RenderFormPlugin

The RenderFormPlugin handles the tag %RENDERFORM{...}%. The tag will be replaced by a form that is defined and looks like TWikiForms. It helps you to create a new topic with TWikiForms or to edit or view existing topic form data. The form data can be changed without pushing the topic edit button. The tag can be used at any topic to show, edit or create TWikiForms data from any other topic.

Features:

• easy to use: 1. define a form, 2. put the %RENDERFORM{...}% tag on a topic (you do not need to register a form or edit a page to add the form to a topic)
• supports all form field types of TWikiForms (text, textarea, checkbox, checkbox+buttons , date, select, select+multi, radio, label)
• supports 3 modes (mode option): create (default), edit, view (default if a topic exists)
• mode switching: edit to view and view to edit
• simple JavaScript based form field validator for mandatory fields
• hide some form fields (hidden option)
• change display order of form fields (order option)
• use URL parameters to overwrite options (query parameter names: rfp_<attribute>)
• define your own (mode dependent) form layout (layout option)

Example (image):

Syntax Rules

• Usage: %RENDERFORM{attr1="val1" attr2="val2" ...}%
• Example: %RENDERFORM{"TWikiFormDefinition"}% (=%RENDERFORM{form="TWikiFormDefinition"}%)

Quick Start Guide

1. Create a new topic (e.g. TestForm) for your TWikiForms definition and put the following to the new topic ( EditTablePlugin required):

   %EDITTABLE{format="|text,20,|select,1,label,text,textarea,select,select+multi,checkbox,checkbox+buttons,radio,date|text,6,1|text,50|text,20|text,5,|"}%
   | *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
        

2. Add some new rows to your TWikiForms definition by editing the definition table.
3. Create a new topic (e.g. MyTestTopic) and put the following to this new topic:

   %RENDERFORM{"MyTestForm")%
   
   %SEARCH{search="MyTestTopic\d+" scope="topic" type="regex"}%
        

4. Have fun by creating new topics with forms (e.g. topic names: MyTestTopic0, MyTestTopic1, ...).

Usage Examples

Simple Help Desk

• SimpleHelpDeskForm topic:

  | *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
  | Question | text | 80 | | | M |
  | Details | textarea | 80x10 | | please fill in some details ... | |
  | Answer | textarea | 80x10 | | Answer | |
  | State | select | 1 | open,closed | | |
       

• SimpleHelpDesk topic:

  %RENDERFORM{"SimpleHelpDeskForm" hidden="Answer,State" createbutton="submit" hideheader="yes" text="Back to !SimpleHelpDesk"}%
    
  | *Question* | *Date* | *State* |
  %SEARCH{search="SimpleHelpDesk\d+" scope="topic" type="regex" nonoise="on" format="| <a href=\"SimpleHelpDesk?rfp_topic=$topic;rfp_hidden=;rfp_hideheader=off\">$formfield(Question)</a> | $date | $formfield(State) |"}% 
  
  %TOPIC% 
       

Nice Help Desk

• NiceHelpDeskForm topic:

  | *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
  | Question | text | 80 | | | M |
  | Details | textarea | 80x10 | | please fill in some details ... | |
  | Answer | textarea | 80x10 | | Answer | |
  | State | select | 1 | open,closed | | |
       

• NiceHelpDeskTemplate:

  %TOC%
  ---++ Question: %FORMFIELD{"Question"}% - State: %FORMFIELD{"State"}%
  
  Details:
  
  <pre>
  %FORMFIELD{"Details" default="no details"}%
  </pre>
  
  ---++ Answer
  %FORMFIELD{"Answer" default="no answer yet"}%
  
  ---++ Comments
  %COMMENT{type="threadmode"}%
  
       

• NiceHelpDesk topic:

