Using grids

Zii grids are very useful to quickly create efficient application admin pages or any pages on which you need to manage data.

Let's use Gii to generate a grid, see how it works, and how we can customize it.

Getting ready

Carry out the following steps:

1. Create a new application using yiic webapp as described in the official guide.

2. Download the Sakila database from http://dev.mysql.com/doc/index-other.html. Execute the downloaded SQLs (first schema then data).

3. Configure the database connection in protected/config/main.php.

4. Use Gii to create models for the customer, address, and city tables.

How to do it...

1. Open Gii, select Crud Generator, and enter Customer into the Model Class field. Press Preview and then Generate.

2. Gii will generate a controller in protected/controllers/CustomerController.php and a group of views under protected/views/customer/.

3. Run the customer controller and go to the Manage Customer link. After logging in you should see the grid generated, as shown in the following screenshot...