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FormBuilder

The Form Builder will dynamically generate a 'create' form, and an 'update' form for any given model. The Form Builder will pull down the model's table schema, and map form fields to schema types to determine how to generate a form.

Installation

To install, run composer require pta/formbuilder on your command line.

Or you can add the below to your composer.json file manually:

Service Provider

You will need to add Pta\Formbuilder\Providers\FormBuilderServiceProvider::class, to your provider array in app.php config.

Facade

You will need to add 'FormBuilder'=> Pta\FormBuilder\Facades\FormBuilder::class, to your Facades array in app.php config if you want to use the Facade in your views.

Usage

To use FormBuilder, extend your model with Pta\Formbuilder\Lib\ModelSchemaBuilder.

In your view where you want to display a Form for your Model, type:

{!! FormBuilder::buildForm('Namespace\To\Models\ModelName', 'Method', 'Named Route', 'FormType', ID, 'translation namespace') !!}

'ID' and 'translation namespace' can be NULL values.

Example:

This form will create a new User

{!! FormBuilder::buildForm('Pta\Formbuilder\Models\User', 'POST', 'User.Create', 'create') !!}

This form will update User with an ID of 1

{!! FormBuilder::buildForm('Pta\Formbuilder\Models\User', 'POST', 'User.Update', 'update', 1) !!}

The forms are built using a series of partial views for each input type, and depending on if it's a 'create' or 'update' form.

The form's HTML is based off Bootstrap 3 and is completely customizable. Publish the views and customize them however you want.

Using Translations

FormBuilder allows you to pass a namespace path for using a translation file for form labels. For example, I could have a translation namespace configured for a User Model below:

{!! FormBuilder::buildForm('Pta\Formbuilder\Models\User', 'POST', 'User.Update', 'update', 1, 'Pta\Formbuilder\User::') !!}

If we wanted to use a Translation file with a 'create' form, we would need to adjust the create example above as follows:

{!! FormBuilder::buildForm('Pta\Formbuilder\Models\User', 'POST', 'User.Create', 'create', null, 'Pta\Formbuilder\User::') !!}

We will have to pass a NULL value for the ID value.

Publish Views

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Pta\Formbuilder\Providers\FormBuilderServiceProvider" --tag="views"

Overloading Default Behavior

In the config file, we have several areas where we can adjust default behaviors.

Publish Config

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Pta\Formbuilder\Providers\FormBuilderServiceProvider" --tag="config"

Defining NameSpace to your models

The FormBuilder config allows you to define the NameSpace for your models:

After you define your model's namespace in the config you can do the following:

{!! FormBuilder::buildForm('User', 'POST', 'User.Create', 'create', null, 'Pta\Formbuilder\User::') !!}

If you have your models in multiple places (for instance, multiple packages using FormBuilder), you can still define a fully qualified namespaced class name for the model you want to build a form off of. By default it will check to see if the model exists as passed in. If formbuilder can't find it, it will try using the NameSpace path + model name you passed in to find the model.

Default Labels

In the config file there is an array of labels. This array is column name => Label. Edit the config file to make adjustments or add more labels.

You can adjust this list on a per-model basis by declaring a protected $formLabels array in your model.

Default Skipped form fields

It's likely you don't want every column to show up on your form. The config file has a 'fields' array that consists of column names we don't want to create a form element for.

Add or delete items from this list to change form behavior. You can also declare $skipFields in your model, and assign an array of columns to skip on a per model basis.

Default Form Input Mapping

In the config we also have an array that maps column types, to input types.

Adjust this array or add new fields to it to fit your implementation.

Further Customization

If you have a database field that needs some more customized mapping, you can easily overload the default field type by declaring a a public method with the name of the column with FB_ proceeding it. This will let FormBuilder know it's a FB Method.

An example of this would be a drop down. If for instance you have a relationship with another model, like a one-to-one, you would want to provide a 'select' field for an 'Int' database field. Typically the 'Int' type will default to a regular Input field.

The first parameter is a new instance of the model you want to use to populate the drop down. The second parameter is the column name you want to use as the 'ID' of <option id="$id"> tag. The third parameter is the name you want to use to populate the name of the <option id="$id">{{ $name }}</option> tag.

Passing a Closure

You can also pass a closure to a SelectField if you want to pass customized data to the select field, and not all of the data in "school" for instance above.

You can also pass a collection to the SelectField if you want to define static options for a select field.

Adding form fields

To add form fields that are not part of your table schema, add the following protected array:

In addition to adding this array, you will need a method on your model of FB_form_input_id() to match the new form fields you're adding. If you add a field and don't provide a method for the field, FormBuilder will throw an error.

This should allow you to customize the form layout as much as you want, or simply use the default values.