  %RENDERFORM{"NiceHelpDeskForm" templatetopic="NiceHelpDeskTemplate" hidden="Answer,State" createbutton="submit" hideheader="yes"}%
  
  | *Question* | *Date* | *State* | *Action* |
  %SEARCH{search="NiceHelpDesk\d+" scope="topic" type="regex" nonoise="on" format="| [[$topic][$formfield(Question)]]| $date | $formfield(State) | <a href=\"NiceHelpDesk?rfp_topic=$topic;rfp_hidden=;rfp_hideheader=off\" title=\"View form data\">[V]</a>  <a href=\"NiceHelpDesk?rfp_topic=$topic;rfp_hidden=;rfp_hideheader=off;rfp_mode=edit\" title=\"edit form data\">[E]</a>  | "}%
  
  %TOPIC%
       

Attributes

Attribute	Description	Default / Example
dateformat	overwrites the JSCALENDARDATEFORMAT preference for date fields	dateformat="%d %b %Y"
donotnotify	disables notifications	undefined / donotnotify="on"
form	(required attribute) a name of a topic with a TWikiForms definition	undefined / form="MyTestForm"
hidden	a comma separated list of form field names to hide in all modes	undefined / hidden="Field1,Field2"
hideheader	if set, disables the form header	hideheader="no"
layout	a topic with a layout (see Form Layout section); syntax: layout="<topic>#<layout name>"; if layout name is omitted a default layout will be taken	undefined / layout="TestFormLayout#test1"
mode	render mode of the form, allowed values: create (default), edit, view (default if topic exists)	mode="create"
onlynewtopic	disables overwrite of existing topics	onlynewtopic="on"
onlywikiname	disallows the usage of non-TWiki.WikiWords for topic names	onlywikiname="on"
order	changes the display order of form fields; order value is a comma separated list of field names; if the order list is incomplete all missing and unhidden form fields will be added; there are special values for order: [:alpha:], [:dalpha:], [:num:] and [:dnum:], e.g. order="[:alpha:]" to sort all fields alphanumerical	undefined / order="Field1, Field2"
script	changes the behavior of edit/create modes; allowed values: save - saves the form data; edit - edit the resulting topic	script="save"
template	a template name for predefined attributes	undefined / template="helpdesk"
templatetopic	a template topic; useful for the create mode	undefined / templatetopic="MyHelpDeskTopicTemplate"
text	the topic text; text will be ignored if a templatetopic is defined	undefined / text="my small topic text"
topic	an existing topic for edit and view mode or a topic template name for a new topic (create mode) (e.g. TestFormDataXXXXXXXXXX)	topic="%TOPIC%XXXXXXXXXX" / topic="TestFormData%SERVERTIME{$epoch}%"
topicparent	a topic parent; useful for the create mode; if undefined the form topic will be used	topicparent="%WEB%.%TOPIC%" / topicparent="MyHelpDesk"

Form Layout

Usage: %RENDERFORM{"<form definition>" ... layout="<layout topic>"}%
-or- %RENDERFORM{"<form definition>" ... layout="<layout topic>#<layout name>"}%

• a form layout is surrounded with the tags %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT% and %STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%, e.g:

     -- a default layout --
  %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT%
  < your layout >
  %STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%
  
     -- OR a named layout --
  %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT{"< layout name >"}% 
  < your layout >
  %<nop>STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%=
  
     -- OR a named layout for view mode --
  %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT{"< layout name >" mode="view"}% 
  < your layout >
  %<nop>STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT%=
       

• the layout names 'view', 'create' and 'edit' are reserved and should be used for mode specific layout definitions
• if you use the mode option in %STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT% this layout definition will be used only in the given mode (allowed modes: create,edit,view)
• you can use form data values (view mode) or form fields (create/edit mode) by typing a tag like @< form field  name >@, e.g. @Question@

Following tags are reserved and replaced by ...
Tag	Replaced by
@FORMTOPIC@	the form topic name
@OPTION(<attribute name>)@	the attribute value, e.g. @OPTION(mode)@
@SUBMIT@	a submit button or empty string in view mode (hint: change the button text with the createbutton or editbutton attributes)
@SWITCH@	a link to switch between edit and view mode
@TOPIC@	the (target) topic name of the topic with a form

Hints:

• The default field marker '@' can be changed with the fieldmarker attribute.
• Put the complete layout definition between <verbatim>...</verbatim> tags to make the definition visible in the topic view.

