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There are three public functions in this class:
1. $prototip->tooltip()
2. $prototip->addTooltip()
3. $prototip->renderTooltips()

A single private function parses argument arrays:
$this->_parseOptions()

There are three arguments to pass to the tooltip() function: el the element, content the content of the tooltip, and an optional options array.

tooltip() simply adds a single toolip for the element specified in the argument. It automagically detects if it should render a simple tooltip, 2 arguments provided, or a fancy tooltip, 3 arguments provided.

addTooltip() adds a tooltip to an internal array, but does not render it to screen until told to do so. This is helpful if you are generating tooltips for each row in a database in an element, but wish to render all tooltips in a single script tag.

Update 03/02/08 - modified to allow any DOM element as the first argument for both tooltip() and addTootip(). (See code below).

renderTooltips() renders all tooltips added to the internal array via addTooltip() in a single script tag.

When using this helper in ajax callbacks, it's best to use the addTooltip() + renderTootlip() combination in your calling code, and in the callback update the tooltip with tooltip().

Here is the code:
Download code
<?php
class PrototipHelper extends Helper {

    /**
     * @link http://www.nickstakenburg.com/projects/prototip/ the js library this helper works with
     * @var Array a flat array of the allowed options
     */
    var $allowed_options = array('className','closeButton','duration','delay','effect','fixed','hideOn','hook','offset','showOn','target','title','viewport');

    /**
     * @var Array a flat array with the special case option names
     */
     var $sc_options = array('hook','offset','hideOn');

    /**
     * @var Array holds the basic string for creating a new Tooltip
     */
    var $tooltip = array('base'=>"new Tip('%s',%s);", 'fancy'=>"new Tip('%s',%s,%s);");

    /**
     * @var Array cakephp helpers used by this helper
     */
    var $helpers = array('Html', 'Javascript');

    /**
     * @var Array holds tooltips to be rendered in a block
     */
    var $tips = array();

    /**
     * @public
     *
     * @param String    $el                the id of the element
     * @param String    $content        html to show in the tip
     * @param Array        $options        the tooltip options
     *
     * @return String a formatted tooltip instantiation
     */
    function tooltip($el,$content,$options=array()) {
        if ( substr($content,0,1)!='$') $content = "'$content'";
        if($options) {
            return $this->Javascript->codeBlock($this->output(sprintf($this->tooltip['fancy'],$el,$content,$this->_parseOptions($options))));
        } else {
            return $this->Javascript->codeBlock($this->output(sprintf($this->tooltip['base'],$el,$content)));
        }
    }

    /**
     * @public
     *
     * @param String    $el                the id of the element
     * @param String    $content        html to show in the tip
     * @param Array        $options        the tooltip options
     *
     * Adds a formatted tooltip to the $tips array
     */
    function addTooltip($el, $content, $options=array()) {
        if ( substr($content,0,1)!='$') $content = "'$content'";
        if($options) {
            $this->tips[] = sprintf($this->tooltip['fancy'],$el,$content,$this->_parseOptions($options));
        } else {
            $this->tips[] = sprintf($this->tooltip['base'],$el,$content);
        }
    }

    /**
     * @public
     *
     * Renders the array of tooltips in $tips as a Javascript code block
     */
    function renderTooltips() {
        $tips_string = "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n";
        foreach($this->tips as $tip) {
            $tips_string .= $tip . "\n";
        }
        $tips_string .= '</script>';
        return $this->output($tips_string);
    }

    /**
     * @private
     *
     * @param Array $options an array of the options available to prototip
     *
     * @return String a formatted string of options i.e. {'opt':'value'...}
     */
    function _parseOptions($options=array()) {
        $opts = "{";
        $arr_opts = array();
        foreach($options as $key => $value) {
            if(in_array($key,$this->allowed_options)) {
                if(in_array($key, $this->sc_options)) { //special case for formatting options
                    if(strpos($value, '{') !== false) { // the option has a tuple...e.g. 'hook:{target:'topLeft',tip:'rightMiddle'}
                        $sc = explode(',' ,$value);
                        $str_sc_opts = "'$key':";
                        $sc_arr_opts = array();
                        foreach($sc as $opt => $val) {
                            $sc_arr_opts[] = "$val";
                        }
                        $arr_opts[] = $str_sc_opts . join(",", $sc_arr_opts);
                    }
                } else {
                    $arr_opts[] = "'$key':'$value'";
                }
            }
        }
        $opts .= join(",", $arr_opts);
        $opts .="}";
        return $opts;
    }
}

?>


NB: when using the prototip options that require a hash, you may need some funky quotes...e.g.Download code 'hook'=>"{'key':'value','key':'value'}"
unless you have numeric values, e.g.
Download code 'offset'=>"{'x':5,'y':10}" .
Loosey goosey scripting languages indeed.