[Catalyst] More on HTML::Widget

[Allen S. Rout]

In HTML::Widget, there does not appear to be an advertised way to
modify an Element once it is defined, short of keeping a list of
elements and carrying them around outside the object.  For example,


my $form = new HTML::Widget;
$form->element( 'Textfield', 'name' )->label('Name')->size(30);

At this point I can no longer set the value of the 'name' field, I
think. 

$form->element('name')->value("new val");, a plausible candidate for
that function, is of course wrong: it tries to define a new element of
type 'name'.

If element() took ($self,$name,$type), then it would be possible to
distinguish wether you were looking for an extant element rather or
defining a new one.


I could, of course, do something like

$fields = {};
$fields->{'name'} = $form->element(...);

but since I know that the same exact hash is present in 

$form->{_elements}

it just irks me to carry it around on the outside.  Of course, I don't
want to climb inside and violate the API.


Opinions?

- Allen S. Rout