The form will be configured using a XML definition. The configuration is basically splitted into two parts:
The basic form configuration looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<configuration>
<source>
<!-- Define different entity types -->
</source>
<form>
<!-- Define and layout a form -->
</form>
<snippet>
<!-- Container holdig parts of a form definition -->
</snippet>
</configuration>
The Snippet element is optional and just a helper.
The source directive defines the Entity are available in your forms. An entity is defined only once in the source section. It will get referenced in the FormbarFormEditor directive later to build the forms.
A Entity is a field definition. The entity is used to configure aspects of the datamodel the layout and behaviour of the field in the form.
Here is an example of an entity definition:
<entity id="f1" name="age" label="Age" type="integer" css="field" required="true">
<renderer type="text"/>
<help>This is a help text</help>
<rule expr="$age ge 21" msg="Age must be greater than 21"/>
</entity>
Entities can be marked as required or desired. Formed will generate automatically a Rule for this field. Missing required fields will trigger an error on form validation. Desired fields will trigger a warning.
Entities can be marked as readonly. Readonly fields are renderer as simple text in the form displaying the current value of the field. Note, that readonly fields are not sent on submission! If you need the value if the form you will need to add an additional entity and render is with the hidden field renderer.
Each entity can optional have a Renderer, Rule or Help element.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| id | Used to refer to this entity in the form. Requiered. Must be unique. |
| name | Used as name attribute in the rendered field. Defines the name of this attribute in the model. |
| label | The field will be rendered with this label. |
| number | A small number which is rendered in front of the label. |
| type | Defines the python datatype which will be used on deserialisation of the submitted value. Defines the datatype of the model. Possible values are string (default), integer, float, date, datetime, email. |
| css | Value will be rendered as class attribute in the rendered field. |
| expr | Expression which is used to calculate the value of the field. |
| value | Default value of the field. Supports expressions. The default value might get overwritten on rendering. |
| readonly | Flag to indicate that the field should be rendered as readonly field. Default is false. |
| required | Flag to indicate that the is a required field. Default is false. |
| desired | Flag to indicate that the is a desired field. Default is false. |
Rules are used to validate data in the form. Formed does already some basic validated on the submitted data depending on the configured data type in the Entity. These checks are often already sufficient for most basic forms.
If you need more validation rules can be used to define additional checks. There are two types of rules. Rules which triggers errors, and rules which trigger a warning if the evaluation of the rule fails.
Rules are evaluated in the process of validation the submitted data. On validation formed will collect warning and errors and will rerender the form displaying them. If the form has errors the validation fails. Warnings are ok for validation.
Validation of rules can be done in differen modes. Rules with the mode pre are evaluation before the deserialisation of the submitted value occurs into the python data type of the field. In contrast rules with mode post are evaluation after the deserialisation happened.
Here is a example rule:
<rule expr="$age ge 21" msg="Age must be greater than 21" mode="post" triggers="warning"/>
Here you can see a example rule. The rule will check the value of field “age” ($age) is greater or equal that the value 21. The rule is evaluated in post mode. And will trigger a warning if the evaluation fails.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| expr | Expression which is used to validate the value if the field. |
| msg | The message which is displayed if the evaluation of the rule fails. |
| mode | Point in validation when this rules gets evaluations. post (default) means after the deserialisation of the value and pre is before deserialisation. |
| triggers | Flag which defines which type of message a the rule will trigger if the evaluation fails. Be be error (default) or warning. |
The help block can be used to add some information to the field for the user. The help will be rendererd below the field in the form.
The renderer directive can be used to configure an alternative renderer to be used to render the field.
The default renderer is chosen depending on the datatype of the field and is a textfield for almost all normal datatypes. On relations (in SQLAlchemy mapped items) a selection field is used for the relations.
There are different types of renderers available coming with formed. But it is very easy to provide formed with your own custom renderer.
The lable tag can be used to have more options to configure the rendering of the fields label. The label tag can be seen as a configuration option of the renderer:
<renderer>
<label position="left" align="right" width="4"/>
...
