Feedback on FormPlugin

We already have 2 form plugins: HtmlFormsPlugin and ControlsPlugin. Why create yet another one? Both plugins allow to create form elements (in slightly different ways), but neither plugin lets me create a complete form. And I found form validation (plus feedback) lacking.

FormPlugin is work in progress and should incorporate more traits from these plugins, for example to load form data from another topic.

-- ArthurClemens - 13 May 2007

older comments removed (see revision 21)

-- ArthurClemens - 08 Mar 2008

Using this promising plugin breaks the CSS in that when I try and view even a simple form my navigation menu switches over to the right-hand side. Viewing the FormPluginExamples topic also shows that the CSS is broken because the example forms become centered and the font changes. I get this with both IE7.5730 and FF2.0.0.14.

I'm running TWiki version TWiki-4.2.0, Tue, 22 Jan 2008, build 16278, Plugin API version 1.2.

This means I cannot use this plugin as it looks messy.

-- JamesGMoore - 18 Jun 2008

Do you a different skin than PatternSkin?

-- ArthurClemens - 18 Jun 2008

Nope I use the default skin which is PatternSkin.

-- JamesGMoore - 19 Jun 2008

I've put more info on my user info, just click my name and read the TWiki Usage section.

-- JamesGMoore - 19 Jun 2008

I don't see any problems on IE 7 nor Firefox (2.0.0.16).

-- ArthurClemens - 27 Jul 2008

Hi Arthur, after the installation I got an

Undefined subroutine &TWiki::Func::isTrue called at /home/twiki/lib/TWiki/Plugins/FormPlugin.pm line 631.

does this mean that the TWiki version I'm running is not up to par ?

-- KeithHelfrich - 24 Sep 2008

I see there is a mistake in the code. Instead of calling TWiki::Func::isTrue it should call the internal function isTrue. Tracked in Bugs:Item6017.

-- ArthurClemens - 24 Sep 2008

I had problems using this plugin with mod_perl. My solution is to init the global variables in the initPlugin() function:

At Line 122 insert:

   #init global variabes (problems with mod_perl)
   $headerDone               = 0;
   $defaultTitleFormat       = ' $t <br />';
   $defaultFormat            = '<p>$titleformat $e $m $h </p>';
   $defaultHiddenFieldFormat = '$e';
   %expandedForms            = ();
   %validatedForms           = ();
   %errorForms               = ();
   %noErrorForms             = ();
   %uncheckedForms           = ();
   %substitutedForms         = ()
     ; # hash of forms names that have their field tokens substituted by the corresponding field values
   %errorFields = ();    # for each field entry: ...

-- ManfredMeiser - 2009-10-08

I'm finding that with validation, radio form fields which were filled in are not being forwarded. In other words, say you left out any mandatory fields, when the form is re-displayed, any radio entries are set back to their default values. I'm going to look at the code and see if I can spot anything. Any ideas?

-- AaronLWalker - 2011-01-06

I find the problem with checkboxes, too. Perhaps it is because the plugin the id fields for these elements are changed to <name>_<value> ?

-- AaronLWalker - 2011-01-06

A nice-to-have would be an id token for the form fields. I know some get generated for radio buttons and checkboxes, but having them for all fields would make some javascript processing much easier.

-- AaronLWalker - 2011-01-07

Yes, and the ID could match the name cleaned-up of the form field (removing spaces, dashes etc)

-- PeterThoeny - 2011-01-07