[Catalyst] CDBI => Web (opposite of Class::DBI::FromForm)

[Bill Moseley]

On Mon, Nov 07, 2005 at 02:47:07AM +0100, Roland Moriz wrote:
> I think this is not DRY and can be done by ::FillInForm object filled 
> with a retrieved CDBI object - just the inverse way that 
> Class::DBI::FromForm goes from a ::FormValidator object...
> 
> Should be possible, shouldn't it?
> Do we have such a functionality already available?

I'd recommend looking at Rose-HTML-Form.  I wrote a subclass for it so
I can use FormValidator-like profiles for input and also so
select/radio options are automatically loaded from the database based
on has_a (or has_many for many-to-many) relationships.  Rose-HTML-Form
can also generate html widgets which makes generating the forms quite
easy.

I like Rose-HTML-Form so much that one night after a few drinks I
foolishly decided to write my own form processing code based mostly on
Rose-HTML-Form's design, mixed in with what I like from FormValidator.
It's not ready for public consumption yet until I get time to package
and write a few tests.  Plus, I'm not so sure I won't go back to using
Rose-HTML-Form again.

Anyway, here's how it works:

SYNOPSIS
       In an application you might want a controller to handle creating and
       updating a "User" record.  And not want to write much code.  Here's using
       Catalyst as an example:

           package MyApplication::C::User;
           use strict;
           use MyApplication::Form::User;

           sub edit : Local {
               my ( $self, $c, $id ) = @_;

               my $form = MyApplication::Form::User->new( $id );

               $form->update_from_from( $c->request->parameters  )
                   if $c->request->parameters->{update};

               $c->stash->{template} = 'user.tt';
               $c->stash->{form} = $form;
           }

       The form class might then look like this:

           package MyApplication::Form::User;
           use strict;
           use base 'Form::Model::CDBI';

           sub object_class { 'DB::User' }

           sub profile {
               my $self = shift;

               return {

                   required => {
                       name        => 'Text',
                       age         => 'PosInteger',
                       sex         => 'Select',
                       birthdate   => 'DateTimeDMYHM',
                   },
                   optional => {
                       hobbies     => 'Multiple',
                       address     => 'Text',
                       city        => 'Text',
                       state       => 'Select',
                   },

                   dependency => [
                       [qw/ address city state /],
                   ],
               };
           }

           sub options_sex {
               return (
                   m => 'Male',
                   f => 'Female',
               );
           }

           sub validate_age {
               my ( $self, $field ) = @_;
               $field->add_error('Sorry, you must be 18')
                   if $field->value < 18;
           }

           1;




-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org