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
   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 call field class's "fif_value" routine. 
   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)
   sub_form      The field is made up of a sub-form (only dates at this point)
   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

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"

Field subroutines to subclass in a Field class

   validate          Main part of Field subclasses. Generic validation that
                       applies to all fields of this type.
   Add your own field attributes in your custom Field classes.

Miscellaneous field subroutines

   set_order      Sets the field's order to the value of the form's field_counter
   has_input      Checks 'input' attribute
   fif_value      Convert the field's value to a format suitable for param hash 
   value_changed  Has the field's value changed from the init_value?
   required_text  Returns 'required' or 'optional' according to required flag
   dump           For debugging

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'
   

Form field_list attributes

   fields        Array (or hashref) of field definitions
   required      Hashref of 'required' fields
   optional      Hashref of non-required fields
   auto_required Array of required field names (types from 'guess_field_type')
   auto_optional Array of optional field names

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
   updated_or_created  'updated' or 'created' in database
   user_data      Place to store user data
   language handle  For MakeText 
   field_counter  For setting field order
   params         HTTP parameters 
   fields         Field array
   required       Array of required fields
   parent         For compound/related fields: parent field reference 
   active_column  The 'active' column for all select lists in the form
   html_prefix    Flag to prefix html field names with the form name
   submit
   http_method
   action
   user_data
   ctx
    
    

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( $name )  Returns the value for a field object
   field_exists( $name ) Returns a field object if it exists, otherwise undef
   values          Returns a hashref of values (with accessor keys)
   fif             Returns a hashref for filling in form  

   has_error       Ran_validation & !validated
   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         Does 'clear' and 'update' for persistent forms
   update          Sets up form, validates form, updates model
   validate        For non-db forms: sets up, clears, validates
   validate_form   Validates form
  
   

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
   cross_validate           For validation after individual fields are validated 
   Plus any subroutine you care to write...
   

Methods to subclass from HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC

   validate_model    Add additional database type validation
   update_model      To perform additional database actions update
   guess_field_type  To create better field type assignment for auto forms 
     

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.

cpanm HTML::FormHandler

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install HTML::FormHandler