Form.rst

Form

General

Important

Primary key: QFQ expect that each table, which will be loaded into a form, contains a primary key called id. That one should be autoincrement. It's not necessary to create a FormElement id in a form.

• Forms will be created by using the Form Editor on the Typo3 frontend (HTML form).

• The Form editor itself consist of two predefined QFQ forms: form and formElement - these forms are regular updated during installation of newer QFQ versions.

• Every form consist of a) a Form record and b) multiple FormElement records.

• A form is assigned to a table. Such a table is called the primary table for this form.

• Forms can roughly categorized into:

  • Simple form: the form acts on one record, stored in one table.
    • The form will create necessary SQL commands for insert, update and delete (only primary record) automatically.
  • Advanced form: the form acts on multiple records, stored in more than one table.
    • Fields of the primary table acts like a simple form, all other fields have to be specified with action/afterSave records.
  • Multi form: (multi-form) the form acts simultaneously on more than one record. All records use the same FormElements.
    • The FormElements are defined as a regular simple / or advanced form, plus an SQL Query, which selects and iterates over all records. Those records will be loaded at the same time.
  • Delete form: any form can be used as a form to :ref:`delete-record`.

• Form mode: The parameter 'r' (given via URL or via SIP) decide if the form is in mode:

  • New:

    • Missing parameter 'r' or 'r=0'
    • On form load, no record is displayed.
    • Saving the form creates a new primary record.
    • E.g.: http://example.com/index.php?id=home&form=Person or http://example.com/index.php?id=home&form=Person&r=0

  • Edit:

    • Parameter 'r>0'
    • On form load, the specified record (<tablename>.id= <r>) will be loaded and displayed.
    • Saving the form will update the existing record.
    • E.g.: http://example.com/index.php?id=home&form=Person&r=123

  • Providing additional parameter:

    Often, it is necessary to store additional, for the user not visible, parameter in a record. See :ref:`form-magic`.

• Display a form:

  • Create a QFQ tt_content record on a Typo 3 page.
  • Inside the QFQ record: form = <formname>. E.g.:
    • Static: form = Person
    • Dynamic 1: form = {{form:SE}} (the left form is a keyword for QFQ, the right form is a variable name)
    • Dynamic 2: form = {{SELECT f.name FROM Form AS f WHERE f.id=...}} (the left form is a keyword for QFQ, the right form is a variable name)
  • With the Dynamic option, it's easily possible to use one Typo3 page and display different forms on that specific page.

• If a form is edited using the JSON form editor then a backup of the previous version is saved. See :ref:`formAsFile`.

Form process order

Depending on form load / save or record delete, different tasks are performed. Processing is divided into:

• Native FormElements like: input, select list, checkbox, radio, ....
  • upload elements are categorized as native FormElement, but will be processed later.
  • pill, fieldset and subrecord elements are only processed during form load, they do not impact save or delete.
• Action FormElement like before..., after..., sendmail ...

Each FormElement has an order.