Jifty::Web::Form::Field(3)

NAME
Jifty::Web::Form::Field - Web input of some sort

DESCRIPTION
Describes a form input in a Jifty::Action. "Jifty::Web::Form::Field"s know what action they are on, and acquire properties from the Jifty::Action which they are part of. Each key in the "arguments" in Jifty::Action hash becomes a "Jifty::Web::Form::Field" whose "name" is that key.

"Jifty::Web::Form::Field"s stringify using the "render" method, to aid in placing them in HTML::Mason components.

  new
Creates a new Jifty::Web::Form::Field (possibly magically blessing into a subclass). Should only be called from "$action->arguments".

  $self->rebless($widget)
Turn the current blessed class into the given widget class.

  accessors
Lists the accessors that are able to be called from within a call to "new". Subclasses should extend this list.

  name [VALUE]
Gets or sets the name of the field. This is separate from the name of the label (see "label") and the form input name (see "input_name"), though both default to this name. This name should match to a key in the "arguments" in Jifty::Action hash. If this "Jifty::Web::Form::Field" was created via "form_field" in Jifty::Action, this is automatically set for you.

  class [VALUE]
Gets or sets the CSS display class applied to the label and widget.

  type [VALUE]
Gets or sets the type of the HTML <input> field -- that is, 'text' or 'password'. Defaults to 'text'.

  key_binding VALUE
Sets this form field's "submit" key binding to VALUE.

  key_binding_label VALUE
Sets this form field's key binding label to VALUE. If none is specified the normal label is used.

  default_value [VALUE]
Gets or sets the default value for the form.

  sticky_value [VALUE]
Gets or sets the value for the form field that was submitted in the last action.

  mandatory [VALUE]
A boolean indicating that the argument must be present when the user submits the form.

  focus [VALUE]
If true, put focus on this form field when the page loads.

  ajax_validates [VALUE]
A boolean value indicating if user input into an HTML form field for this argument should be validated via AJAX as the user fills out the form, instead of waiting until submit. Arguments will always be validated before the action is run, whether or not they also "ajax_validate".

  ajax_canonicalizes [VALUE]
A boolean value indicating if user input into an HTML form field for this argument should be canonicalized via AJAX as the user fills out the form, instead of waiting until submit. Arguments will always be canonicalized before the action is run, whether or not they also "ajax_canonicalize"

  disable_autocomplete [VALUE]
Gets or sets whether to disable _browser_ autocomplete for this field.

  preamble [VALUE]
Gets or sets the preamble located in front of the field.

  multiple [VALUE]
A boolean indicating that the field is multiple. aka. has multiple attribute, which is useful for select field.

  id
For the purposes of Jifty::Web::Form::Element, the unique id of this field is its input name.

  attributes
If the field object is generated by Jifty::Action::Record, this holds the additional attributes declared to the corresponding column of the model.

  input_name [VALUE]
Gets or sets the form field input name, as it is rendered in the HTML. If we've been explicitly named, return that, otherwise return a name based on the moniker of the action and the name of the form.

  fallback_name
Return the form field's fallback name. This should be used to create a hidden input with a value of 0 to accompany checkboxes or to let comboboxes fall back to the text input if, and only if no value is selected from the SELECT. (We use this order, so that we can stick the label and not the value in the INPUT field. To make that work, we also need to clear the SELECT after the user types in the INPUT.

  label [VALUE]
Gets or sets the label on the field. This defaults to the name of the object.

  hints [VALUE]
Hints for the user to explain this field

  element_id
Returns a unique "id" attribute for this field based on the field name. This is consistent for the life of the Jifty::Web::Form::Field object but isn't predictable;

  action [VALUE]
Gets or sets the Jifty::Action object that this "Jifty::Web::Form::Field" is associated with. This is called automatically if this "Jifty::Action" was created via "form_field" in Jifty::Web::Form::Field.

  current_value
Gets the current value we should be using for this form field.

If the argument is marked as "sticky" (default) and there is a value for this field from a previous action submit AND that action did not have a "success" response, returns that submit field's value. Otherwise, returns the action's argument's default_value for this field.

  render
Outputs this form element in a span with class "form_field". This outputs the label, the widget itself, any hints, any errors, and any warnings using "render_label", "render_widget", "render_hints", "render_errors", and "render_warnings", respectively. Returns an empty string.

This is also what "Jifty::Web::Form::Field"s do when stringified.

  render_inline_javascript
Render a <script> tag (if necessary) containing any inline javascript that should follow this form field. This is used to add an autocompleter, placeholder, keybinding, or preloading to form fields where needed.

  render_preload_javascript
Render a <script> tag (if necessary) containing any inline preload javascript that should follow this form field.

  classes
Renders a default CSS class for each part of our widget.

  render_wrapper_start
Output the start of div that wraps the form field

  render_wrapper_end
Output the div that wraps the form field

  render_preamble
Outputs the preamble of this form field, using a <span> HTML element with CSS class "preamble" and whatever "class" specifies. Returns an empty string.

Use this for sticking instructions right in front of a widget

  render_label
Outputs the label of this form field, using a <label> HTML element with the CSS class "label" and whatever "class" specifies. Returns an empty string.

  render_widget
Outputs the actual entry widget for this form element. This defaults to an <input> element, though subclasses commonly override this. Returns an empty string.

  canonicalize_value
Called when a value is about to be displayed. Can be overridden to, for example, display only the "YYYY-MM-DD" portion of a DateTime.

  other_widget_properties
If your widget subclass has other properties it wants to insert into the html of the main widget and you haven't subclassed render_widget then you can just subclass this.

If you have subclassed render_widget then just stick them in your local sub render_widget.

We use this for marking password fields as not-autocomplete so the browser does not try to use its form autocompletion on them.

  _widget_class
Returns the "class=" line for our widget. Optionally takes extra classes to append to our list.

  render_value
Renders a "view" version of the widget for field. Usually, this is just plain text.

  render_autocomplete
Renders the div tag and javascript necessary to do autocompletion for this form field. Deprecated internally in favor of "autocomplete_javascript", but kept for backwards compatibility since there exists external code that uses it.

  autocomplete_javascript
Returns renders the tiny snippet of javascript to make an autocomplete call, if necessary.

  placeholder_javascript
Returns the javascript necessary to insert a placeholder into this form field (greyed-out text that is written in using javascript, and vanishes when the user focuses the field).

  focus_javascript
Returns the javascript necessary to focus this form field on page load, if necessary.

  preload_javascript
Returns the javascript necessary to load regions that have been marked for preloading, as plain javascript. The "javascript" method will look for regions marked with preloading and swap them in, instead of loading them directly.

  render_hints
Renders any hints for using this input. Defaults to nothing, though subclasses commonly override this. Returns an empty string.

  render_errors
Outputs a <div> with any errors for this action, even if there are none -- AJAX could fill it in.

  render_warnings
Outputs a <div> with any warnings for this action, even if there are none -- AJAX could fill it in.

  render_canonicalization_notes
Outputs a <div> with any canonicalization notes for this action, even if there are none -- AJAX could fill it in.

  available_values
Returns the available values for this field.

  length
# Deprecated API