Getting started

Complete Installation first. This example uses the country table created by the plugin migrations and does not need an external data service.

Add a country

In an application controller action, fetch the plugin table and save a record:

use Cake\I18n\DateTime;

$countries = $this->fetchTable('Data.Countries');
$country = $countries->newEntity([
    'name' => 'Germany',
    'ori_name' => 'Deutschland',
    'iso2' => 'DE',
    'iso3' => 'DEU',
    'status' => 1,
    'modified' => new DateTime(),
]);
$countries->saveOrFail($country);

Run this once, with your application's usual access control and CSRF protection. A second insert of the same country fails validation because its name and ISO codes must be unique. ori_name is the native name. Setting status to 1 makes the country active; its database default is inactive.

Read active countries

In the controller action that displays the list:

$countries = $this->fetchTable('Data.Countries');
$activeCountries = $countries->find('active')
    ->orderByAsc('Countries.name')
    ->all();
$this->set(compact('activeCountries'));

Display a flag

Load the helper in your AppView::initialize() after the parent call:

$this->loadHelper('Data.Data');

In the action's template:

<ul>
<?php foreach ($activeCountries as $country): ?>
    <li>
        <?= $this->Data->countryIcon($country->iso2) ?>
        <?= h($country->name) ?>
    </li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

The helper uses the bundled GIF flags by default. The icon is supplementary; the country name remains visible as text.

Next, choose how to populate and maintain your data, or configure different icon assets.