form

form
	Form: An HTML Form Fields Generation Utility

Name

form — a Tcl command object for creating HTML forms

Synopsis

form form_name ?-option1 value_1? ?-option2 value_2? ?...?

creates and returns a new Tcl command named form_name.

Options

: -method ?post|get?
The http method for sending the form data back to the server. Possible values are get or post
: -name ?form_name?
a name for the form being created: this value becomes the value of the attribute 'name' in the <form> tag.
: -defaults ?default_values?
an array of default values to be assigned to the fields of the form. Every name in the array is matched with an input field, when a given field gets added to the form it is initialized with the value of the corresponding variable in the array. This option works well in conjuction with the load_response command of Rivet when default values come from another form.
: -action ?URL?
The URL the data are being sent to. If no ?-action? switch is specified the data are sent to the form's URL.

Form Object Commands

Form object commands follow the usual syntax of Tcl commands with a ?subcommand? argument playing the role of a switch among various functionalities of the command. Form objects also need the ?name? parameter which is to become the value of the 'name' attribute in an input field. This argument is the key that has to be used by the server-side script to retrieve the input field value.

: form_object subcommand ?name? ?-option1 value1? ?-option2 value2? ?...?

Options passed to a subcommand are copied into the tag as attribute="value" pairs. Some subcommands (e.g. form, radiobuttons and checkboxes) treat specific options in a way that fits the specific organization and function of these fields.

Exceptions to this general syntax are the field and end subcommands. field is an abstract input field creation method and requires an additional parameter specifiyng the type of field to create. Every concrete input field generation command uses this subcommand internally to print the final html.

Subcommands

start ?name? ?-method get | post? ?-name form_name? ?-defaults default_values? ?-action URL? ?args?

Print the <form> tag with all its attributes. This command must be called as first in the form generation process. The following is a sample of code creating a form named 'formname' whose data will be sent via the GET method. Initial form fields values will be obtained from array response

form myform -defaults response -method get -name formname
myform start
myform text	  text_entry -size 20
myform select option_selected -values {opt1 opt2 opt3 opt4}
myform submit submit -value Search
myform end

The code prints a form that sends a text entry content and the option value associated with a radiobutton. The URL of the server script is the same that created the form. Use the ?-url? option to specify a different url.

Options

: -method ?post|get?
The method to be used to encode the form data. Possible values are get or post
: -name ?form_name?
a name for the form being generated: this value becomes the value of the attribute 'name' in the <form> tag.
: -defaults ?default_values?
an array of default values to be assigned to the fields of the form. Every name in the array is matched with an input field, when a given field gets added to the form it is initialized with the value of the corresponding variable in the array. This option works well in conjuction with the load_response command of Rivet when default values come from another form.
: -action ?URL?
The URL the data will be sent to. If no ?-action? switch is specified the data are sent to the form's URL.

: end
Print the </form> closing tag. This command must be called last in the form generation process

: field ?name? ?type? ?args?
Print a field of the given ?type? and ?name?, including any default key-value pairs defined for this field type and optional key-value pairs included with the statement

Options

: -opt1 ?val1?
Option description

radiobuttons ?name? ?-values values? ?-labels labels? ?args?

the radiobutton creates a whole radiobutton group with the values and labels specified in the argument list. If no ?-labels? switch is passed to the subcommand the values are printed as labels of the radiobutton.

Options

: -values ?values_list?
List of values associated with the radiobuttons to be displayed
: -labels ?labels_list?
List of labels to be printed with every radiobutton. There must be a label for every radiobutton

Example:

form myform -defaults response -method get -name formname
myform start
myform text text_entry -size 20
myform radiobuttons fruit -values {big medium small} \
              -labels {Watermelon Orange Strawberry} \
              -class myradiobclass
myform submit submit -value Search
myform end

will print the following HTML code.