</renderer>
The label tag is only used to configure the position, alignment and the width of the label. The text of the label is still configured in the entitiy.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| position | The position of the label realtive to the field element. Can be “left”, “top”, “right”. Defaults to “top”. |
| align | The alignment of the text in the label. This only applies for labels with position set to “left” or “right”. Can be “left” and “right”. Defaults to “left”. |
| align | The width of the label in cols. The whole field including the label can be deived into 12 cols. If the label has e.g 4 cols the field will automatically take the remaining 8 cols. This only applies for labels with position set to “left” or “right”. |
Use this renderer if you want to render the field as a textfield:
<renderer type="textarea" rows="20"/>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| rows | Number of rows of the texteare. Default is 3. |
The info field renderer is used to render the value of the entity as textual information. This renderer is usually used to display calculated values of the entity. See the expr attribute of the Entity. If you simply want to display a static value comming from on of the items attribute you can also use the value attribute. Appearance is same as a readonly field:
<renderer type="infofield"/>
The selection renderer is used to render a selection list fields. Such a field is capable to select multiple options. The renderer defines also the options which should be available in the dropdown menu. For SQLAlchemy mapped items the options are automatically determined from the underlying data model:
<entity>
<renderer type="selection"/>
<!-- Note, that the options are part of the entity! -->
<options>
<option value="1">Option 1</option>
<option value="2">Option 2</option>
<option value="3">Option 3</option>
</options>
</entity>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| filter | Expression which must evaluate to True if the option shoul be shown in the Dropdown. |
| remove_filtered | Flag “true/false” to indicate that filtered items should not be rendered at all. On default filtered items will only be hidden and selection is still present. |
| ignore | Another way to filter options. (Deprecated) |
Note
Filtering is only possible for SQLAlchemy mapped items.
Filtering can be done by defining a expression in the filter attribute. This expression is later evaluated by the rule system of formbar. The expression must evaluate to true and is evaluated for every option. The expression uses a two special variables begining with
1. %. Variables begining with % marks the name of an attribute of the current options item. The variable will be replaced by the value of the attribute of the current item in the option for every option before evaluating. 2. @. Varaible beginning with @ marks the name of an attribute of the parents form item.
Both variables support accessing related items through the dot-syntax:
<renderer type="selection" filter="%foo eq @bar.baz">
The ignore attribute offers another but deprecated way to filter options. It syntax differs from the filter expression. See source for more information.
The dropdown renderer is used to render dropdown fields. The renderer defines also the options which should be available in the dropdown menu. For SQLAlchemy mapped items the options are automatically determined from the underlying data model:
<renderer type="dropdown">
<option value="1">Option 1</option>
<option value="2">Option 2</option>
<option value="3">Option 3</option>
</renderer>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| filter | Expression which must evaluate to True if the option shoul be shown in the Dropdown. |
| ignore | Another way to filter options. (Deprecated) |
Note
Filtering is only possible for SQLAlchemy mapped items.
See filtering section of the Dropdown renderer.
The radio renderer is used to render radio fields based on the given options. Such a field is capable to select only one option. For SQLAlchemy mapped items the options are automatically determined from the underlying data model. The radionfields will be aligned in a horizontal row:
<entity>
<renderer type="radio"/>
<options>
<option value="1">Option 1</option>
<option value="2">Option 2</option>
<option value="3">Option 3</option>
</options>
</entity>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| filter | Expression which must evaluate to True if the option shoul be shown in the Dropdown. |
| remove_filtered | Flag “true/false” to indicate that filtered items should not be rendered at all. On default filtered items will only be hidden and selection is still present. |
| ignore | Another way to filter options. (Deprecated) |
| align | Alignment of the checkboxes. Can be “vertical” or “horizontal”. Defaults to “horizontal”. |
See filtering section of the Dropdown renderer.
