[ANNOUNCEMENT] DB_DataObject_FormBuilder-0.9.0 (beta) Released.

The new PEAR package DB_DataObject_FormBuilder-0.9.0 (beta) has been released at http://pear.php.net/. Release notes ------------- Lots of lots of fixes/changes: - New configuration option "elementTypeMap": Allows you to define a list of FormBuilder field types and HTML_QuickForm element types that should be used for those field types. This way, you can for example use a WYSYWIG HTML editing component instead of textareas. - New configuration options: "dateToDatabaseCallback" and "dateFromDatabaseCallback" allow you to define callback functions for date format conversion. This way, you can use any input and storage format for dates that you desire. - Fixed bug #624: Incompatibility with schema files generated by DB_DataObject 1.4.0 and up. Side-effect: FormBuilder now also recognizes DATE, DATETIME and TEXT fields automatically, so there is no more need to use class properties to define them manually. - Conversion of ISO dates to QuickForm date arrays no longer relies on strtotime(), but uses PEAR::Date instead to get rid of the date range limitations of Unix timestamps - You can now also use DATETIME fields, as more formatting options for date fields are supported (m,M,d,Y,H,i,s) - New experimental option "dateFieldLanguage" allows setting the language for date fields, this doesn't seem to work yet though - useForm() now knows a second parameter that allows to add elements from an existing form to the generated one ... this, too, is to be considered highly experimental as the current implementation relies on supposedly private QuickForm properties to be public - Support for a new callback method in your DataObjects: "dateOptions()" allows to return an option array for all or individual date elements. See docs for QuickForm's date element for details on possible options - Added support for recursive link lookups (by Justin Patrin) - Implemented changes by Norbert Moscnik: a) added "fieldsToRender" configuration option b) added "userEditableFields" configuration option c) added "forced_values" configuration option d) additional empty option (value="") as the first element of the <select> lists - Fixed file upload handling: http://pear.php.net/bugs/bug.php?id=423 - Added usage of setter methods: http://pear.php.net/bugs/bug.php?id=422 - When processing the form, the new getUserEditableFields() method is used to check against manipulated POST requests - Added support for definition of display_fields and custom field ordering in a separate .ini file (contributed by Justin Patrin) - Fixed: Threw notices when no primary key was detected in processForm(). Will now exit and return false. - Added: New method forceQueryType() will let you override the autodetection for the query command (insert/update) using new predefined constants. - Fixed inconsistency with documentation regarding hide_primary_key (spotted by Norbert Mocsnik) - Fixed bug with checks for postProcess() and preProcess() user-methods, spotted by Ron McClain - Fixed bug that occured when building selectboxes (if select_order_field was not defined, and the linked class had its own select_display_field property, FormBuilder was trying to order by a nonexisting field) - Fixed small issue in processForm method (detection if submitted values really belong to the current DataObject) - Minor change in configuration method (check inline docs!!) - New options "createSubmit" and "submitText" to set creation of a submit button on/off and specify its text - fix bug preventing the options array from being used (Arnaud Limbourg) - use raiseError instead of new PEAR_Error, use a variable to make php5 happy (Arnaud Limbourg) - Automatically making the primary key a hidden field is now optional - Fixed notices when working with E_ALL - Fixed bug with element reordering (Arnaud Limbourg) - Additions and corrections in inline docs - Changed bullshit implementation: Existing form objects are no longer passed through the options array, but by using a new method useForm(). Package Info ------------- DB_DataObject_FormBuilder will aid you in rapid application development using the packages DB_DataObject and HTML_QuickForm. For having a quick but working prototype of your application, simply model the database, run DataObject´s createTable script over it and write a script that passes one of the resulting objects to the FormBuilder class. The FormBuilder will automatically generate a simple but working HTML_QuickForm object that you can use to test your application. It also provides a processing method that will automatically detect if an insert() or update() command has to be executed after the form has been submitted. If you have set up DataObject´s links.ini file correctly, it will also automatically detect if a table field is a foreign key and will populate a selectbox with the linked table´s entries. There are many optional parameters that you can place in your DataObjects.ini or in the properties of your derived classes, that you can use to fine-tune the form-generation, gradually turning the prototypes into fully-featured forms, and you can take control at any stage of the process. Related Links ------------- Package home: http://pear.php.net/package/DB_DataObject_FormBuilder Changelog: http://pear.php.net/package-changelog.php?package=DB_DataObject_FormBuilder Download: http://pear.php.net/get/DB_DataObject_FormBuilder-0.9.0.tgz Authors ------------- Markus Wolff <wolff@21st.de> (lead)