[html-formfu] Select options not populating when inside a repeatable element

[Peter Williams]

Carl Franks wrote:
> On 31/03/2008, Peter Williams <peter.williams at bowker.com> wrote:
>> I am currently experiencing a problem where a select element's options
>>  are not being populated when inside a repeatable element.  This occurs
>>  when the repeat method is called after process and the options are
>>  populated by options_from_model.  If I hard code the values for the
>>  options, this problem does not occur.  For example, assume the
>>  following form definition:
>>
>>    - type: Repeatable
>>      nested_name: order_lines
>>      elements:
>>        - type: Hidden
>>          name: order_line_id
>>
>>        - type: Select
>>          name: rc_order_line_status_code
>>          label: Order Line Status
>>          model_config:
>>            DBIC:
>>              resultset: RcOrderLineStatus
>>              id_column: rc_order_line_status_code
>>              label_column: description
>>  --
>>
>>  Then, assume the following Catalyst code is executed:
>>
>>  ...
>>  $form->process( $c->request );
>>  $form->get_element({ type => 'Repeatable' })->repeat(2);
>>
>>  Now, the order_lines element does properly get repeated twice in this
>>  example, however, rc_order_line_status_code contains no options.  If I
>>  comment out $form->get_element({ type => 'Repeatable' })->repeat(2),
>>  then the select box is properly populated.  Therefore, this problem only
>>  occurs when repeat is called a subsequent time after it is initially
>>  called in process.  Is this behavior a bug, or by design?
>>
>>  Looking at the source in HTML::FormFu::Element::Repeatable.pm, I was
>>  able to create a temporary workaround that will populate repeated select
>>  boxes by changing the following code in the repeat method from:
>>
>>      if ( $self->_original_elements ) {
>>
>>          # repeat() has already been called
>>          $children = $self->_original_elements;
>>      }
>>      else {
>>
>>          $children = $self->_elements;
>>          $self->_original_elements($children);
>>      }
>>
>>  to:
>>
>>  #    if ( $self->_original_elements ) {
>>  #
>>  #        # repeat() has already been called
>>  #        $children = $self->_original_elements;
>>  #    }
>>  #    else {
>>
>>          $children = $self->_elements;
>>          $self->_original_elements($children);
>>  #    }
>>
>>  Any help in solving this problem would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Pete,
> 
> $form->process() must be called after any other method that changes
> the form, such as repeat().
> (I think it's documented somewhere in svn, but not in the latest cpan release).
> 
> There was some discussion last week about how the catalyst actions
> could handle this better, but I haven't had a chance to consider it
> properly.
> 
> Cheers,
> Carl

Carl, thank you for your response.  I'm still a little confused if 
repeat can actually be called before process since it will be 
automatically called inside process with a default value of 1.

I understand now that calling repeat after process doesn't work, but 
calling it before process also doesn't work since the repeat count will 
be overwritten when it is automatically called during process.  When 
repeat is called during process, it's called with a default count of 1, 
or with the value of the counter_name field which will only be present 
when submitting a form.

Therefore, when retrieving a form, the only way I was able to repeat the 
correct number of times, was to manually add in the counter_name 
parameter to the request object.  This works, but is ugly.  Perhaps as a 
fix, repeat should only be called in process if it hasn't already been 
called or if counter_name has a count.

Thanks again for your help,
Pete