The checkbox renderer is used to render checkbox fields based on the given options. Such a field is capable to multiple options. For SQLAlchemy mapped items the options are automatically determined from the underlying data model. The checkboxes will be aligned in a horizontal row:
<entity>
<renderer type="checkbox"/>
<options>
<option value="1">Option 1</option>
<option value="2">Option 2</option>
<option value="3">Option 3</option>
</options>
</entity>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| filter | Expression which must evaluate to True if the option shoul be shown in the Dropdown. |
| remove_filtered | Flag “true/false” to indicate that filtered items should not be rendered at all. On default filtered items will only be hidden and selection is still present. |
| ignore | Another way to filter options. (Deprecated) |
| align | Alignment of the checkboxes. Can be “vertical” or “horizontal”. Defaults to “horizontal”. |
See filtering section of the Dropdown renderer.
The datepicker renderer has some Javascript functionality which lets the used pick the date from a calender. It also only allows valid date entries per keyboard:
<renderer type="datepicker"/>
The password renderer renderes a password field which hides the users input:
<renderer type="password"/>
The html renderer is used to render custom html code. This is usefull if you want to render generic text sections or insert images. Images will need a external source for the image file. The html renderer will render Javascript , Stylesheets and HTML code:
<renderer type="html">
<div>
<p>You can include all valid html including images, lists etc.</p>
<p><strong>Warning:</strong>Also JS can be included.</p>
</div>
</renderer>
Your custom code should be wrapped into a empty div node. Otherwise only the first child node of the renderer will be rendererd. The entity only needs the id attribute. If a label is provided, the label will be uses as some kind of header to the html part.
Warning
Use this renderer with caution as it may introduce a large security hole if users inject malicious javascript code into the form using the html renderer.
Use this renderer if you want to render a editor for formbar forms. The Editor will have a preview window which shows the result of the rendering of the form. If rendering fails, the preview will show the errors which happened while rendering:
<renderer type="formbareditor" url="foo/bar" rows="20"/>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| rows | Number of rows of the texteare. Default is 3. |
| url | URL which is called to renderer the form. |
The form directive is the place where the form definition and layout happens.
Hint
You can define more than one form in one configuration. This gets very handy if you want to define different forms for differen purposes. Example: You have a form to create a new item with a reduced set of fields. Another form which has all fields included can be used to edit the item.
Forms are built by using references to the defined entities packed in some layout directives:
<form id="create" css="fooish" autocomplete="off" method="POST" action="" enctype="multipart/form-data">
...
</form>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| id | Unique id of the field. |
| css | The attribute will be added to the class attribute of the form. |
| autocomplete | Flag to indicate if the form should be autocompleted by the browser. Defaults to on. |
| method | HTTP method used to submit the data. Defaults to POST. |
| action | URL where is submitted data is sent to. Default to the current URL. |
| enctype | Encrytion used while sending the data. Defaults to application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Use multipart/form-data if you plan to submit file uploads. |
Optional directive within the form tag to configure custom buttons for the form. If not defined the default Submit and Reset Buttons are renderered:
<buttons>
<button type="submit" value="delete" name="_submit" class="warning" icon="glyphicon glyphicon-delete">Delete</button>
...
</buttons>
Buttons are rendererd at the bottom of the form element. The first button in the definition will be the first button on the left side.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| type | Optional. Type of action the button will trigger on the form (submit, reset). Defaults to submit |
| value | Optional. Value which is submitted in the form. Defaults to the buttons text. |
| name | Optional. Name under which the value will be available in the submitted data Defaults to _$type. |
| class | Optional. CSS class which will be added to the button. |
| icon | Optional. Definition of glyphicons which will be displayed before the buttons label. |
Use pages if you want to divide your form into multiple pages. Pages are rendered as a separate outline of the form on the left site to navigate through the form pages.
Used to layout the form:
<row>
<col></col>
<col></col>
</row>
<row>
<col width="8"></col>
<col width="2"></col>
<col width="2"></col>
</row>
The form is divided into 12 virtual cols. The width of each col is calculated automatically. A single in a row will have the full width of 12. For 2 cols in a row each col will have a width of 6 cols. If you define 3 cols each col will have a width of 4 and so on.
You can alternatively define the width of the col. If you provide the width of the col you need to take care that the sum of all cols in the row is 12 to not mess up the layout.
