Comments on: Improving the Forms: Layouts and Formatters

By: Pete BD

Pete BD — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:01:56 +0000

@David: In SilverStripe CMS they have a method on forms to return a flattened data structure for easily managing the values. So while getData() might return a nested array:

array(
‘group1′ => array(
‘name’ => ‘The name’,
‘email’ => ‘thename@gmail.com’,
),
‘password’ => array(
‘first’ => ‘The password’,
’second’ => ‘The password’,
),
)

getValues() would return a flattened array
array(
‘name’ => ‘The name’,
‘email’ => ‘thename@gmail.com’,
‘password’ => ‘The password’,
)

But you notice that each fieldgroup type is able to say how its values are flattened. The password field only returns one value whereas the generic group returns two.

By: Pete BD

Pete BD — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:56:25 +0000

@Duane: RE: Multi-part forms
Since sfForm is just a kind of fieldgroup, how about a form object (perhaps sfMultiForm) to which you add multiple sfForm objects?

Then you could select which of the subforms to render/validate at any point in the process but still have access to the full submitted data at any point for processing/validation.

By: Pete BD

Pete BD — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:55:29 +0000

@Duane: RE: Multi-part forms
Since sfForm is just a kind of fieldgroup, how about a form object (perhaps sfMultiForm) to which you add multiple sfForm objects?#

Then you could select which of the subforms to render/validate at any point in the process but still have access to the full submitted data at any point for processing/validation.

By: Pete BD

Pete BD — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:51:33 +0000

@Alex and @Bernard: RE: non-editable forms. I guess that setting a field group (or a whole form for that matter) to non-editable (I prefer readonly) would filter down to all its child fields?
Then to show a form in a non-editable mode you would just add this in the configure() method of the form itself.

$this->setEditable(false)

Pete

By: Matthias

Matthias — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:28:10 +0000

What is the state of this topic? Any response from Fabien about it?

I noticed that it or at least parts of it are implemented in the ullright project.

Well, when thinking ahead you also need to keep the past in mind. That said, I don’t think that the complete ideas from all these posts will never make it into symfony. That’s because they introduce too much (additional) magic. Something that Fabien doesn’t like and, to be honest, I also don’t see a real advantage because you loose the full control over what you are coding.

Apart from that I like the concept of “form field abstraction” very much and I also don’t understand why the concept of plain fields (editable/non-editable) was not introduced, yet.

So.. as a conclusion I think it is important to concentrate on the most important things that should be improved on the form framework and then start another RFC / ticket / or whatever and (most importantly) start a dialogue with Fabien.. otherwise this all will never lead to any useful results..

By: Bernhard

Bernhard — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:06:16 +0000

@Alex: I did already write about this in my first post of this series:
http://webmozarts.com/2009/04/12/improving-the-forms/

You can find my suggestions by scrolling down to the headline “Editable vs. Non-Editable”.

By: Alex Knol

Alex Knol — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:50:31 +0000

I have read your posts with interest.

The reason i got your blog is this:
When coding an application in symfony 1.2 using the current forms, you often need a view / edit combination of the form data.

I have looked around for such a possibility, but have not been able to find anything that comes close. Please correct me if i’m wrong!

In the current situation you need to code the entire view by hand and in ‘view’ mode and use the forms in ‘edit mode despite the great similarities between two. Not to mention the overhead in template code.

I am thinking of a posibility to call echo $form->renderViewOnly() or something in the template. possibly extending the generator for forms or just extending the renderclasses.

Have you given any thought to this subject in you contemplations on Symfony forms?

By: Duane Gran

Duane Gran — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:31:50 +0000

I’ve really been enjoying this series you have been writing and I believe the proposals will really improve the form system in symfony, which is already quite good. I would be curious if you have ideas on how multiple part forms might be handled best. I posted some questions about it here:

http://forum.symfony-project.org/index.php/m/78775/

Often you need to break a form into segments that aren’t coincident with the schema but you still want validation at each step. I imagine a scenario where you can display a subset of form elements drawing from one or more models but only the subset of displayed form controls are validated. Is such a thing possible in symfony today?

By: Andrew Allison

Andrew Allison — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:12:42 +0000

Ah Man.. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for I’m working on a project with some very meaty forms and this would be Ideal… Shame….. Oh well back to hand coding 20+ fields D’oh

By: Rubino

Rubino — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:48:20 +0000

Very nice idea – you should consider implementing a server side version of what’s outlined in CSS3 – there’s some good approaches to layouts defined and some great examples.

There’s even a jQuery lib that implements it now for browsers.