Form::Sensible - A sensible way to handle form based user interface
use Form::Sensible; my $form = Form::Sensible->create_form( { ... } ); my $renderer = Form::Sensible->get_renderer('HTML', { tt_config => { INCLUDE_PATH => [ '/path/to/templates' ] }}); my $output = $renderer->render($form)->complete; ## Form Validation: my $validation_result = $form->validate(); if ($validation_result->is_valid()) { ## do form was valid stuff } else { my $output_with_messages = $renderer->render($form)->complete; }
Form::Sensible is a different kind of form library. Form::Sensible is not just another HTML form creator, or a form validator, though it can do both. Form::Sensible, instead, focuses on what forms are: a method to relay information to and from a user interface.
Form::Sensible forms are primarily tied to the data they represent. Form::Sensible is not tied to HTML in any way. You could render Form::Sensible forms using any presentation system you like, whether that's HTML, console prompts, WxPerl or voice prompts. (* currently only an HTML renderer is provided with Form::Sensible, but work is already under way to produce others.)
Easy form validation
Ability to easily save created forms for future use
Define form once, render any number of ways
Flexible built-in form validator
Easily extended to produce new renderers, field types and validation
HTML renderer produces sane html that can be easily styled via CSS
HTML renderer allows for custom templates to control all aspects of form rendering.
HTML output not tied to any javascript library.
The Form::Sensible form lifecycle works as follows:
One of the most important features of Form::Sensible is that Forms, once created, are easily stored for re-generation later. A form's definition and state are easily converted to a hashref data structure ready for serializing. Likewise, the data structure can be used to create a complete Form::Sensible form object ready for use. This makes re-use of forms extremely easy and provides for dynamic creation and processing of forms.
use Form::Sensible; my $form = Form::Sensible->create_form( { name => 'test', fields => [ { field_class => 'Text', name => 'username', validation => { regex => '^[0-9a-z]*' } }, { field_class => 'Text', name => 'password', render_hints => { 'HTML' => { field_type => 'password' } }, }, { field_class => 'Trigger', name => 'submit' } ], } );
This example creates a form from a simple hash structure. This example creates a simple (and all too familiar) login form.
use Form::Sensible; my $form = Form::Sensible::Form->new(name=>'test'); my $username_field = Form::Sensible::Field::Text->new( name=>'username', validation => { regex => qr/^[0-9a-z]*$/ } ); $form->add_field($username_field); my $password_field = Form::Sensible::Field::Text->new( name=>'password', render_hints => { 'HTML' => { field_type => 'password' }, }, ); $form->add_field($password_field); my $submit_button = Form::Sensible::Field::Trigger->new( name => 'submit' ); $form->add_field($submit_button);
This example creates the exact same form as the first example. This time, however, it is done by creating each field object individually, and then adding each in turn to the form.
Both of these methods will produce the exact same results when rendered.
## set_values takes a hash of name->value pairs $form->set_values($c->req->params); my $validation_result = $form->validate(); if ($validation_result->is_valid) { #... do stuff if form submission is ok. } else { my $renderer = Form::Sensible->get_renderer('HTML'); my $output = $renderer->render($form)->complete; }
Here we fill in the values provided to us via $c->req->params and then run validation on the form. Validation follows the rules provided in the validation definitions for each field. Whole-form validation is can also be done if provided. When validation is run using this process, the messages are automatically available during rendering.
$c->req->params
All methods in the Form::Sensible package are class methods. Note that by useing the Form::Sensible module, the Form::Sensible::Form and Form::Sensible::Field::* classes are also used.
use
create_form($formhash)
This method creates a form from the given hash structure. The hash structure accepts all the same attributes that Form::Sensible::Form's new method accepts. Field definitions are provided as an array under the field key. Returns the created Form::Sensible::Form object.
field
get_renderer($render_class, $options)
Creates a renderer of the given class using the $options provided. The format of the class name follows the convention of a bare name being appended to Form::Sensible::Renderer::. In other words if you call <Form::Sensible-get_renderer('HTML', { 'foo' => 'bar' })>> Form::Sensible will ensure the Form::Sensible::Renderer::HTML class is loaded and will create an object by passing the hashref provided to the new method. If you wish to provide a class outside of the Form::Sensible::Renderer:: namespace, prepend the string with a +. For example, to load the class MyRenderer::ProprietaryUI you would pass '+MyRenderer::ProprietaryUI'.
$options
Form::Sensible::Renderer::
<Form::Sensible-
new
+
MyRenderer::ProprietaryUI
'+MyRenderer::ProprietaryUI'
get_validator($validator_class, $options)
Creates a validator of the given class using the $options provided. Follows the same convention for class name passing as the get_renderer method.
Jay Kuri - <jayk@cpan.org>
Luke Saunders - <luke.saunders@gmail.com>
Devin Austin - <dhoss@cpan.org>
Alan Rafagudinov - <alan.rafagudinov@ionzero.com>
Andrew Moore - <amoore@cpan.org>
Ionzero LLC. http://ionzero.com/
Form::Sensible Wiki: http://wiki.catalyzed.org/cpan-modules/form-sensible
Form::Sensible Discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/formsensible
Form::Sensible Github: https://github.com/jayk/Form-Sensible
Form::Sensible
Copyright 2009 by Jay Kuri <jayk@cpan.org>
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
1 POD Error
The following errors were encountered while parsing the POD:
=over should be: '=over' or '=over positive_number'
To install Form::Sensible, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Form::Sensible
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Form::Sensible
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.