Rows and cols can be mixed. So rows can be in cols again.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| width | Width of the col (1-12). |
Sections can be used to divide a page in logical sections. This is very similar to the fieldsets:
<section label="1. Section">
<subsection label="1.1 Subsection">
<row>
<col></col>
<col></col>
</row>
<subsubsection label="1.1.1 Subsubsection">
...
</subsubsection>
</subsection>
</section>
Every section will genereate a HTML header tag. Formbar supports up to three levels of sections.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| label | Label of the fieldset rendered as header. |
A fieldset can be used to group fields into a logical unit a fieldset will have a label which is rendered as a heading above the first field of the fieldset. Fieldsets can be nested to model some kind of hierarchy. Formbar supports up to three levels. The size of the font in the fieldset legend will be reduced a littlebit on every level.:
<fieldset label="1. Foo">
...
<fieldset label="1.1 Bar">
<row>
<col></col>
<col></col>
</row>
<fieldset>
<fieldset>
A fieldset can include almost all other directives.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| label | Label of the fieldset rendered as header. |
Text can be used to add some simple text information in the form. It does not support any formatting of the text. If you need more formatting please use the html renderer:
<row>
<col><text>Hello I'm Text</text></col>
<col><text>Hello I'm a seconds Text</text></col>
</row>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| color | Color of the text. Possible options: “muted”, “warning”, “danger”, “info”, “primary”, “success”. Defaults to no change of the current text color. |
| bg | Color of the background. Possible options: “warning”, “danger”, “info”, “primary”, “success”. Defaults to render no background. |
| em | Emphasis of the text. Possible options: “strong”, “small”, “em” (italic). Defaults to no emphasis. |
Important
Tables should not be used to layout the form!
Tables can be used to arrange your fields in a tabuluar form. This becomes handy in some situations e.g to build your own widget:
<table>
<tr>
<th>Criteria</th>
<th>Male</th>
<th>Female</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="70%">Number of humans in the world</td>
<td><field ref="men"/></td>
<td><field ref="women"/></td>
<td><field ref="total"/></td>
</tr>
</table>
Tables are usually used in the same way as Field is used. Tables will take 100% of the available space. You can set the width attribute of the <td> field to configure the width of the columns. The width of the column can be set to % or pixel.
The following attributes are supported for the td and th tags of the table: width, class , rowspan, colspan.
A field in the form. The field only references an Entity:
<field ref="f1"/>
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| ref | id if the referenced Entity. |
Conditional can be used to hide, or render form elements like fields, tables, fieldsets and text elements within the conditional as readonly elements.
If the condition must evaluate to true or false. If true, the elements are rendered normal. If the condition is false the effect is determined by the type of the conditional. On default the elements will be hidden completely. As alternative you can set the type of the conditional to “readonly”. Currently only the type “readonly” are supported. Expample:
<if type="readonly" expr="$fieldname == 4">
<field ref="r1"/>
</if>
In the example above the referenced field will be shown if the field in the form with the name “fieldname” has the value of 4. Else the element will be set to readonly and the element will have a lowered opacity.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| type | Effect of the conditional if the condition evaluates to false. Defaults to hide. |
| expr | The expression which will be evaluated. |
Conditionals are evaluated using JavaScript on the client side. Formbar also needs to evaluate the conditional internal on validation to determine which values will be taken into account while validating. As result validation rules will not be applied for “hidden” fields.
Snippets are reusable parts of your form definiton. Snippets allow you to define parts of the form only once and use them in multiple forms. Example: If you want to use the same form to create and edit than you can define the form in a snippet and use it in the create and edit form:
<form id="foo">
<snippet ref="s1"/>
</form>
<form id="bar">
<snippet ref="s1"/>
</form>
<snippet id="s1">
<row>...</row>
</snippet>
Snippet needs to be in a form to get rendered. Snippets can reference other snippets using the ref attribute. Snippets are of great help if you want to reduced the effort of rearranging groups of elements in the form. But on the other side the can make the form quite complicated if you use them too much. Use them with care.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| id | Unique id of the snippet |
| ref | References the snippet with id. |
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