NAME

Validation::Class::Plugin::FormFields - Validation::Class HTML Form Field Renderer

VERSION

version 7.900013

SYNOPSIS

    # THIS PLUGIN IS UNTESTED AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO DESIGN CHANGES!!!

    use Validation::Class::Simple;

    my $rules = Validation::Class::Simple->new(
        fields => {
            username    => { required => 1 },
            password    => { required => 1 },
            remember_me => { required => 1, options => ['1|Remember Me?'] }
        }
    );

    my $fields = $rules->plugin('form_fields');

    print $fields->textbox('username');
    print $fields->textbox('password', type => 'password');
    print $fields->checkgroup('remember_me');

DESCRIPTION

Validation::Class::Plugin::FormFields is a plugin for Validation::Class which can leverage your validation class field definitions to render HTML form elements. Please note that this plugin is intentionally lacking in sophistication and try to take as few liberties as possible.

RATIONALE

Validation::Class::Plugin::FormFields is not an HTML form handler, nor is it an HTML form builder, renderer, construction kit, or framework. Why render fields individually and not the entire form? Form handling is a heavily opinionated subject and this plugin reflects the following perspective.

HTML form generation, done literally, has too many contraints and considerations to ever be truly ideal. Consider the following, it's been tried many many times before, it's never pretty, too many conflicting contexts (css, js, security and identification), css wants the form configured a certain way for styling purposes, js wants the form configured a certain way for introspection purposes, the app wants the form configured a certain way for processing purposes, etc.

So why do we continue to try? HTML forms are like werewolves and developers love silver bullets, but bullets are actually made out of lead, not silver. So how do you kill werewolves with lead? Hint, not by shooting them obviously.

I'd argue that we never really wanted complete form rendering anyway, what we actually wanted was a simple way to reduce the tedium and repetitiveness that comes with creating HTML form elements and handling submission and validation of the associated data. We keep getting it wrong because we keep trying to build on top of the same misconceptions.

So maybe we should backup a bit and try something different. The generating of HTML elements is alot less constrained and definately much more straight-forward.

AUTHOR

Al Newkirk <anewkirk@ana.io>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Al Newkirk.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.