[Catalyst] Recommend methods for form handling

[Ian Docherty]

<snip>
>> The only issue I had was with checkboxes filled in from the database,
>> since CGI does not send back a value for unchecked checkboxes then
>> FillInForm would not handle them correctly so I had to develop a
>> work-around.
>>
>> Regards
>> Ian Docherty (IcyDee)
>>
>
> Oh, amazing! I was just starting to write a post asking something like
> that, although my problem showed on radiobuttons (e.g. option 0=No
> doesn't get selected), using Formbuilder, but I think it's the same
> principle.  Would you please show/explain your workaround? In the
> meanwhile, I just tried using "false" instead of "0" (works for
> inserting/updating, at least with PostgreSQL) and converting "0" to
> "false" when filling form, but I don't think it's really elegant...
>
> Regards,
> Juan
>

Juan
I have a hidden field in the form 'action' which is true when the form 
is submitted, but false the first time the form is displayed (from the 
database). Then for a checkbox (and I assume this could be extended to 
radio buttons) I do the following in my template.

<input name="user_active" type="checkbox" [% IF user.active and not 
action %]checked[% END %]>

So, first time round the 'checked' values depends only on the 
user.active  flag (from the database) on subsequent times round (for 
example when a form error was found) and 'action' is set then the state 
of the checkbox is handled by FillInForm.

Without the 'and not action' bit if the database had 'user.active' set 
then if an attempt to uncheck the checkbox was made, and if there was an 
error on the form elsewhere, FillInForm would not uncheck the box.

Regards
Ian Docherty (IcyDee)