RenderFormPlugin

The RenderFormPlugin handles the tag %RENDERFORM{...}%. The tag will be replaced by a form that is defined and looks like TWikiForms. It helps you to create a new topic with TWikiForms or to edit or view existing topic form data. The form data can be changed without pushing the topic edit button. The tag can be used at any topic to show, edit or create TWikiForms data from any other topic.

Features:

• easy to use: 1. define a form, 2. put the %RENDERFORM{...}% tag on a topic (you do not need to register a form or edit a page to add the form to a topic)
• supports all form field types of TWikiForms (text, textarea, checkbox, checkbox+buttons , date, select, select+multi, radio, label)
• supports 3 modes (mode option): create (default), edit, view (default if a topic exists)
• mode switching: edit to view and view to edit
• simple JavaScript based form field validator for mandatory fields
• hide some form fields (hidden option)
• change display order of form fields (order option)
• use URL parameters to overwrite options (query parameter names: rfp_<attribute>)
• define your own (mode dependent) form layout (layout option)

Example (image):

Syntax Rules

• Usage: %RENDERFORM{attr1="val1" attr2="val2" ...}%
• Example: %RENDERFORM{"TWikiFormDefinition"}% (=%RENDERFORM{form="TWikiFormDefinition"}%)

Quick Start Guide

1. Create a new topic (e.g. TestForm) for your TWikiForms definition and put the following to the new topic ( EditTablePlugin required):

   %EDITTABLE{format="|text,20,|select,1,label,text,textarea,select,select+multi,checkbox,checkbox+buttons,radio,date|text,6,1|text,50|text,20|text,5,|"}%
   | *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
        

2. Add some new rows to your TWikiForms definition by editing the definition table.
3. Create a new topic (e.g. MyTestTopic) and put the following to this new topic:

   %RENDERFORM{"MyTestForm")%
   
   %SEARCH{search="MyTestTopic\d+" scope="topic" type="regex"}%
        

4. Have fun by creating new topics with forms (e.g. topic names: MyTestTopic0? , MyTestTopic1? , ...).

Usage Examples

Simple Help Desk

• SimpleHelpDeskForm? topic:

  | *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
  | Question | text | 80 | | | M |
  | Details | textarea | 80x10 | | please fill in some details ... | |
  | Answer | textarea | 80x10 | | Answer | |
  | State | select | 1 | open,closed | | |
       

• SimpleHelpDesk? topic:

  %RENDERFORM{"SimpleHelpDeskForm" hidden="Answer,State" createbutton="submit" hideheader="yes" text="Back to !SimpleHelpDesk"}%
    
  | *Question* | *Date* | *State* |
  %SEARCH{search="SimpleHelpDesk\d+" scope="topic" type="regex" nonoise="on" format="| <a href=\"SimpleHelpDesk?rfp_topic=$topic;rfp_hidden=;rfp_hideheader=off\">$formfield(Question)</a> | $date | $formfield(State) |"}% 
  
  %TOPIC% 
       

Nice Help Desk

• NiceHelpDeskForm? topic:

  | *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
  | Question | text | 80 | | | M |
  | Details | textarea | 80x10 | | please fill in some details ... | |
  | Answer | textarea | 80x10 | | Answer | |
  | State | select | 1 | open,closed | | |
       

• NiceHelpDeskTemplate? :

  %TOC%
  ---++ Question: %FORMFIELD{"Question"}% - State: %FORMFIELD{"State"}%
  
  Details:
  
  <pre>
  %FORMFIELD{"Details" default="no details"}%
  </pre>
  
  ---++ Answer
  %FORMFIELD{"Answer" default="no answer yet"}%
  
  ---++ Comments
  %COMMENT{type="threadmode"}%
  
       

• NiceHelpDesk? topic:

  %RENDERFORM{"NiceHelpDeskForm" templatetopic="NiceHelpDeskTemplate" hidden="Answer,State" createbutton="submit" hideheader="yes"}%
  
  | *Question* | *Date* | *State* | *Action* |
  %SEARCH{search="NiceHelpDesk\d+" scope="topic" type="regex" nonoise="on" format="| [[$topic][$formfield(Question)]]| $date | $formfield(State) | <a href=\"NiceHelpDesk?rfp_topic=$topic;rfp_hidden=;rfp_hideheader=off\" title=\"View form data\">[V]</a>  <a href=\"NiceHelpDesk?rfp_topic=$topic;rfp_hidden=;rfp_hideheader=off;rfp_mode=edit\" title=\"edit form data\">[E]</a>  | "}%
  
  %TOPIC%
       

Attributes

Attribute Description Default / Example dateformat overwrites the JSCALENDARDATEFORMAT preference for date fields dateformat="%d %b %Y" donotnotify disables notifications undefined / donotnotify="on" form (required attribute) a name of a topic with a TWikiForms definition undefined / form="MyTestForm" hidden a comma separated list of form field names to hide in all modes undefined / hidden="Field1,Field2" hideheader if set, disables the form header hideheader="no" layout a topic with a layout (see Form Layout section); syntax: layout="<topic>#<layout name>"; if layout name is omitted a default layout will be taken undefined / layout="TestFormLayout#test1" mode render mode of the form, allowed values: create (default), edit, view (default if topic exists) mode="create" onlynewtopic disables overwrite of existing topics onlynewtopic="on" onlywikiname disallows the usage of non-TWiki.WikiWords for topic names onlywikiname="on" order changes the display order of form fields; order value is a comma separated list of field names; if the order list is incomplete all missing and unhidden form fields will be added; there are special values for order: [:alpha:], [:dalpha:], [:num:] and [:dnum:], e.g. order="[:alpha:]" to sort all fields alphanumerical undefined / order="Field1, Field2" script changes the behavior of edit/create modes; allowed values: save - saves the form data; edit - edit the resulting topic script="save" template a template name for predefined attributes undefined / template="helpdesk" templatetopic a template topic; useful for the create mode undefined / templatetopic="MyHelpDeskTopicTemplate" text the topic text; text will be ignored if a templatetopic is defined undefined / text="my small topic text" topic an existing topic for edit and view mode or a topic template name for a new topic (create mode) (e.g. TestFormDataXXXXXXXXXX) topic="%TOPIC%XXXXXXXXXX" / topic="TestFormData%SERVERTIME{$epoch}%" topicparent a topic parent; useful for the create mode; if undefined the form topic will be used topicparent="%WEB%.%TOPIC%" / topicparent="MyHelpDesk"

