Comments on: Simplifying Automated Form Generation, Validation, and Output

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:22:08 +0000

You might be interested to see ultimateForm, which has a similar simple array concept rather than the multiple-object system in QuickForm, which I’ve found over-complex myself.

http://download.geog.cam.ac.uk/projects/ultimateform/

See the example and its source code there, which seem to be quite similar to what you were talking about. It also has a templating mode and a data binding system for auto dbtable-to-widgets support.

Solar_Form looks quite nice – I’ll definitely take a look at that.

By: a work on process » DB_DataObject_FormBuilder with multiple tables

a work on process » DB_DataObject_FormBuilder with multiple tables — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:11:09 +0000

[...] I’ve a lot of sympathy with Paul Jones’ comments on HTML_QuickForm and MVC. Right now I’m setting up my forms with the relevant data in the model layer and then passing [...]

By: pmjones

pmjones — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 14:02:25 +0000

Hi again, George: looking at your question again, it seems you might be asking about only validation routines, as opposed to validation of form data via Solar_Form.

The validation routines are actually part of Solar_Valid, and are called in sequence by Solar_Form::validate() based on the validations registered for each form element. Thus, tou can use Solar_Valid indpendently as well (it holds only static methods).

Hope this helps.

By: pmjones

pmjones — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 13:57:23 +0000

Hi, George — absolutely. The Solar_Form class is independent of model, and view, and controller. It’s just there to collect data (from any source) and let you do server-side validation of the form values. Thanks for asking. :-)

By: George Jempty

George Jempty — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 13:44:44 +0000

Would it be possible to only use the validation part of Solar/Forms? I recently cataloged an antipattern I call “All Web Development is New Development”. I just want to account for the possibility that the presentation is already set and I am not at liberty to alter it. But I might like to “bolt on” some validation to an existing form. This is all theoretical mind you ;)

By: pmjones

pmjones — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 17:19:17 +0000

Hi, Toby –

I just took a short look at patForms from your link. The code appears to suffer some of the same drawbacks that I mention regarding HTML_QuickForm. Each element is an object unto itself. Also, it seems to combine the view aspects with the model/controller aspects, which I would prefer to keep separated.

Your use of arrays in the PHP source here obviously predates the Savant and Solar_Form array. While I would quibble with the use of a string “yes” instead of a boolean “true”, the idea seems very much the same.

Thanks for the comment. :-)

By: Toby

Toby — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 15:46:06 +0000

Take a look at PAT Forms. :)
http://www.php-tools.net/site.php?file=patForms/overview.xml