Dotz Framework

Forms Module

Documentation:

CONTENTS

  1. Generating Tags
  2. JWT Token Field
  3. Binding Data

One of the few libraries included in Dotz Framework is the Form library/module. As forms tend to be seen as a nuisance by many developers while developing applications. Also since security operations are often involved in the generation of forms.

Our form module is meant to be intuitive. But one man’s (or woman’s) gem can sometimes be another  person’s trash. Haha..

We recommend developers use this library to generate all forms, for enhanced security options.

To create forms simply instantiate the Form class:

use DotzFramework\Modules\Form;
$form = new Form();

Generating Tags

## Opening & Closing tags

Then you can open and close the form tags in your views like so (respectively):

$form->open('form_name')
  ->method('POST')
  ->action('path/to/submit/form/to')
  ->show();
$form->close()->show();

The last ->show() call is quite important. Alternately you could call ->get() at the end of the chain to get a return string value of the generated field. This goes for all following elements as well.

## Select Elements

$form->select('select_field_name')
  ->options(['key1'=>'Display Value', 'key2'=>'Display Value'])
  ->label('Select this option here:')
  ->default('key1') // defines the default selection
  ->show();

You could have replaced ->options() in the chain of calls with a series of ->option(‘key’, ‘display value’) calls. This would allow you to code more on-the-go:

$form->select('select_field_name')
  ->label('Select this option here:')
  ->option('key1', 'Display Value')
  ->option('key2', 'Display Value')
  ->default('key2')
  ->show();

## Simple one-line text field

$form->textfield('name')
  ->label('Name:')
  ->value('enter name...')
  ->show();

## Radio buttons

$form->radiobutton('gender')
  ->label('Female:')
  ->value('female')
  ->checked() // default checked value
  ->show();

$form->radiobutton('gender')
  ->value('male')
  ->label('Male:') //order of value/label doesn't matter much
  ->show();

## Checkboxes

$form->checkbox('citizen')
  ->label('Citizen?')
  ->checked() // checked by default 
  ->show();
$form->checkbox('relocate')
  ->label('Need to Relocate?')
  ->show();

## Text Area field (text-boxes)

$form->textarea('message')
  ->label('Personal Comments:')
  ->text('enter comment here...') // to add a initial value in text box...
  ->show();

## Submit buttons

$form->button('submit')
  ->value('Send')
  ->show();

## WYSIWYG Editors

We utilize Quill.js for our WYSIWYG. Simple, intuitive and fairly light.

$form->editor('text')
  ->label('Add rich content below:')
  ->text('You can enter any formatted text here.')
  ->show();

You can then adjust the height and width of the editor box by defining the CSS styles for:

.ql-toolbar{
  width: 300px;
}

#textWYSIWYG.ql-container{
  width: 300px;
  height: 300px;
}

#textWYSIWYG is the generated id for this field. You can use the code inspector to identify such details.

## Hidden Fields

$form->hidden('some_key')
  ->value('hello world')
  ->show();

JWT Token Hidden Field

The JWT token hidden field is automatically added to each form generated with DotzFramework\Modules\Form library; when ‘csrfCheck’ & ‘formTokenization’ settings are set to true in the configs/app.txt file.

See the Security.txt documentation file for more details on how the JWT hidden field works. And why it is added.

Documentation: