NAME

Data::MuForm::Manual::Fields - brief documentation of available fields

VERSION

version 0.05

SYNOPSIS

See also Data::MuForm::Field for a description of the base field attributes.

The inheritance hierarchy of Data::MuForm Fields

Text
   Currency
   Password
   Hidden
   Integer
   Float
   Date
   Email
TextArea
Select
   Multiple
Checkbox
   Boolean
Compound
   Repeatable
   CompoundDateTime
Submit
Reset
Button
Display
PrimaryKey
Upload

DESCRIPTION

A form's fields are created from the 'has_field' and 'field_list' definitions. MuForm processes the field lists and creates an array of Data::MuForm::Field objects. The "type" of a field determines which field class to use. The field class determines which attributes are valid for a particular field. A number of field classes are provided by MuForm. You can customize the validation in your form on a per field basis, but validation that will be used for more than one field might be more easily handled in a custom field class.

Fields are accessed with form->field('name'). Field errors are in $field->errors.

If the 'field_namespace' is not set, fields will be loaded from the Data::MuForm::Field namespace. If you provide a 'field_namespace' it will be searched before MuForm. If you want to explicitly list the field's package, prefix it with a plus sign. The field_namespace plus the default name spaces 'Data::MuForm::Field' and 'Data::MuFormX::Field' will be searched for fields.

has '+field_namespace' => ( default => 'MyApp::Form::Field' );
has_field 'name' => ( type => 'Text' ); # Data::MuForm::Field::Text
has_field 'name' => ( type => '+My::FieldType' ); # My::Fieldtype
has_field 'foo'  => ( type => '+Foo' );  # MyApp::Form::Field::Foo
  or
has_field 'foo'  => ( type => 'Foo' );  # MyApp::Form::Field::Foo

Field categories

If you are using MuForm as a validator, you will probably pick from the fields that are mostly about validation and not about form processing.

Fields that are useful as validators:

Text
Currency
Integer
Float
Date
Email
TextArea
Boolean
URI
List
Password

Fields that are primarily for HTML forms:

CompoundDateTime
Submit
Reset
Button
Display
Upload

Field necessary for DBIC updates:

PrimaryKey

Functional fields that may be needed for both validation and HTML forms:

Compound
Repeatable

Fields that take an arrayref:

Select (multiple - not nestable)
List (not nestable)
Repeatable (nestable)

Field that takes a hashref:

Compound

When you are picking fields to represent the structure of your data, you will need to match the scalar/hashref/arrayref nature of your data to the appropriate field.

The most basic type is "Text", which can contain any kind of string, and is represented in an HTML form as a text input. If the type of a field is not specified, it will be set to 'Text'.

Many field classes contain only a list of constraints and transformations to apply. Some use the 'validate' method, which is called before the actions are applied. Some build a custom select list using 'build_options'.

There are two rough categories of Field classes: those that do extra processing and those that are simple validators. The 'Compound', 'Repeatable', and 'Select' fields are fields that contain code to perform extra processing.

Field names

The standard way to use MuForm is with field names that match your database accessors. If you want to prepend the HTML field names with a name plus dot, you can set 'field_prefix' attribute to a string that will be used as a prefix in the field names used when rendering. The preifx will be stripped from the beginning of the HTML fields before processing, and will be added back in 'fif'. The field's 'prefixed_name' convenience attribute will return this name for use in templates.

If you want the MuForm field name to be different than the database accessor, set 'accessor' on your fields. (It defaults to the field name.) You could then use any name that you want for your field.

There are a number of name-related field attributes. The 'name' is the name used to identify this particular field in this fields array. The 'full_name' includes the names of all parents of this field, like 'address.street.streetname'. The 'prefixed_name' is the same as the 'full_name' unless you have set the 'field_prefix' flag, in which case it includes the prefix: 'myform.address.street.streetname'.

To retrieve a field by name, you can use either the full_name or a chain: $form->field('address')->field('street')->field('streetname') or: $form->field('address.street.streetname').

Creating custom fields

Subclass a custom field from Data::MuForm::Field, or one of the existing subclasses. Almost everything that is done in a custom field class can also be done in form code. The advantage of a field class is that it can simplify declaration of often-repeated sets of attributes.