<input type="radio" name="fruit" class="myradiobclass" value="big" />Watermelon
<input type="radio" name="fruit" class="myradiobclass" value="medium" />Orange
<input type="radio" name="fruit" class="myradiobclass" value="small" />Strawberry

if the response array has a variable for the name 'fruit' the corresponding radiobutton field is automatically checked. The options ?values? and ?labels? are used internally and don't get into the tag attributes. If a ?labels? option is not given, labels are assigned using the ?values? list.

checkbox ?name? ?-label label? ?-value value? ?args?

The checkbox subcommand emits a checkbox type input field with the name, label and value attributes set according to the parameters passed to the subcommand.

Example:

form myform -defaults response -method get -name formname -action <form_url>
myform start
myform checkbox options -value opt1 -label "Option 1"
myform checkbox options -value opt2 -label "Option 2"
myform checkbox options -value opt3 -label "Option 3"
myform checkbox options -value opt4 -label "Option 4"
myform submit save_tps -value "Send Options"
myform end
myform destroy

Provided opt2 was in response array (in the list valued 'options' variable) that initialized the form, the output would look like this

<form  action="<form_url>" method="get" name="formname">
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_1" label="Option 1" value="sopt1" /><label for="autogen_1">Option 1</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_2" label="Option 2" value="sopt2" /><label for="autogen_2">Option 2</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_3" label="Option 3" value="sopt3" /><label for="autogen_3">Option 3</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_4" label="Option 4" value="sopt4" /><label for="autogen_4">Option 4</label>
<input type="submit" name="submit"  value="Send" />
</form>

checkboxes ?name? ?-labels labels_list? ?-values values_list? ?args?

The checkboxes is an extended form of the checkbox subcommand. checkboxes prints as many checkboxes as the number of elements in the ?labels_list? argument

Options

: -values ?values_list?
List of values associated with the checkboxes to be displayed
: -labels ?labels_list?
List of labels to be printed with every checkbox. There must be a label for every checkbox

Example:

form myform -defaults response -method post -action <form_url>
myform start
myform checkboxes options -values {opt1 opt2 opt3 opt4} -labels {"Option 1" "Option 2" "Option 3" "Option 4"}
myform submit save_tps -value "Send Options"
myform end
myform destroy

will print the following HTML code

<form  action="<form_url>" method="post">
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_1" label="Option 1" value="opt1" /><label for="autogen_1">Option 1</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_2" label="Option 2" value="opt2" /><label for="autogen_2">Option 2</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_3" label="Option 3" value="opt3" /><label for="autogen_3">Option 3</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="options"  id="autogen_4" label="Option 4" value="opt4" /><label for="autogen_4">Option 4</label>
<input type="submit" name="save_tps"  value="Send Options" />
</form>

: password ?name? ?args?
Same as text, but the input is obfuscated so as not to reveal the text being typed

: hidden ?name? ?args?
hidden input element: typicall embedded in a form in order to pass status variables.

submit ?name? ?args?

emits the code for a classical HTML submit button. Example: the following code

	form myform -defaults response -method get -name feedsearch
	myform start
	myform submit submit -value Search

Would emit a form like this

	<form...>
	<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search" /> 
	</form>

: button ?name? ?args?
emits the code for a button field having ?name? as name

: reset ?name? ?args?
Classical HTML reset button that resets the input fields back to their initial values

: image ?name? ?args?
Emits an image input field

: radio ?name? ?args?
Emits a radiobutton input field

: color ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "color" form field

: date ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "date" form field

: datetime ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "datetime" form field

: datetime_local ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "datetime_local" form field

: email ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "email" form field

: file ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "file" form field

: month ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "month" form field

: number ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "number" form field

: range ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "range" form field

: search ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "search" form field

: tel ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "tel" form field

: time ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "time" form field

: url ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "url" form field

: week ?name? ?args?
Emits an HTML 5 "week" form field


Form: An HTML Form Fields Generation Utility		Calendar Package