• *formcontrols plugins loops on form controls (neither submits nor reset). It is a block plugin. Within it, ctrl_label and ctrl_control** plugins will display respectively label and field of current control. To display submit buttons or reset, use formsubmit and formreset.

Example :

  {form $form, 'mymodule~default:save'}

   <fieldset><legend>Fill : </legend>

      {formcontrols}
         <p> {ctrl_label} : {ctrl_control} </p>
      {/formcontrols}

   </fieldset>

   <div> {formreset}{formsubmit} </div>

  {/form}

Note that form fields will be displayed in the order of their declaration in your XML file. Note also that template here is totally independent of form content and could be reused with more forms.

One could display some controls differently than others. Just indidcate a list of control names to formcontrols plugin.

  {form $form, 'mymodule~default:save'}

   <fieldset><legend>Identity : </legend>

      {formcontrols array('lastname','firstname','address')}
         <p> {ctrl_label} : {ctrl_control} </p>
      {/formcontrols}

   </fieldset>
   <fieldset><legend>Other fields : </legend>

      {formcontrols}
         <p> {ctrl_label} : {ctrl_control} </p>
      {/formcontrols}

   </fieldset>

   <div> {formsubmit} </div>
  {/form}

Above, we display a series of controls in a first fieldset (lastname, firstname and address) and the others in a second fieldset:formcontrols loops over controls not already displayed.

Note that ctrl_label and ctrl_control also function outside of formcontrols. In that case, you should indicate a control name.

  {form $form, 'mymodule~default:save'}

   <fieldset><legend>Identity : </legend>

        <table>
          <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'lastname'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'lastname'}</td> </tr>
          <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'firstname'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'firstname'}</td></tr>
        </table>

   </fieldset>
   <fieldset><legend>Other fields : </legend>

      {formcontrols}
         <p> {ctrl_label} : {ctrl_control} </p>
      {/formcontrols}

   </fieldset>

   <div> {formsubmit} </div>
  {/form}

lastname and firstname fields are displayed precisely in a table whereas other fields are displayed with formcontrols.

Beware that if a password control defines a confirm field (<confirm> tag in XML) you should control either the display of password field and confirm field. the latter name is a concatenation of password control name + _confirm.

See example below:

  {form $form, 'mymodule~default:save'}
   <fieldset><legend>Account creation : </legend>
        <table>
          <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'login'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'login'}</td> </tr>
          <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'password'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'password'}</td></tr>
        </table>
   </fieldset>
   <fieldset><legend>Other infos : </legend>
      {formcontrols}
         <p> {ctrl_label} : {ctrl_control} </p>
      {/formcontrols}
   </fieldset>
   <div> {formsubmit} </div>
  {/form}

Confirm field will appear in the second fieldset and not near password field in the example above. To do so, just display 'password_confirm' in a row below 'password' :

   <table>
      <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'login'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'login'}</td> </tr>
          <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'password'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'password'}</td></tr>          <tr><td>{ctrl_label 'password_confirm'}</td><td>{ctrl_control 'password_confirm'}</td></tr>
   </table>

On the contrary, you should not take care of confirm field in formcontrols loop.

As you may recall, formsubmit template plugin displays a submit button declared in your form. But if one declares more than one submit button, formsubmit will display only the first one. In that case, use formsubmits (note the ending s). this block template loops over submit buttons :

    <ul>
    {formsubmits}
       <li>{formsubmit}</li>
    {/formsubmits}
    </ul>

Another way is to use formsubmit multiple times indicating each submit name :

<div> {formsubmit 'preview'} {formsubmit 'save'} </div>

• *Beware : {formsubmits} loops over submit controls, not submit items** ! It is not possible to loop over submit items (see ticket #429)

To customize display of error messages, you shall define a javascript object implementing 3 methods:

• start, called when checking process starts.
• addError, called when an error is found. it receives a jFormsControl argument, which contains infos about the erroneous control, and an error code. the latter equals 1 if user has not edited a required control, 2 if its content is invalid.
• end, called when checking process ends.

You're obviously free to do whatever you need/want in those methods. As for example, you could add the error messages to an error lists ( <ul> located in your html page):

function MyErrorDecorator(){
}

MyErrorDecorator.prototype = {
    start : function(){
    },
    addError : function(control, messageType){
        var message='';
        if(messageType == 1){
            message = control.errRequired;
        }else if(messageType == 2){
            message = control.errInvalid;
        }else{
            message = "Error on '"+control.label+"' field";
        }
        var item = document.createElement("li");
        item.appendChild(document.createTextNode(message));
        document.getElementById("errors").appendChild(item);
    },
    end : function(){
    }
}

Then, declare your MyHelpDecorator object as fourth argument of form or formfull:

  {form $form, 'mymodule~default:save', array(), "MyErrorDecorator"}
   ...
  {/form}

Details about jFormsControl object passed to addError (named control above), and its properties:

• name : control or field name
• label : its label
• datatype : its data type (type attribute in your XML file)
• required : boolean, true if required
• readonly : boolean, true if readonly
• errInvalid : invalid error message defined in your XML file
  • errRequired : required error message defined in your XML file
• help : help message defined in your XML file

As for error messages, your javascript object displaying help messages is equivalent except that only one method is required: show. show will be called with an help message to be displayed as argument.

function MyHelpDecorator(){ }

MyHelpDecorator.prototype = {
    show : function(message){
        document.getElementById("help").firstChild = document.createTextNode(message);
    }
}

Then, declare your MyHelpDecorator object as fifth argument of form or formfull:

  {form $form, 'mymodule~default:save', array(), "", "MyHelpDecorator"}
   ...
  {/form}

Note that here "" is passed as error decorator. This way, jForms will use its default errorDecorator. Of course, if you have your own, you'd better pass it as argument also.