FuelPHP Forums

I begun to migrate an extended Form module I built in CI to a Fuel package. Before continue, I thought it's a good idea to hear the community opinion on my approach to the problem.
Perhaps I'm going the wrong way, perhaps someone have a suggestion (or finds it useful), or maybe what I'm doing is what the Fieldset class is intended for (I've read the documentation for the Fieldset class, downloaded the FuelDocGenerator, but I'm not sure I get it well).
When building a form I usually do a javascript validation first and then a server validation.
I like the error messages, if any, appear next to the field with the problem are they generated via javascript or in a server response.
The CI form class (as Fuel does) covers the standard html inputs, but you may want to have a rich text editor, an autocomplete field, a nice custom checkbox, etc. When retreiving data from the user my approach follows this pattern:
- If we are modifying a current record, first populate a model with it, or create a new empty model.
- Override the model with the post data
- Validate the model, and if it's ok, save it. - If the model does not pass the validation (or if you are displaying the form for first time), you can pass the model when creating the form fields.
- The Form package is a main Form class and a subset of Input classes which extends the properties of some of the classic ones (text, textarea, select, etc), and also provides wrappers for a Tiny editor, autocomplete, datepicker, colorpicker, uploads via uplodify, and a kind of 'media control' which handles and organize a set of images in a gallery.
- Javascript needed for each control is part of the input class definition. The form class gathers this info and adds it to the template via the Asset Class.
- Once you added the fields to the Form object, you can render in your view the complete form, by groups of fields or one by one.
- Rendering the fields takes care of showing labels, the values of the field and the error messages. Here is an example of a working form:
In the controller

public function action_edit($id=0)
{
  // get the current data for the id
  $model = \Content\Model_page::find($id);
  if(!$model) $model = new \Content\Model_page();

  // validate the model
  if($model->validate()) // I've extended the ORM model to get the Post data and validate it
  {
   $model->module = 'pages';
   $model->save();
   \Response::redirect('your_action_list');
  }
  
  // create the form passing the action as parameter. Second parameter is the asset group for the associated javascript
  $form = new \Forms\Form("admin/content/pages/edit/$id", 'backend');
  
  // information on validation rules, label and input info can be stored in the model $_properties variable
  $form->add_model('id',$model); 
  // wich is a shorcut for
  $form->add('hidden', 'input-name', 'input-value');

  $f = $form->add_model('title',$model); // a text field
  // wich is a shorcut for
  $f = $form->add('text', 'input-name', 'input-value', 'input-label');
  $f ->rules('required'); // if not setted in the model.
  
  // a tiny editor field, with few edit buttons
  $f = $form->add_model('preview', $model, 'main_left');
  $f->config(array('mode'=>'simple'));

  // a tiny editor field, with all edit options
  $f = $form->add_model('body', $model, 'main_left');
  $f->config(array('mode'=>'advanced'));
  
  
  $data = array(
   'form'=> $form, 
   'cancel'=>'your_list_action',
  );
  $this->template->content =  \View::factory('admin/edit', $data, false);
 }

In the 'edit' View just:

$form->render() // this renders the complete form

// or if you wish to render the fields individually
$form->open()
$form->title->render()
$form->preview->render()
// etc
$form->close();

One flaw I see in this approach is that works fine if you are working with data models, but it's not well suited for a contact form.
I'll be glad in hearing any comment. Best regards.