NAME

HTML::FormHandler::Manual::Reference - concise reference

DESCRIPTION

This is a concise reference of HTML::FormHandler.

HTML::FormHandler has a lot of options and many ways to customize your forms. More complete documentation can be found at HTML::FormHandler, HTML::FormHandler::Field, HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC, HTML::FormHandler::Render::Simple, and in the individual field classes.

Fields

Attributes for fields defined in your form:

name          Field name. Must be the same as database column name or rel
type          Field type. From a Field class: 'Text', 'Select', etc
accessor      Database accessor name if different than field name
set_validate  Name of validation method in form. Default is validate_$fieldname
set_init      Name of the form method used to initial a field
required      Field is required
required_message  If this field is required, the message to display on failure 
id            Useful for javascript that requires unique id. Set in Field.
label         Text label. Not used by FormHandler, but useful in templates 
order         Set the order for fields. Used by sorted_fields, templates. 
widget        Used by templates to decide widget usage. Set by field classes.
style         Style to use for css formatting. Not used by FormHandler; for templates.
title         For HTML titles. Not used by FormHandler.
password      Remove from params and do not display in forms. 
disabled      HTML hint to not do updates (for templates) Init: 0
readonly      HTML hint to make the field readonly (for templates) Init: 0 
clear         Don't validate and remove from database
noupdate      Don't update this field in the database
writeonly     Do not retrieve initial values
errors        Errors associated with this field 
              (also num_errors, clear_errors, has_errors, add_error)
label_column  Select lists: column to use for labels (default: name)
active_column Select lists: which values to list
sort_column   Select lists: column to use for sorting (default: label_column)
size          Text & select fields. Validated for text.
minlength     Text fields. Used in validation
range_start   Range start for number fields 
range_end     Range end for number fields    
unique        Field should be unique in the database 
unique_message If field is not unique, error message.
apply         Array of constraint/coercion/transformation actions
value_changed Has the field's value changed from the init_value?
dump          For debugging

Field attributes not set in a user form

These attributes are usually accessed in a subroutine or in a template.

init_value    Initial value from the database (or see init_value_$fieldname) 
value         The value of your field. Initially, init_value, then from input.
input         Input value from parameter or initial value from database
fif           Retrieve (do not set) values for filling in a form 
options       Select lists. Sorted array of hashes, keys: "value", "label"

Forms

Attributes to pass to new or set in form

item_class    Class of db item
item_id       Primary key of db item 
schema        Schema of item
item          DB row object
init_object   For default values instead of $item
dependency    Array of arrays of field names. If one name has a value, all
                    fields in the list are set to 'required'

Other Form attributes

name           Form name
validated      Flag that form has validated
ran_validation Flag that validation has already been run
field_name_space  Where to look for your fields
num_errors     Number of errors
language handle  For MakeText 
params         HTTP parameters 
fields         Field array
parent         For compound/related fields: parent field reference 
html_prefix    Flag to prefix html field names with the form name
ctx            Application context for your use
 
 

Form methods

has_field       Moose-y sugar for declaring fields
clear           Resets state. Used in persistent forms. 

fields          The array of fields
sorted_fields   The sorted array of fields
field( $name )  Returns a field object
value           Returns a hashref of values (with accessor keys)
fif             Returns a hashref for filling in form  

has_errors      True if any field has errors 
num_errors      The number of fields with errors
error_fields    Returns an array of fields with errors
errors          Returns an array of all errors 
error_field_names Returns an array of field names with errors

uuid            Creates an HTML element 'form_uuid'

process         Sets up form, validated, updates model 

Subroutines for your form

options_$fieldname       Provides a list of key value pairs for select lists
validate_$fieldname      Validation routine for field 
init_value_$fieldname    Overrides initial value for the field
validate                 For validation after individual fields are validated 

Methods from HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC for method modifiers

validate_model    Add additional database type validation
update_model      To perform additional database actions update
  

Useful in a template

$form->has_errors    [% IF form.has_errors %]
$field->has_errors   [% IF field.has_errors %] 
$form->error_fields  [% FOREACH field IN form.error_fields %]
$form->error_field_names   [% FOREACH name IN form.error_field_names %]
$form->errors        Array of error messages for all fields

[% FOR field IN form.error_fields %]
  [% FOR error IN field.errors %]
    <p><span class='error' id=error>[% error %] </span></p>
  [% END %]
[% END %]

sorted_fields     [% FOREACH field IN form.sorted_fields %]
uuid              subroutine that returns a uuid
$form->fif        value="[% form.fif.title %]"
$field->fif       value="[% field.fif %]

 

AUTHORS

Gerda Shank, gshank@cpan.org

COPYRIGHT

This library is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.