Form Layout

Usage: %RENDERFORM{"<form definition>" ... layout="<layout topic>"}%
-or- %RENDERFORM{"<form definition>" ... layout="<layout topic>#<layout name>"}%

• a form layout is surrounded with the tags %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT% and %STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%, e.g:

     -- a default layout --
  %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT%
  < your layout >
  %STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%
  
     -- OR a named layout --
  %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT{"< layout name >"}% 
  < your layout >
  %<nop>STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%=
  
     -- OR a named layout for view mode --
  %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT{"< layout name >" mode="view"}% 
  < your layout >
  %<nop>STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%=
       

• the layout names 'view', 'create' and 'edit' are reserved and should be used for mode specific layout definitions
• if you use the mode option in %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT% this layout definition will be used only in the given mode (allowed modes: create,edit,view)
• you can use form data values (view mode) or form fields (create/edit mode) by typing a tag like @< form field  name >@, e.g. @Question@

Following tags are reserved and replaced by ... Tag Replaced by @FORMTOPIC@ the form topic name @OPTION(<attribute name>)@ the attribute value, e.g. @OPTION(mode)@ @SUBMIT@ a submit button or empty string in view mode (hint: change the button text with the createbutton or editbutton attributes) @SWITCH@ a link to switch between edit and view mode @TOPIC@ the (target) topic name of the topic with a form

Hints:

• The default field marker '@' can be changed with the fieldmarker attribute.
• Put the complete layout definition between <verbatim>...</verbatim> tags to make the definition visible in the topic view.

Form Layout Example:
<verbatim>

%STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT% 
|  *@TOPIC@@SWITCH@ / @FORM@*||
|  Question%RED%*%ENDCOLOR% | @Question@ |
|  Details | @Details@ |
|  %RED%*%ENDCOLOR% indicates mandatory fields||
@SUBMIT@ 
%STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT% 

</verbatim>

Examples

Name Type Size Values Tooltip message Attributes Label label 0 an example label tooltip Text text 10   text tooltip M Textarea textarea 10x2   textarea tooltip   Select select 1 ,1,2 select tooltip   Select+Multi select+multi 5 1,2,3,4,5 select+multi tooltip   Checkbox checkbox 2 1,2,3,4,5 checkbox tooltip   Checkbox+Buttons checkbox+buttons 3 1,2,3,4,5 checkbox+buttons tooltip   Radio radio 4 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 radio tooltip   Date date 20   date tooltip

%RENDERFORM{"TWiki.RenderFormPluginExampleForm" topic="Sandbox.RenderFormPluginXXXXXXXXXX"}%

Topic Date

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<ATTRIBUTENAME>% to your TWikiPreferences topic, i.e. %RENDERFORM_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

You can also use template based preferences, just write RENDERFORM_TEMPLATE_<templatename>_<ATTRIBUTENAME>.

• One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Create new topics with simple forms like TWikiForms.
• Debug plugin: (See output in data/debug.txt)
  • Set DEBUG = 0

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the TWiki server.

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin Home (see below)
  • Unzip RenderFormPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

File: Description: data/TWiki/RenderFormPlugin.txt Plugin topic data/TWiki/VarRENDERFORM.txt Plugin Variables topic data/TWiki/RenderFormPluginExampleForm.txt Example form pub/TWiki/RenderFormPlugin/example.gif Example image lib/TWiki/Plugins/RenderFormPlugin.pm Plugin Perl module lib/TWiki/Plugins/RenderFormPlugin/Core.pm Plugin Perl module

• Configure the Plugin:
  • TWiki 4.0 and up: Run the configure script to enable the Plugin
  • Change the Plugin settings as needed
• Test if the installation was successful:
  • see Examples section

Plugin Info

Plugin Author: TWiki:Main.DanielRohde Copyright: © 2008, TWiki:Main.DanielRohde License: GPL (GNU General Public License) Plugin Version: V1.002 (14 Oct 2008) Change History: V1.002 (14 Oct 2008): TWiki:Main:DanielRohde: added layout feature; fixed date field bug; added missing docs; V1.001 (05 Oct 2008): TWiki:Main:DanielRohde: changed topicparent default; added and fixed docs; fixed date field bug; fixed non-word character in field names bug; V1.000 (04 Oct 2008): TWiki:Main:DanielRohde: Initial version TWiki Dependency: $TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1 CPAN Dependencies: none Other Dependencies: none Perl Version: 5.005 Benchmarks: GoodStyle 61%, FormattedSearch 87%, RenderFormPlugin 70% Plugin Home: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/RenderFormPlugin Feedback: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/RenderFormPluginDev Appraisal: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/RenderFormPluginAppraisal

-- TWiki:Main.DanielRohde - 04 Oct 2008