1NAME
2 CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM - Help validate CGI::Application
3 run modes using Data::FormValidator
4
5SYNOPSIS
6 use CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM;
7
8 my $results = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile') || return $self->check_rm_error_page;
9
10
11 # Optionally, you can pass additional options to HTML::FillInForm->fill()
12 my $results = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile', { fill_password => 0 })
13 || return $self->check_rm_error_page;
14
15DESCRIPTION
16 CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM helps to validate web forms when
17 using the CGI::Application framework and the Data::FormValidator module.
18
19 check_rm()
20 Validates a form displayed in a run mode with a "Data::FormValidator"
21 profile, returning the results and possibly an a version of the form
22 page with errors marked on the page.
23
24 In scalar context, it returns simply the Data::FormValidator::Results
25 object which conveniently evaluates to false in a boolean context if
26 there were any missing or invalide fields. This is the recommended
27 calling convention.
28
29 In list context, it returns the results object followed by the error
30 page, if any. This was the previous recommended syntax, and was used
31 like this:
32
33 my ($results,$err_page) = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile');
34 return $err_page if $err_page;
35
36 The inputs are as follows:
37
38 Return run mode
39 This run mode will be used to generate an error page, with the form
40 re-filled (using HTML::FillInForm) and error messages in the form.
41 This page will be returned as a second output parameter.
42
43 The errors will be passed in as a hash reference, which can then be
44 handed to a templating system for display. Following the above
45 example, the form_display() routine might look like:
46
47 sub form_display {
48 my $self = shift;
49 my $errs = shift; # <-- prepared for form reloading
50 my $t = $self->load_tmpl('form_display.html');
51 $t->param($errs) if $errs; # <-- Also necessary.
52 # ...
53
54 }
55
56 The fields should be prepared using Data::FormValidator's built-in
57 support for returning error messages as a hash reference. See the
58 documentation for "msgs" in the Data::FormValidator::Results
59 documentation.
60
61 Returning the errors with a prefix, such as "err_" is recommended.
62 Using "any_errors" is also recommended to make it easy to display a
63 general "we have some errors" message.
64
65 HTML::Template users may want to pass "die_on_bad_params=>0" to the
66 HTML::Template constructor to prevent the presence of the "err_"
67 tokens from triggering an error when the errors are *not* being
68 displayed.
69
70 Data::FormValidator profile
71 This can either be provided as a hash reference, or as the name of a
72 CGI::Application method that will return such a hash reference.
73
74 HTML::FillInForm options (optional)
75 If desired, you can pass additional options to the HTML::FillInForm
76 fill() method through a hash reference. See an example above.
77
78 Additional Options
79 To control things even more, you can set parameters in your
80 CGI::Application object itself.
81
82 dfv_defaults
83 The value of the 'dfv_defaults' param is optionally used to pass
84 defaults to the Data::FormValidator new() constructor.
85
86 $self->param(dfv_defaults => { filters => ['trim'] })
87
88 By setting this to a hash reference of defaults in your
89 "cgiapp_init" routine in your own super-class, you could make it
90 easy to share some default settings for Data::FormValidator across
91 several forms. Of course, you could also set parameter through an
92 instance script via the PARAMS key.
93
94 Here's an example that I've used:
95
96 sub cgiapp_init {
97 my $self = shift;
98
99 # Set some defaults for DFV unless they already exist.
100 $self->param('dfv_defaults') ||
101 $self->param('dfv_defaults', {
102 missing_optional_valid => 1,
103 filters => 'trim',
104 msgs => {
105 any_errors => 'err__',
106 prefix => 'err_',
107 invalid => 'Invalid',
108 missing => 'Missing',
109 format => '<span class="dfv-errors">%s</span>',
110 },
111 });
112 }
113
114 Now all my applications that inherit from a super class with this
115 "cgiapp_init()" routine and have these defaults, so I don't have to
116 add them to every profile.
