HTML::FormWidgets - Create HTML form markup

0.7.$Rev: 312 $

   package CatalystX::Usul::View;

   use parent qw(Catalyst::View CatalystX::Usul);
   use HTML::FormWidgets;

   sub build_widgets {
      my ($self, $c, $sources, $config) = @_; my $s = $c->stash; my $data = [];

      $sources ||= []; $config ||= {};

      for my $part (map { $s->{ $_ } } grep { $s->{ $_ } } @{ $sources }) {
         if (ref $part eq q(ARRAY) and $part->[ 0 ]) {
            push @{ $data }, $_ for (@{ $part });
         }
         else { push @{ $data }, $part }
      }

      $config->{assets      } = $s->{assets};
      $config->{base        } = $c->req->base;
      $config->{content_type} = $s->{content_type};
      $config->{fields      } = $s->{fields} || {};
      $config->{form        } = $s->{form};
      $config->{hide        } = $s->{hidden}->{items};
      $config->{messages    } = $s->{messages};
      $config->{pwidth      } = $s->{pwidth};
      $config->{root        } = $c->config->{root};
      $config->{static      } = $s->{static};
      $config->{swidth      } = $s->{width} if ($s->{width});
      $config->{template_dir} = $c->config->{template_dir};

      HTML::FormWidgets->build( $config, $data );
      return $data;
   }

Transforms a Perl data structure which defines one or more "widgets" into HTML or XHTML. Each widget is comprised of these optional components: a line or question number, a prompt string, a separator, an input field, additional field help, and Ajax field error string.

Input fields are selected by the widget type attribute. A factory subclass implements the method that generates the HTML or XHTML for that input field type. Adding more widget types is straightforward

This module is using the MooTools Javascript library to modify default browser behaviour

This module is used by CatalystX::Usul::View and as such its main use is as a form generator within a Catalyst application

      $class->build( $config, $data );

The build method iterates over a data structure that represents the form. One or more lists of widget definitions are processed in turn. New widgets are created and their rendered output replaces their definitions in the data structure

   $widget = $class->new( [{] key1 => value1, ... [}] );

Construct a widget. Mostly this is called by the build method. It requires the factory subclass for the widget type.

This method takes a large number of options with each widget using only few of them. Each option is described in the factory subclasses which use that option

   $widget->inflate( $args );

Creates new objects and returns their rendered output. Called by the _render methods in the factory subclasses to inflate embeded widget definitions

   $widget->init( $args );

Initialises this object with data from the passed arguments. This is usually overridden in the factory subclass which sets the default for it's own attributes and then calls this method in the base class

   $message_text = $widget->localize( $message_id, @args );

Use the supplied key to return a value from the messages hash. This hash was passed to the constructor and should contain any literal text used by any of the widgets

   $html = $widget->render;

Assemble the components of the generated widget. Each component is concatenated onto a scalar which is the returned value. This method calls _render which should be defined in the factory subclass for this widget type.

This method uses these attributes:

clear

If set to left the widget begins with an <br> element

stepno

If true it's value is wrapped in a <span class="lineNumber"> element and appended to the return value

prompt

If true it's value is wrapped in a <label class="prompt"> element and appended to the return value. The id attribute is used to set the for attribute of the <label> element. The palign attribute sets the text align style for the <label> element. The nowrap attribute sets whitespace style to nowrap in the <label> element. The pwidth attribute sets the width style attribute in the <label> element

sep

If true it's value is wrapped in a <span class="separator"> element and appended to the return value

container

If true the value return by the _render method is wrapped in <span class="container"> element. The value of the align attribute is added to the space separated class list

tip

The text of the field help. If tiptype is set to dagger (which is the default) then a dagger symbol is wrapped in a <span class="help tips"> and this is appended to the returned input field. The tip text is used as the title attribute. If the tiptype is not set to dagger then the help text is wrapped around the input field itself

ajaxid

The text of the message which is displayed if the field's value fails server side validation

   $widget->_bootstrap( $args );

Determine the id, name and type attributes of the widget from the supplied arguments

   $widget->_ensure_class_loaded( $class );

Once the factory subclass is known this method ensures that it is loaded and then re-blesses the self referential object into the correct class

   $html = $widget->_render( $args );

This should have been overridden in the factory subclass. If it gets called its probably an error so return the value of the text attribute if set or an error message otherwise

   $widget->_set_error( $error_text );

Stores the passed error message in the text attribute so that it gets rendered in place of the widget

   $args = __arg_list( @rest );

Accepts either a single argument of a hash ref or a list of key/value pairs. Returns a hash ref in either case.

