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"ANOTHER FORM GENERATOR" USER GUIDE
(ver.:0.8.1)
author: Gergely "Garpeer" Aradszki
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Basic usage
-----------
1. Instantiate class
2. set options (set method)
3. add fields to the form (addFields method)
4. bind validators to certain fields (validator method)
5. generate form (display method)
6. fetch valid data (getData method) (if there are validation errors, getData
returns false)
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Instantiation:
$var=new Form();
Public methods:
-set(option, value): sets the given option to given value
-loadData(data, map): lad default values from an associative array
-addText(str): adds a paragraph to the form with given text
-addItem(str): adds a custom item to the form with given text
-addField(type, id, label, mandatory, init_value, aux_params)
-validator(field_id, validator_function, ...) bind a validator to a field
-display(button_label, button_id) displays the form
-getData(sanitized) get valid data after submission
-join(fields) join fields (remove linebreaks, put in same div)
-JSprotection(code) enable JS form protection, see "JSProtection" section
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Supported field types
---------------------
-text: input type=text
-password: input type=password
-file: input type=file
-hidden: input type=hidden
-textarea
-radio
-checkbox
-select
-submit
-reset
-button
-image
-html5 input types: number, date, month, week, time, datetime, datetime-local
email, url, range, color, search, tel
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Usage of addField
-----------------
Common parameters:
addField(type, field_id, label, mandatory, init_value, aux)
-type: can be text, textarea, radio, checkbox, select, file, hidden, password
-field_id: HTML id of the field (for radio, it also sets name)
-label: HTML label for field
-mandatory: if true, an "*" is show after the label, and this field must be
filled (for file, you must write custom validator, asit can not check for file
upload errors)
-init_value: initial value of the field (defaults, loaded from database, etc.)
-aux: auxillary parameters, differs for each field type.
Aux parameter:
-text, password, hidden, file, textarea <str>: can be used to set size, class,
rows, cols, etc. (eg.: "class='example' size='10'")
-radio, select, checkbox <array>: associative array of the options
(option name => value)
-for checkbox, if a string is used, the class will generate a single checkbox
with a name set by the aux parameter (eg.:"I accept the terms.")
Initial values:
-text, password, hidden: initial content of the field
-radio, select: value of selected item
-checkbox: CSV string, values of selected items (eg.: "second, first")
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Usage of button
---------------
button() is basicly a wrapper for addField. With this, you can add submit,
reset, image, and button elements to the form.
//NOTE//: If you add an image or submit element, the last one will become the
main submit button of the form. This will be used to determine whether the form
has been submitted or not.
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Validators
----------
The validators class is only a sample class you can and should extend it as you
require.
A validator function must return FALSE, if there are no errors, or - on error -
it should return the error message (or at least TRUE).
The functions can receive 3 parameters: value, args, data
-value: the content of the field to which the validator is bound
-args: array of additional parameters passed by the "validator" function
-data: input array of the fields (makes the other fields data accessible,
so conditional validations are possible)
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Config options
--------------
optionName <type> explanation (default value)[optionlist]
Possible values for the "set" method:
-title <str> title of the form
-name <str> name & id of the form
-action <str> action attr of form
-method <enum> method attr of form (post) [get | post]
-class <str> class attr of form
-validator <str> filename of the validator class (validators.php)
-validatorClass <str> name of the validator class (Validator)
-sanitize <bool> sanitize input (true)
-submitMessage <str> message displayed on successful submission
("Form successfully submitted!")
-submitField <str> id of submit button
-showDebug <bool> show exception messages
-linebreaks <str> what to use es linebreaks
-divs <bool> use divs to encapsulate label&field rows
-showErrors <bool> show validation error messages
-errorTitle <str> title of the error list
-errorLabel <str> prepends this to the label of the invalid field
-errorPosition <enum> specify the position of the errorbox
[before | after | in_before | in_after]
("before" and "after" places the box outside the form element, the in_*
parameters place it inside)
-showAfterSuccess <bool> show form even after succesful submission (true)
-cleanAfterSuccess <bool> clean the fields after succesful submission (true)
-html5 <bool> use html5 attributes (required, placeholder)
-placeholder <bool> use label as placeholder
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Usage of loadData
-----------------
You can define additional data with an associative array. This makes it easier
to load data from a database record.
Usage:
(supposed that $data is an associative array, like:
"username"=>"john Doe", "email"=>"john@doe.com")
$form->loadData($data)
This will assign the calues to the fields with corresponding ID-s.
If you don't want to expose your database structure (highly advised!), you can
make use of the 2nd parameter of loadData: mapping.
This parameter is an associative array, mapping the database field names to form
field names in the following scheme: "db_field_name"=>"form_field_name"
$map=Array("username"=>"name", "email"=>"mail")
Using the $map is simple: $form->loadData($data, $map);
//NOTE//: If you use mapping, when saving the data from the form, you must remap
the values. For this, you can use the flipped map array.
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JSProtection
------------
A simple protection against bots. You can set a protection code that will be
filled in a hidden field by a small Javascript, and this code will be checked
for by its validator. If the bot can not parse JS, you will be safe from it.
However, the usage of this method is not advised, as many bots can parse JS, and
also legal submissions from users without JS would be refused.
Suggested method is using a "honeypot" input field.
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addItem
-------
This method can be used to add custom items to the form (HTML snippets,
fieldsets, outputs from other classes, etc.). It can also be used for Captcha
integration, as if you assign id & label for addItem, you can assign a validator
to it.
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Sample code
-----------
$form->new Form();
$form->set("title", "example form");
$form->addField("text", "username","Name", true, "John Doe");
$form->display();
$result=$form->getData();
(A more complex example can be found in the sample.php file.)
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