so I had to do it at controller level.
Basically, I was aiming to build options group that is used as below:
$options = array(
'Group 1' => array(
'Value 1' => 'Label 1',
'Value 2' => 'Label 2'
),
'Group 2' => array(
'Value 3' => 'Label 3'
)
);
echo $this->Form->select('field', $options);
I decided it'd be best to construct the options list in my controller and pass it to the view.
To that end, I added this code to my controller's action:
$systemCats = $this->Product->ProductCat->SystemCat->find('all');
$this->set('fieldOptions', buildFieldOptions($systemCats));
I created a function called buildFieldOptions which uses the fully associated $systemCats array as an argument:
function buildFieldOptions($productCats, $systemCats) {
$optionsArray = array(); //empty options array
foreach ($systemCats as $systemCat) {
$productCatArray = array(); //empty product categories array
foreach($systemCat['ProductCat'] as $productCat){
$productCatArray[$productCat['id']] = $productCat['title'];
//fill product categories array
}
$optionsArray[$systemCat['SystemCat']['title']] = $productCatArray;
//fill options array with system category as a key
}
return $optionsArray;
}
The completed one select box now has options such as below:
SystemCategory
Product Category
Product Category
Product Category
SystemCategory
Product Category
Product Category
Product Category
This works for me!