CakePHP 1.3 Helper $text truncate error

Today I was using one of CakePHP’s helper methods, $text->truncate. It gave me these errors and I can’t say I was pleased about it. It reminded me that sometimes, functions aren’t a piece of cake.

Warning (2): array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 184]
Warning (2): extract() [function.extract]: First argument should be an array [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 185]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: html [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 187]

I also used it in the same view a little later. It gave errors down there as well.

Notice (8): Undefined variable: ending [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 238]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: exact [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 241]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: html [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 244]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: ending [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 258]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: html [CORE/cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, line 260]

I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I went into the CakePHP source code to check it out. Traveling to cake/libs/view/helpers/text.php, I found the truncate method. Check out the code for it.

function truncate($text, $length = 100, $options = array()) {
  $default = array(
    'ending' => '...', 'exact' => true, 'html' => false
  );
  $options = array_merge($default, $options);
  extract($options);
// continues
}

This code is expecting only two real arguments. The third is a magic options array. Apparently nobody has thought about updateing the CakePHP book. Of if they have made updates, forget to tell people by putting a huge notice somewhere. The documentation explains the new arguments quite well, actually.

To fix those errors, I simply didn’t use any extra arguments, as I was satisfied by the defaults. But I could easily specify some other options.

__( $text->truncate($problem["Task"]["description"], 75) ); 
// other options 
__( $text->truncate($problem["Task"]["description"], 75, array("ending" => ". . .", "exact" => false, "considerHtml" => true)) ); 

My favorite feature about this is the exact option. It doesn’t chop up words, which is great.