Form Layout Example:
<verbatim>

%STARTRENDERFORMLAYOUT% 
|  *@TOPIC@@SWITCH@ / @FORM@*||
|  Question%RED%*%ENDCOLOR% | @Question@ |
|  Details | @Details@ |
|  %RED%*%ENDCOLOR% indicates mandatory fields||
@SUBMIT@ 
%STOPRENDERFORMLAYOUT% 

</verbatim>

Examples

Name	Type	Size	Values	Tooltip message	Attributes
Label	label	0	an example	label tooltip
Text	text	10		text tooltip	M
Textarea	textarea	10x2		textarea tooltip
Select	select	1	,1,2	select tooltip
Select+Multi	select+multi	5	1,2,3,4,5	select+multi tooltip
Checkbox	checkbox	2	1,2,3,4,5	checkbox tooltip
Checkbox+Buttons	checkbox+buttons	3	1,2,3,4,5	checkbox+buttons tooltip
Radio	radio	4	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9	radio tooltip
Date	date	20		date tooltip

%RENDERFORM{"TWiki.RenderFormPluginExampleForm" topic="Sandbox.RenderFormPluginXXXXXXXXXX"}%

Topic	Date

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<ATTRIBUTENAME>% to your TWikiPreferences topic, i.e. %RENDERFORM_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

You can also use template based preferences, just write RENDERFORM_TEMPLATE_<templatename>_<ATTRIBUTENAME>.

• One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Create new topics with simple forms like TWikiForms.
• Debug plugin: (See output in data/debug.txt)
  • Set DEBUG = 0

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the TWiki server.

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin Home (see below)
  • Unzip RenderFormPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

    File:	Description:
    data/TWiki/RenderFormPlugin.txt	Plugin topic
    data/TWiki/VarRENDERFORM.txt	Plugin Variables topic
    data/TWiki/RenderFormPluginExampleForm.txt	Example form
    pub/TWiki/RenderFormPlugin/example.gif	Example image
    lib/TWiki/Plugins/RenderFormPlugin.pm	Plugin Perl module
    lib/TWiki/Plugins/RenderFormPlugin/Core.pm	Plugin Perl module

• Configure the Plugin:
  • TWiki 4.0 and up: Run the configure script to enable the Plugin
  • Change the Plugin settings as needed
• Test if the installation was successful:
  • see Examples section

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	TWiki:Main.DanielRohde
Copyright:	© 2008, TWiki:Main.DanielRohde
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Version:	V1.004 (19 Aug 2010)
Change History:
V1.004 (19 Aug 2010)	TWiki:Main.DanielRohde: fixed TWiki 5.0 problems
V1.003 (13 Feb 2009)	TWiki:Main.DanielRohde: fixed performance problem (see Benchmarks - Switch module removed)
V1.002 (14 Oct 2008):	TWiki:Main.DanielRohde: added layout feature; fixed date field bug; added missing docs;
V1.001 (05 Oct 2008):	TWiki:Main.DanielRohde: changed topicparent default; added and fixed docs; fixed date field bug; fixed non-word character in field names bug;
V1.000 (04 Oct 2008):	TWiki:Main.DanielRohde: Initial version
TWiki Dependency:	$TWiki::Plugins::VERSION 1.1
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.005
Benchmarks:	GoodStyle 95%, FormattedSearch 98%, RenderFormPlugin 91%
Plugin Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/RenderFormPlugin
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/RenderFormPluginDev
Appraisal:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/RenderFormPluginAppraisal

-- TWiki:Main.DanielRohde - 04 Oct 2008