Re: FB + QFC + back + linkNewValue = trouble

On 5/25/05, Ken Restivo <ken@restivo.org> wrote: > Looks like FB's linkNewValue (and the subform class too, and my own homegrown stuff, which > all take similar approaches) creates subordinate forms. Nice idea, works great. > > Until you try to use it with QFC. $controller->exportValues() iterates through and calls > exportValues() on each page of the wizard, to save its values into $_SESSION. Nice idea there too, > works great. > > But when you combine the two? Trouble. > > QFC doesn't know about subordinate forms that were created by FB (or the subform class, or > my own stuff). So the $page->exportValues() doesn't return it, and thus, neither does the > QFC save it. When you click back, then next, all of your values entered into subforms are gone > forever. I've found that this tends to alarm and frustrate users. > > Any ideas? I might try overriding the HTML_QuickForm_Page::exportValues() to iterate through > the cached reference to the subforms, and return the merge of their results with the > parent::exportValues(). > Hmmm, I hadn't tried using linkNewValue or SubForms with QFC. However.... SubForms, assuming you're using http://pear.reversefold.com/SubForm.phps, *should* work fine. I did everything I could to make sure that this was a real element. Its values are exported just like normal elements' values. setDefaults (which I assume QFC uses to set the values when you come back to a form) should also work fine with subforms. I'll do a quick test myself to make sure of this, though. Well, what do you know, it doesn't work. And after a bunch of fiddling I finally figured out that QFC is setting _submitValues manually. This, of course, wasn't being copied to the subform so the values weren't set. I've fixed my SubForm code. However, IMHO QFC really shouldn't be doing it that way as it breaks all of these kind of things. IMHO it should use setDefaults or setConstants as that would accomplish the same thing. linkNewValue is, indeed, a problem, as I just made it work without trying to make it a normal QF element. The linkNewValue element (PopupSelect) does not behave like a normal QF element. It's very tightly coupled to FB and this is why it's not working in QFC. You may be able to hack it to make it work, but a much better solution would be to port FB's linkNewValue to use the SubForm element. I'll put this on my list of FB things to do. -- Justin Patrin