Overview

phpHtmlLib includes a mature html forms engine that handles, among other things, rendering and validation. There are a number of example forms on the phpHtmlLib web site and you are highly recommended to review these examples. The intention of this tutorial is to explain the phpHtmlLib forms engine without extensively using language specific to phpHtmlLib. If you are looking for detailed information please see the relavant sections of the api reference.

Features

1. FormProcessor manages the state of processing a form. You just have to build the FormContent child then pass that into the FormProcessor, and everything is taken care of.
2. FormContent - Parent class that contains the APIs for declaring:
3. FormElements that are in the form.
4. How to initialize the FormElements (for example, editing existing data)
5. How to place/layout the form fields
6. Do any backend validation such as ensuring that you aren't creating a duplicate entry in the database.
7. processing the real form action after ALL validation has been completed.
8. StandardFormContent - contains all the functionality as the Formcontent, but provides a 'standard' look and feel for layout of elements, as well as showing a confirmation mode.
9. over 40 pre defined FormElements, some of which are complex elements that contain multiple elements.
10. Build a form quickly and easily from over 40 pre-defined form elements.
11. Data validation is handled automatically depending on the type of form element selected.
12. Data validation against exteral sources such as a database is performed when the form element validation passes. For example, if you have included a {@see FENumber} form element in your form, the form validator will first require the user to enter a valid number in this field. If you also need to compare the number entered with a number extracted from your database the form validator will perform whatever processing needed for this look up after the basic element validation is complete.
13. When the data validation process is unsuccessful do to user error the labels of the form elements involved in the problem are highlighted. Additionaly a complete description of all errors is displayed at the top of the form. This error display defaults to a two column table listing the field name and the error that occurred. If more than one error occurs for a given field there will be more than one row for that field. The error display is completely customizable and can be rendered however you like.

Blank Form Template

laundry list of all you can do with the forms

Form Handling

Overview of FormContent basically. How much do we want to talk about FormProcessor? FormElements?

Customizing

Various customizations

Multiple forms on 1 page

This section will discuss what is necessary for multiple forms on the same page.