The simplest subclasses contain only a 'validate' routine or an 'apply' attribute, which are called during validation processing.

If the field's value will be an object instead of a simple scalar, such as a DateTime, and you want to use the transformed value to fill in the form, then you will also need some kind of transformation to reformat the object into a form suitable for an HTML form field. See Data::MuForm::Manual::Transforms for more info.

Some custom fields might only require setting certain attributes to defaults. A 'select' field might have a special build_options method. A field may add additional attributes, or set the 'required' message.

An alternative to new field classes for many field validations might be roles with collections of validations.

Fields supplied by MuForm

Basic fields

The fields in this section are the basic fields, the commonly used fields that will be most often used.

Text

A string data type that will be formatted as an HTML text field. Has 'minlength' and 'maxlength' attributes.

Data::MuForm::Field::Text

Select

A field formatted as a select element.

Data::MuForm::Field::Select

Checkbox

A field formatted as a checkbox. If not in params, will be forced to 'false' value by 'input_without_param' attribute (0 by default).

Data::MuForm::Field::Checkbox

Hidden

A hidden field.

Data::MuForm::Field::Hidden

Password

A password field. The value is not re-displayed.

Data::MuForm::Field::Password

Textarea

A textarea field. Has 'cols' and 'rows' attributes.

Data::MuForm::Field::TextArea

Upload

A file upload field that takes a filehandle or a Catalyst upload object (an object with a 'size' method).

Data::MuForm::Field::Upload

Submit

A submit field.

Data::MuForm::Field::Submit

Reset

A reset field.

Data::MuForm::Field::Reset

Complex Fields (Compound and Repeatable)

These fields are complex fields which contain a fair amount of special code. They do not map to a single element; they contain multiple subfields.

Compound

A compound field is a field that has sub-fields. Compound fields can be created in two ways: 1) using a field class, 2) by declaration.

To create a compound field class, you must extend Data::MuForm::Field::Compound and use Data::MuForm::Meta to allow declaring fields:

package MyApp::Field::Duration;
use Moo;
use Data::MuForm::Meta;
extends 'Data::MuForm::Field::Compound';

has_field 'month' => (type => 'Integer');
has_field 'day' => ( type => 'Integer' );
has_field 'minutes' => ( type => 'Integer' );

Then in the form:

has_field 'my_duration' => ( type => 'Duration' );

To create a compound field by declaration, declare the containing compound field and subfields, prefixing the subfield names with the name of the containing compound field plus a dot:

package MyApp::Form;
use Moo;
use Data::MuForm::Meta;
extends 'Data::MuForm';

has_field 'duration' => ( type => 'Compound' );
has_field 'duration.month' => ( type => 'Integer' );
has_field 'duration.day' => ( type => 'Integer' );
has_field 'duration.year' => ( type => 'Integer' );

In an HTML form the name of the field must be the complete name with dots. The 'html_name' field attribute can be used to get this name, $field->html_name.

A compound field can be used for a database relation that will have only one row (belongs_to or has_one). If the relation has a compound primary key, you may need to provide the primary key columns, either through hidden fields or by setting them in the $form->value hash before 'update_model' is called.

Repeatable

Repeatable fields are used for arrays of compound fields.

has_field 'addresses' => ( type => 'Repeatable' );
has_field 'addresses.address_id' => ( type => 'PrimaryKey' );
has_field 'addresses.street';
has_field 'addresses.city';
has_field 'addresses.country' => ( type => 'Select' );

The arrays of fields will be built from arrays passed in the params, or from related ('has_many') rows in the database.

It is also used for arrays of single fields using the 'contains' keyword:

has_field 'tags' => ( type => 'Repeatable' );
has_field 'tags.contains' => ( type => '+Tag' );

See Data::MuForm::Field::Repeatable for more information.

Text Fields

Fields subclassed from the Text field.

Text

Text field.

Data::MuForm::Field::Text

Money

Positive or negative real value, formatted to two decimal places.

Data::MuForm::Field::Money

Date

Date field that can be used by jQuery datepicker plugin.

