[Solar-talk] Question about using forms

[Paul M Jones]

> On Nov 20, 2007 2:45 PM, Cruz, Darwin <Darwin.Cruz at gd-ais.com> wrote:
>> In my controller file i've created a from with two elements:
>>
>>                 $this->invForm= Solar::factory('Solar_Form');
>>
>>                                 $this->invForm->setElement 
>> ('user_email', array(
>>                                         'type'  => 'text',
>>                                         'label' => 'Email Address:'
>>                                         ));
>>
>>
>>                                 $this->invForm->setElement 
>> ('process', array(
>>                                 'type'  => 'submit',
>>                                 'label' => 'Action:',
>>                                 'value' => 'Save',
>>                                         ));
>>
>> In my corresponding view i have the following to show the form i  
>> have created:
>>
>>
>>                 <?php
>>                         echo $this->form($this->invForm(user_email));
>>                 ?>
>>
>> In the view both the text box and the submit button are shown.   
>> But i'm trying to break those up to be formatted in a table i'm  
>> building. My question is, how can i only show the user_email  
>> portion of the form?
>>
On Nov 20, 2007, at 5:33 PM, Raymond Kolbe wrote:

> Do you mean, how can you separate the form elements so that a  
> portion of the form (e.g. a text field) will show in a cell in the  
> table?
>
> If this is the case, I came across the same problem the other day  
> and came to the conclusion that (currently) it can not be done. The  
> reason being because Solar_Form constructs everything and when fetch 
> () is called, pukes it all out.

"Pukes" is not quite the word I would use.  "Prints" is much nicer.


> Maybe I am wrong and there is a way to do this, but I haven't found  
> a way yet. I suppose you could extend Solar_View_Helper_Form and  
> create a couple of methods that return certain elements along the  
> way (e.g. fetchField($itemToFetch).
>
> Let me know if I am in left field.

Not in left field, exactly, but it can be done.  It's just not fully  
automated.

Darwin, there are two solutions: a full-manual approach, and a semi- 
automatic approach.

The full-manual approach is to use the individual form element  
helpers, like so.

     echo $this->formInput($this->invForm->elements['user_email']);

That will output just the <input> tag with the information from the  
user_email element.  You get no messages, no labels, none of the cool  
stuff -- but you have full control over the placement and the  
surrounding XHTML.  You can additionally access the elements[] array  
to get label and validation messages, and manually place them any way  
you like.

The semi-automatic approach uses the form helper element methods to  
intersperse XHTML where you want it, along with groupings, but you're  
stuck with the <dl></dl> CSS-based approach then.

     echo $this->form()
               ->xhtml('<div name="foo">')
               ->input(this->invForm->elements['user_email'])
               ->xhtml('</div>')
               ->fetch();

The main benefit of this approach is that you can start using the  
built-in fieldset and grouping methods very easily, without having to  
mix in raw XHTML, and it keeps all the validation messages and labels  
in place.

     echo $this->form()

               ->beginFieldset('Email Information')
               ->input(this->invForm->elements['user_name'])
               ->input(this->invForm->elements['user_email'])

               ->beginGroup('Actions')
               ->submit($this->invForm->elements['save'])
               ->submit($this->invForm->elements['cancel'])
               ->reset($this->invForm->elements['reset'])
               ->endGroup()

               ->endFieldset()
               ->fetch();

While this helps with CSS based forms and (pseudo-) semantic XHTML,  
it probably won't do the trick for you if you're required to use  
tables for forms.

Perhaps it's time for an additional table-based form helper?  Happy  
to take contributions there.

Hope this helps, let me know if it does not.


--

Paul M. Jones  <http://paul-m-jones.com>

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