117
118 dfv_fif_class
119 By default this plugin uses HTML::FillInForm to fill in the forms on
120 the error pages with the given values. This option let's you change
121 that so it uses an HTML::FillInForm compatible class (like a
122 subclass) to do the same work.
123
124 $self->param(dfv_fif_class => 'HTML::FillInForm::SuperDuper');
125
126 dfv_fif_defaults
127 The value of the 'dfv_fif_defaults' param is optionally used to pass
128 defaults to the HTML::FillInForm "fill()" method.
129
130 $self->param(dfv_fif_defaults => {ignore_fields => ['rm']})
131
132 By setting this to a hash reference of defaults in your
133 "cgiapp_init" routine in your own super-class, you could make it
134 easy to share some default settings for HTML::FillInForm across
135 several forms. Of course, you could also set parameter through an
136 instance script via the PARAMS key.
137
138 CGI::Application::Plugin::Forward support
139 Experimental support has been added for
140 CGI::Application::Plugin::Forward, which keeps the current run mode up
141 to date. This would be useful if you were automatically generating a
142 template name based on the run mode name, and you wanted this to work
143 with the form run mode used with ::ValidateRM.
144
145 If we detect that ::Forward is loaded, we will set the current run mode
146 name to be accurate while the error page is being generated, and then
147 set it back to the previous value afterwards. There is a caveat: This
148 currently only works when the run name name is the same as the
149 subroutine name for the form page. If they differ, the current run mode
150 name inside of the form page will be inaccurate. If this is a problem
151 for you, get in touch to discuss a solution.
152
153 check_rm_error_page()
154 After check_rm() is called this accessor method can be used to retrieve
155 the error page described in the check_rm() docs above. The method has an
156 alias named "dfv_error_page()" if you find that more intuitive.
157
158 dfv_results()
159 $self->dfv_results;
160
161 After "check_rm()" or "validate_rm()" has been called, the DFV results
162 object can also be accessed through this method. I expect this to be
163 most useful to other plugin authors.
164
165 validate_rm()
166 Works like "check_rm" above, but returns the old style $valid hash
167 reference instead of the results object. It's no longer recommended, but
168 still supported.
169
170EXAMPLE
171 In a CGI::Application module:
172
173 # This is the run mode that will be validated. Notice that it accepts
174 # some errors to be passed in, and on to the template system.
175 sub form_display {
176 my $self = shift;
177 my $errs = shift;
178
179 my $t = $self->load_tmpl('page.html');
180
181 $t->param($errs) if $errs;
182 return $t->output;
183 }
184
185 sub form_process {
186 my $self = shift;
187
188 use CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM (qw/check_rm/);
189 my ($results, $err_page) = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile');
190 return $err_page if $err_page;
191
192 #.. do something with DFV $results object now
193
194 my $t = $self->load_tmpl('success.html');
195 return $t->output;
196
197 }
198
199 sub _form_profile {
200 return {
201 required => 'email',
202 msgs => {
203 any_errors => 'some_errors',
204 prefix => 'err_',
205 },
206 };
207 }
208
209 In page.html:
210
211 <!-- tmpl_if some_errors -->
212 <h3>Some fields below are missing or invalid</h3>
213 <!-- /tmpl_if -->
214 <form>
215 <input type="text" name="email"> <!-- tmpl_var err_email -->
216 </form>
217
218SEE ALSO
219 CGI::Application, Data::FormValidator, HTML::FillInForm, perl(1)
220
221AUTHOR
222 Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com>
223
224MAILING LIST
225 If you have any questions, comments, bug reports or feature suggestions,
226 post them to the support mailing list! This the Data::FormValidator
227 list. To join the mailing list, visit
228 <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/cascade-dataform>
229
230LICENSE
231 Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com>
232
233 This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
234 under the terms of either:
235
236 a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
237 Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any later version,
238
239 or
240
241 b) the "Artistic License"
242
243 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
244 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
245 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either the GNU
246 General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.
247
248 For a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if
249 not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
250 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
251
252