Data::MuForm::Field::Date

DateMDY

A subclass of 'Date' with the "%m/%d/%Y" format.

Data::MuForm::Field::DateMDY

Email

Uses Email::Valid for validation.

Data::MuForm::Field::Email

Integer

Positive and negative integers. Can use range_start and range_end.

Data::MuForm::Field::Integer

PosInteger

A positive integer field.

Data::MuForm::Field::PosInteger

Float

Float field that allows you to set size, precision, decimal_symbol, and decimal_symbol_for_db.

Data::MuForm::Field::Float

TextCSV

A text field that takes multiple values from a database and converts them to comma-separated values. This is intended for javascript fields that require that, such as 'select2'. This is the only 'multiple' text field. This text field would be a select-type field for the user.

Data::MuForm::Field::TextCSV

Compound Fields

Fields subclassed from 'Compound'.

Compound

Data::MuForm::Field::Compound

Repeatable

Data::MuForm::Field::Repeatable

Duration

Compound field with possible subfields: years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, nanoseconds.

Data::MuForm::Field::Duration

DateTime

A compound field that requires you to provide the subfields that you want. (month/day/year/hour/minutes)

Data::MuForm::Field::DateTime

Checkbox Fields

Fields that inherit from 'Checkbox'.

Checkbox

Data::MuForm::Field::Checkbox

Boolean

Checkbox that return 1 or 0.

Data::MuForm::Field::Boolean

Select Fields

Fields that inherit from 'Select'.

Select

Data::MuForm::Field::Select

Multiple

Multiple select. Also sorts the selected options to the top of the select list.

Data::MuForm::Field::Multiple

SelectCSV

A multiple select field for comma-separated values in the database. It expects database values like: '1,5,7'. The string will be inflated into an arrayref for validation and form filling, and will be deflated into a comma-separated string in the output value.

Data::MuForm::Field::SelectCSV

BoolSelect

A field with three possible values: empty/0/1.

Data::MuForm::Field::BoolSelect

Hour

Integer select range field from 0-23.

Data::MuForm::Field::Hour

Second

Select field with range from 0-59.

Data::MuForm::Field::Second

IntRange

An integer select field. Can set label format with 'label_format'.

Data::MuForm::Field::IntRange

Month

Select field with range from 1 - 12.

Data::MuForm::Field::Month

MonthDay

Select field with range from 1 - 31.

Data::MuForm::Field::MonthDay

MonthName

Select field with month name labels, value 1-12.

Data::MuForm::Field::MonthName

Minute

Select field with range from 0-59.

Data::MuForm::Field::Minute

Weekday

A select field where the labels are the names of the week, and the values are 0-6.

Data::MuForm::Field::Weekday

Year

Select field providing year list 5 years back and 10 years forward.

Data::MuForm::Field::Year

Fields that don't provide a 'value'

Submit

Data::MuForm::Field::Submit

Reset

Data::MuForm::Field::Reset

Button

Button field that is rendered by the Button widget.

Data::MuForm::Field::Button

Display

Non-data field used for inserting HTML into the form.

Data::MuForm::Field::Display

Other fields

PrimaryKey

Hidden field that provides the primary key for Repeatable fields.

Data::MuForm::Field::PrimaryKey

AUTHOR

Gerda Shank

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

To install Data::MuForm, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm Data::MuForm

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Data::MuForm

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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NAME

VERSION

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Field categories

Field names

Creating custom fields

Fields supplied by MuForm

Basic fields

Text

Select

Checkbox

Hidden

Password

Textarea

Upload

Submit

Reset

Complex Fields (Compound and Repeatable)

Compound

Repeatable

Text Fields

Text

Money

Date

DateMDY

Email

Integer

PosInteger

Float

TextCSV

Compound Fields

Compound

Repeatable

Duration

DateTime

Checkbox Fields

Checkbox

Boolean

Select Fields

Select

Multiple

SelectCSV

BoolSelect

Hour

Second

IntRange

Month

MonthDay

MonthName

Minute

Weekday

Year

Fields that don't provide a 'value'

Submit

Reset

Button

Display

Other fields

PrimaryKey

AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Module Install Instructions