   $html = __group_fields( $hacc, $item, $stack );

Wraps the top nitems number of widgets on the build stack in a <fieldset> element with a legend

   $widget = $class->new( __merge_hashes( $config, $item->{content} ) );

Does a simple merging of the two hash refs that are passed as arguments. The second argument takes precedence over the first

The following are passed to build in the config hash (they reflect this modules primary use within a Catalyst application):

assets

Some of the widgets require image files. This attribute is used to create the URI for those images

base

This is the prefix for our URI

content_type

Either application/xhtml+xml which generates XHTML 1.1 or text/html which generates HTML 4.01 and is the default

fields

This hash ref contains the fields definitions. Static parameters for each widget can be stored in configuration files. This reduces the number of attributes that have to be passed in the call to the constructor

form

Used by the Chooser subclass

hide

So that the File and Table subclasses can store the number of rows added as the hidden form attribute nRows

js_object

This is the name of the global Javascript variable that holds config object. Defaults to html_formwidgets

messages

Many of the subclasses use this hash to supply literal text in a language of the users choosing

root

The path to the document root for this application

swidth

Width in pixels of the browser window. This is used to calculate the width of the field prompt. The field prompt needs to be a fixed length so that the separator colons align vertically

templatedir

The path to template files used by the Template subclass

Sensible defaults are provided by new if any of the above are undefined

These are the possible values for the type attribute which defaults to textfield. Each subclass implements the _render method, it receives a hash ref of options an returns a scalar containing some XHTML.

The distribution ships with the following factory subclasses:

Returns an <anchor> element with a class set from the class arg (which defaults to linkFade). It's href attribute set to the href arg. The anchor body is set to the text arg

Generates an image button where name identifies the image file in assets and is also used as the return value. The button name is set to _verb. If the image file does not exist a regular input button is rendered instead

Return a <checkbox> element of value value. Use the element's value as key to the labels hash. The hash value (which defaults null) is used as the displayed label. The checked arg determines the checkbox's initial setting

Creates a popup window which allows one item to be selected from a long list of items

Creates list of links from the data set supplied in the data arg

Return another <textfield>, this time with a calendar icon which when clicked pops up a Javascript date picker. Requires the appropriate JS library to have been loaded by the page. Attribute width controls the size of the <textfield> (default 10 characters) and format defaults to dd/mm/yyyy. Setting the readonly attribute to true (which is the default) causes the input <textfield> to become readonly

Display the contents of a file pointed to by path. Supports the following subtypes:

csv

Return a table containing the CSV formatted file. This and the file subtype are selectable if select >= 0 and represents the column number of the key field

file

Default subtype. Like the logfile subtype but without the <pre> tags

html

The _render method returns an <iframe> element whose src attribute is set to path. Paths that begin with root will have that replaced with the base attribute value. Paths that do not begin with "http:" will have the base attribute value prepended to them

logfile

The _render method returns a table where each line of the logfile appears as a separate row containing one cell. The logfile lines are each wrapped in <pre> tags

source

The module Syntax::Highlight::Perl is used to provide colour highlights for the Perl source code. Tabs are expanded to tabstop spaces and the result is returned wrapped in <pre> tags

New values entered into a text field can be added to the list. Existing list values (passed in values) can be removed. The height of the list is set by height.

Displays two lists which allow for membership of a group. The first scrolling list contains "all" values (all), the second contains those values currently selected (current). The height of the scrolling lists is set by height

Generates a hidden input field. Uses the default attribute as the value

Generates an image tag. The text attribute contains the source URI. The fhelp attribute contains the alt text and the tiptype attribute is defaulted to normal (wraps the image in a span with a JS tooltip)

Calls localize with the name attribute as the message key. If the message does not exist the value of the text attribute is used. If dropcap is true the first character of the text is wrapped in a <span class="dropcap">

Generates an unordered list of links. Used with some applied CSS to implement a navigation menu

Calls localize with the name attribute as the message key. If the message does not exist the value if the text attribute is used. The text is wrapped in a c<< <span class="note"> >> with align setting the style text alignment and width setting the style width

