Re: Forms validation and creation- easier solution?

"Daniele Grillenzoni" <daniele@b2informatica.it> wrote in message news:16.1E.28112.84CA51A4@pb1.pair.com... > On 20/05/2009 9.03, Angelo Zanetti wrote: >> Hi all. >> >> >> >> We have done quite a few projects and we are looking to find better ways >> to >> implementing forms. >> >> >> >> Forms seem to be quite time consuming and repetitive. >> >> >> >> Generally are there any classes or libraries that will assist with: >> >> >> >> 1. Easy creation of forms (fields and layout) >> >> 2. Validation of specific fields within the forms (server side not JS) >> >> 3. Decrease in time required to setup the forms pages >> >> any other comments are welcome. >> >> >> >> Thanks in advance >> >> Angelo >> >> >> Elemental >> >> http://www.elemental.co.za<http://www.elemental.co.za/> >> >> Dynamic Web and Mobile Solutions >> >> >> >> >> >> > > Personally I created a little Class that handles it. > > First I create an array of associative arrays, every associative array > represents an input of an abstract type (similar to the webforms, meaning > i have stuff like type="telephone"). > > Stuff like > $inputs[]=array( > "name" => "foobar", > "required" => true, > "type" => "string", // text is reserved to textarea > "label" => "Foo Bar", > "error_required" => "you need to provide a Foo Bar value, dummy", > "group" => "main" > ); > etc. > > Then I create an array for groups. > $group["main"] = array( > "type" = "block", // types are either block which means div, set which > means fieldset, paragraph which means <p> or a raw html opening tag. > "parent" = NULL //optional of course, if set to the name of another group, > then the group becomes a child of the referenced group. > ) > > Then I create an associative array of options for the form. > Finally, I call the class constructor with the three arrays as params. > > The class provides me with a few nifty functions: > * toHtml(); > (do I need to explain?) > * toArray(); > Returns the inputs, options, and groups inside a single array, with the > value altered when necessary > * wasSubmitted(); > Does some guesswork to see if the form was submitted, there's a lot of > smart automagicness inside. > * runAutoChecks(); > Runs the checks he can, like the validity of emails in 'type' = 'email' > inputs, pattern validation for input with a set pattern, required inputs, > fills the error array with error messages, sets class[]='error' to wrongly > filled inputs... > * wasValidInput(); > Returns true if none of the autochecks or eventual manual checks returned > an error. > > And it works like this: > [...] > if ($form->wasSubmitted()){ > $form->runAutoChecks(); > /* Additional non-automatable controls */ > // None in this case > if ($form->wasValidInput()){ > // success, do stuff > } else { > // show errors and form again > } > } else { > echo $form->toHtml(); > } > > There are other things I didn't list, like the fact that ever input has > options to specify a wrapper (class and id are associated to the wrapper > if it's defined), the form encoding automatically changes in case of a > file input, etc etc etc... > > The types are abstracted enough that one could easily make a function that > automatically creates the code for a first draft of the forum out of the > db schema of an eventual table. Of course you'd have to provide error > messages, remove unnecessary inputs, adding new ones... Your ideas are similar to mine, but I have a much more advanced implementation which involves the use of a Data Dictionary. After building a database table I import the structure into my data dictionary, then export it to create a database table class and a table structure file. Still using the data dictionary I can then build the family of transactions to maintain that database table. This uses a standard set of page controllers and XSL templates to build the HTML. So within 5 minutes I can run the transactions to list, search, add, enquire, delete and update that database table without having to write a single line of SQL or HTML. In most cases I don't even have to write a single line of PHP. Is your method as fast as that? All this functionality exists within the Radicore framework, so you can download it and try it for yourself. -- Tony Marston http://www.tonymarston.net http://www.radicore.org