Perforated forms are easy to create, read, and change later on. Define your form’s structure using a simple set up of key-based arrays, in PHP or JSON., (*1)
Edit easily.
The easy-to-understand syntax means you can quickly create a form in a few minutes.
Use HTML5 entry types such as URL, email address, number, and checkbox.
They are automatically validated on the server with no extra code., (*2)
Come back to it later and add, edit, remove.
Adding new entries means just adding a few lines of simple code.
The syntax is so simple you can even define your form in a JSON file, if you wish., (*3)
Style sensibly.
Perforated is designed to be smart. It groups related entries together in <fieldset> elements.
Entries are automatically created with an associated <label>.
This means it is very easy to style in CSS.
Target specific form entries.
Target all entries of a certain type., (*4)
Extend.
Perforated will automatically shows type-specific errors for incorrectly entered fields.
Easily extend this validation. Add your own error messages., (*5)
Form processing and validation is completely separate from form display, so extend or replace how your form is validated or how it is displayed however you wish., (*6)
Automatically namespaced.
Submitted forms have their own namespace e.g. $_POST['formID']
This means it will not clash with other POST variables, so use fields like name without worry in WordPress: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15810948/post-returns-empty-on-form-submit-in-wordpress, (*7)
Make sections dependant on whatever you wish.
Sections can be made to only show when a checkbox is on with one line.
Just declare what you want, there's no extra JS., (*8)
External values can be used to automatically fill entries or for dependencies to turn sections on and off, just by using a simple callback.
For example, only show and use a particular part of a form if the user is logged in – no complicated if-statements., (*9)
Example
define ('EXAMPLE_SUBMIT_VIDEO', 'submitVideo');
define ('BURNT_ENDASH', "\xE2\x80\x93");
// This can be written using PHP arrays, or loaded from a JSON file.
$formOptions = array(
'baseID' => EXAMPLE_SUBMIT_VIDEO,
// All the entries to be used in the form.
'entries' => array(
'videoLink' => array(
'title' => 'Video link '.BURNT_ENDASH.' Vimeo / YouTube',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'url',
'required' => true
),
'story' => array(
'title' => 'Video details & story', // Don't need to worry about escaping HTML first.
'value' => '',
'type' => 'text',
'multipleLines' => true,
'required' => true
),
'name' => array(
'title' => 'Your name',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'text',
'required' => true
),
'email' => array(
'title' => 'Your email',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'email',
'required' => true
),
'helpedCreate' => array(
'title' => 'Were you a part of this video?',
'value' => false,
'type' => 'checkbox',
'titleWhenOff' => 'No',
'titleWhenOn' => 'Yes'
),
'role' => array(
'title' => 'What was your role?',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'text',
'required' => true
),
'location' => array(
'title' => 'Where are you located? (city & country)',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'text'
),
'companies' => array(
'title' => 'Who are the companies and teams behind the video?',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'text',
'multipleLines' => true
),
'businessEmail' => array(
'title' => 'Is there an email we can contact for business enquiries?',
'value' => '',
'type' => 'email'
)
),
// This is the actual structure of the form as it is displayed, grouped into subsections.
'structure' => array(
array(
'id' => 'videoInfo',
'entries' => array('videoLink')
),
array(
'id' => 'aboutSubmitter',
'dependentOn' => 'loggedOut', // Only uses (shows and processes) this if the 'loggedOut' external value is on.
'alsoProcessIf' => 'loggedIn', // These entries are automatically filled (see 'automaticallyFillEntriesFrom' further down) so process them even if its dependency is off.
'entries' => array('name', 'email')
),
array(
'id' => 'connectionQuestion',
'entries' => array('helpedCreate')
),
array(
'id' => 'connection',
'dependentOn' => 'helpedCreate', // Only show this if the 'helpedCreate' checkbox is on.
'entries' => array('role', 'location', 'companies', 'businessEmail')
)
),
// Automatically uses external values to fill in entries.
'automaticallyFillEntriesFrom' => array(
// Using external value 'loggedInMember', grab the following values:
'loggedInMember' => array(
'name' => 'name', // Entry value for 'name' is automatically filled from $externalValues['loggedInMember']['name']
'email' => 'emailAddress', // Entry value for 'email' is automatically filled from $externalValues['loggedInMember'][emailAddress]
)
)
);
Using external values from the server
function exampleExternalValues()
{
$loggedInMemberInfo = exampleLoggedInMemberInfo();
$specialValues = array(
'loggedIn' => !empty($loggedInMemberInfo),
'loggedOut' => empty($loggedInMemberInfo),
'loggedInMember' => $loggedInMemberInfo
);
return $specialValues;
}
Validating & processing
// Check if form is being submitted and if so, process the submitted entries.
$resultsForSubmitVideo = perforatedFormCheckAndProcess($formOptions, array(
'externalValues' => 'exampleExternalValues' // Options and callbacks are kept separate to enabled $formOptions to be created as pure JSON.
));
Working with submitted results
?>
Video Submissions
Thanks = glazeText($processedEntries['name']['value']) ?> for submitting your video!
```
## Displaying the form
```php
<?php
TODO
- Client-side JavaScript validation, probably tie in with an existing project instead of writing from scratch.
Wallogit.com