Uses Pod::Html to render the POD in the given module as HTML

Newspaper like paragraphs rendered in a given number of columns, each approximately the same length. Defines these attributes;

column_class

CSS class name of the <span> wrapped around each column. Defaults to null

columns

Number of columns to render the paragraphs in. Defaults to 1

data

Paragraphs of text. A hash ref whose values attribute is an array ref. The values of that array are the hash refs that define each paragraph. The keys of the paragraph hash ref are class, heading, and text.

hclass

Each paragraph can have a heading. This is the class of then <span> that wraps the heading text. Defaults to null

max_width

Maximum width of all paragraphs expressed as a percentage. Defaults to 90

para_lead

Paragraph leading. This value is in characters. It is added to the size of each paragraph to account for the leading applied by the CSS to each paragraph. If a paragraph is split, then the first part must by greater than twice this value or the widows and orphans trap will reap it

Returns a password field of width width which defaults to twenty characters. If subtype equals verify then the message vPasswordPrompt and another password field are appended. The fields id and name are expected to contain the digit 1 which will be substituted for the digit 2 in the attributes of the second field

Returns a list of <option> elements wrapped in a <select> element. The list of options is passed in values with the display labels in labels. The onchange event handler will be set to the onchange attribute value

The attribute columns sets the number of columns for the returned table of radio buttons. The list of button values is passed in values with the display labels in labels. The onchange event handler will be set to onchange

Generates a horizontal rule with optional clickable action

The height attribute controls the height of the scrolling list. The list of options is passed in values with the display labels in labels. The onchange event handler will be set to onchange

Implements a dragable slider which returns an integer value. The Slider widget defines these attributes:

display

Boolean which if true causes the widget to display a readonly text field containing the sliders current value. If false a <hidden >> element is generated instead. Defaults to 1

element

Name of the Javascript instance variable. This will need setting to a unique value for each slider on the same form. Defaults to behaviour.sliderElement

hide

If the display attribute is false the current value is pushed onto this array. Defaults to []

mode

Which orientation to render in. Defaults to horizontal

offset

Sets the minimum value for the slider. Defaults to 0

range

The range is either the offset plus the number of steps or the two values of this array if it is set. Defaults to false

snap

Snap to the nearest step value? Defaults to 1

steps

Sets the number of steps. Defaults to 100

wheel

Use the mouse wheel? Defaults to 1

The input data is in $data->{values} which is an array ref for which each element is an array ref containing the list of field values.

Look in templatedir for a Template::Toolkit template called id with a .tt extension. Slurp it in and return it as the content for this widget. This provides for a "user defined" widget type

A text area. It defaults to five lines high (height) and sixty characters wide (width)

This is the default widget type. Your basic text field which defaults to sixty characters wide (width)

Implements an expanding tree of selectable objects

None

Class::Accessor::Fast

Class::Inspector

Class::MOP

HTML::Accessors

Syntax::Highlight::Perl

Text::Markdown

Text::ParseWords

Text::Tabs

Try::Tiny

Included in the distribution are the Javascript files whose methods are called by the event handlers associated with these widgets

   HTML Parser By John Resig (ejohn.org)
   Original code by Erik Arvidsson, Mozilla Public License
   http://erik.eae.net/simplehtmlparser/simplehtmlparser.js

Used to reimplement "innerHTML" assignments from XHTML

   Mootools - My Object Oriented javascript.
   License: MIT-style license.
   WWW: http://mootools.net/

This is the main JS library used with this package

Replaces Mootools' setHTML method with one that uses the HTML parser. The included copy has a few hacks that improve the Accordion widget

   Copyright Mihai Bazon, 2002-2005  |  www.bazon.net/mishoo
   The DHTML Calendar, version 1.0   |  www.dynarch.com/projects/calendar
   License: GNU Lesser General Public License

Implements the calendar popup used by the ::Date subclass

Is included from the App::Munchies default skin. It uses the MooTools library to implement the server side field validation

Also included in the images subdirectory of the distribution are example PNG files used by some of the widgets.

There are no known incompatibilities in this module.

The installation script does nothing with the Javascript or PNG files which are included in the distribution for completeness

There are no known bugs in this module. Please report problems to the address below. Patches are welcome

Peter Flanigan, <Support at RoxSoft.co.uk>

Copyright (c) 2011 Peter Flanigan. All rights reserved

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE