NAME

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

VERSION

version 0.35005

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 initialize a field
required      Field is required
order         Set the order for fields. Used by sorted_fields, templates.
widget        Determines which rendering widget to use for the field 
password      Remove from params and do not display in forms.
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)
messages      Hashref of message identifiers and text
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.
maxlength     Text fields. Validated.
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
apply         Array of constraint/coercion/transformation actions
value_changed Has the field's value changed from the init_value?
dump          For debugging
inactive, is_active, is_inactive
input_without_param  The value of the field if there is no input from the submitted form
default       Default value for the field
default_over_obj Default that takes precedence over item or init_object
not_nullable  Don't convert an empty field ('', etc) to undef
trim          Transform to trim the field 
deflation     Function to transform the field

Field Attributes for creating HTML

html_attr   - Hashref to store arbitrary html attributes.
label       - Text label for this field. Defaults to ucfirst field name.
title       - Place to put title for field.
style       - Place to put field style string
css_class   - For a css class name (string; could be several classes,
              separated by spaces or commas). Used in wrapper for input field.
input_class - class attribute on the 'input' field. applied with
              '_apply_html_attribute' along with disabled/readonly/javascript
id          - Useful for javascript (default is html_name. to prefix with
              form name, use 'html_prefix' in your form)
disabled    - for the HTML flag
readonly    - for the HTML flag
tabindex    - for the HTML tab index
javascript  - for a Javascript string

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
value         The value of your field.
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
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    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
run             Returns a result object and clears form

Form attributes useful in HTML

html_attr - For arbitrary html attributes in the 'form' tag
http_method - For storing 'post' or 'get'
action - Store the form 'action' on submission. No default value.
enctype - Request enctype
uuid - generates a string containing an HTML field with UUID
css_class - adds a 'class' attribute to the form tag
style - adds a 'style' attribute to the form tag
id/name - the form tag 'id' attribute is set to the form name

Subroutines for your form

options_$fieldname       Provides a list of key value pairs for select lists
validate_$fieldname      Validation routine for field
default_$fieldname       Default value for the field in an initial form
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 %]

AUTHOR

FormHandler Contributors - see HTML::FormHandler

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Gerda Shank.

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