NAME

HTML::FormHighlight - Highlights fields in an HTML form.

SYNOPSIS

use HTML::FormHighlight;

my $h = new HTML::FormHighlight;

print $h->highlight( scalarref => \$form, fields => [ 'A', 'B', 'C' ] );

DESCRIPTION

HTML::FormHighlight can be used to highlight fields in an HTML form. It uses HTML::Parser to parse the HTML form, and then places an indicator before each field. You can specify which fields to highlight, and optionally supply a CGI object for it to check whether or not an input value exists before highlighting the field.

It can be used when displaying forms where a user hasn't filled out a required field. The indicator can make it easier for a user to locate the fields that they've missed. If you're interested in more advanced form validation, see HTML::FormValidator. HTML::FillInForm can also be used to fill form fields with values that have already been submitted.

METHODS

new()

Create a new HTML::FormHighlight object.  Example:

    $h = new HTML::FormHighlight;

    

highlight()

Parse through the HTML form and highlight fields. The method returns a scalar containing the parsed form. Here are a few examples:

   To highlight the fields 'A', 'B' and 'C' (form on disk):
   
       $h->highlight(
           file   => 'form.html',
           fields => [ 'A', 'B', 'C' ],
       );

   To highlight the fields 'A' and 'B' with a smiley face
   (form as a scalar):
   
       $h->highlight(
           scalarref => \$form,
           fields    => [ 'A', 'B' ],
           highlight => '<img src="smiley.jpg">',
       );       
   
   To highlight the fields 'A' and 'B' if they haven't been supplied
   by form input (form as an array of lines):
   
       $q = new CGI;
       
       $h->highlight( 
           arrayref => \@form,
           fields  => [ 'A', 'B' ],
           fobject => $q,
       );

Note: highlight() will only highlight the first option in a radio or select group.

Here's a list of possible parameters for highlight() and their descriptions:

• scalarref - a reference to a scalar that contains the text of the form.

• arrayref - a reference to an array of lines that contain the text of the form.

• file - a scalar that contains the file name where the form is kept.

• fields - a reference to an array that lists the fields to be highlighted. If used in conjunction with "fobject" or "fdat", only the fields listed that are empty will be highlighted.

• highlight - a scalar that contains the highlight indicator. Defaults to a red asterisk (<font color="#FF0000" size="+1"><b>*</b></font>).

• fobject - a CGI.pm object, or another object which has a param() method that works like CGI.pm's. HTML::FormHighlight will check to see if a parameter does not have a value before highlighting the field.

• fdat - a hash reference, with the field names as keys. HTML::FormHighlight will check to see if a parameter does not have a value before highlighting the field.

VERSION

0.01

AUTHOR

Adekunle Olonoh, ade@bottledsoftware.com

CREDITS

Hiroki Chalfant

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2000 Adekunle Olonoh. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

HTML::Parser, CGI, HTML::FormValidator, HTML::FillInForm