QuickForm 3.0 news: renderers

Greetings! As those of you who used QuickForm probably know, form outputting logic was previously implemented as methods of HTML_QuickForm class. This led to two problems: 1) Bloat of the said class (80+ methods!) 2) Difficulties in adding new output logic (i.e. through templates) For the upcoming 3.0 release a new "Renderer" system was implemented. The form output code is contained in classes from HTML_QuickForm_Renderer hierarchy, whose behaviour is based on Visitor design pattern from the classic "Design Patterns" book. Their usage looks like this: $renderer = new HTML_QuickForm_Renderer_Concrete(); $renderer->doSomeCustomizingIfNecessary($foo, $bar); $form->accept($renderer); $renderer->getSomeResult(); There are 3 renderers currently available: 1) HTML_QuickForm_Renderer_Default --- based on old toHtml() code; 2) HTML_QuickForm_Renderer_Array --- based on old toArray() code; 3) HTML_QuickForm_Renderer_ITX --- uses HTML_Template_ITX template system. The first two renderers are implicitly called from current toHtml() and toArray() methods. The third renderer is new, example of its usage with a sample template file is available in CVS. How does this affect users? Well, all this was kept backwards compatible. Template customising methods of HTML_QuickForm call default renderer's methods, usage of HTML_QuickForm's methods is deprecated. toArray() works through a new renderer as well, although its behaviour changed a bit: it does not return html for group elements, but rather an array of group elements' array representations. BTW, I need feedback from toArray() users: is this BC break OK with them or should I add a BC switch? How does this affect developers? If you add a new element to QuickForm, that is a container (like 'group') or has some special rendering needs (like 'hidden') then you have to add an abstract renderMyElement() to HTML_QuickForm_Renderer, and implement the logic in all of its subclasses. If you want to add a new renderer, you just have to implement all the methods of HTML_QuickForm_Renderer in it. Well, I'm writing this in hope that it (and the questions that you ask) will serve as a basis of future renderer documentation. :]