Hi Yaron!
I found the answer to my question about the square brackets in form input's
name. It's done for PHP to know that all the values of the same name must
be collected in an array.
Here is it : http://docs.php.net/manual/en/faq.html.php#faq.html.arrays
-
Yury Katkov
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 5:27 PM, Yaron Koren ya...@wikiworks.com wrote:
Hi Yury,
My answers are below.
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 6:26 AM, Yury Katkov katkov.ju...@gmail.comwrote:
Hi everyone and especially SF/SFI developers!
I've just finished the pre-alpha version of the new Semantic Form Input
for selecting multiple items in a comfortable way.
You can see the demo here:
http://test12.wikivote.ru/index.php?title=Daction=formedit
Nice. Does this input type use an existing JS library, and if so, which
one? Or did you create the Javascript for it yourself?
Tied in with that, the name you chose for this input type, multiselect,
is actually one I was thinking of using for this other input type I wanted
to add to SFI - see the Multiple Select section:
http://harvesthq.github.com/chosen/
What about calling your input type two listboxes or something like that?
That seems to be at least one standard term for this kind of interface. I
don't know if there's a more official one.
I want to write a piece of technical documentation for myself and for
future generations of SFInput writers but I don't yet understand several
imporant things about Form Inputs. I'd be very glad if Semantic Forms
developers clarified something for me.
== Question 1. History and future plans ==
As far as I can tell from the code there are three generations of
FormInputs exist now, am I right?
1) in the past input developer had to override getHTML() function. It's
done in most Semantic Forms's formsinput but it's not a good way anymore.
We also have used
2) now it's the era of the Resource Loader and to create my input I have
to override getHtmlText, getResourceModuleNames and getJsInitFunctionData
functions. For figuring out what kind of data can be handled by the input
we now use getHandledPropertyTypes function instead
of getDefaultPropTypes, getDefaultPropTypeLists
and getOtherPropTypesHandled.
3) In the future addJsInitFunctionData, addJsValidationFunctionData will
be used by the internals of the Semantic Forms and all deprecated methods
will be removed.
That sounds right... Stephan Gambke might know more about this than I do.
I believe the framework for the third of those is not done yet.
== Question 2. Naming ==
Is it correct that I have to name my inputs like that: input_ .
$this-mInputNumber
The input name is already passed in by SF, no? At the most, you might just
have to add in a [...], depending on how the HTML is structured, because
your input holds multiple values This ties in to your 4th question.
== Question 3 Naming again ==
What the 'name' attribute is used for? The rule of the thumb is of course
that you always make it like that: $this-mInputName
It's used when the form is submitted, to get the value of the input.
== Question 4. Handling lists ==
I'm not sure that I understand about handling lists issues in Form
Inputs.
1) The Name attribute of the form input sometimes have brackets like in
it like this: input3[].
2) On the other hand sometimes we add an additional hidden element like
Html::hidden($name . '[is_list]', 1)
3) And thirdly we have the method canHandleLists() to override.
It seems that all three thing are indicating that the form input can
handle lists, but it's pretty weird to see three different pieces of code
trying to say the same thing. What's happening
The second one is done for certain input types, so that when the form is
submitted, the code will know to check for multiple values. It's a symptom
of the way arrays of values are handled in HTML forms, but beyond that I
don't remember. :) If you don't need it, then you shouldn't use it. I think
that's true for the first one as well.
== Question 5. Don't draw my input without proper CSS! ==
When the form is loaded there's a period of time when the user can my
element undressed. Namely the user can see he input without any CSS applied
to it. How can I avoid such an effect?
That's a symptom of the use of ResourceLoader, since by default it puts
CSS and Javascript at the bottom of the page. It leads to faster leading
times, but some people don't like it because things show up undressed.
(The ResourceLoader people apparently refer to this as a FOUC, or flash
of unstyled content.) Personally, I don't mind it. But here are
instructions on how to avoid it for your module:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader/Migration_guide_for_extension_developers#Adding_a_module_to_the_page
== Question 6. Be part of something bigger ==
Is it possible that my code will be part of Semantic Forms Inputs or
Semantic Forms? If so, what versions of SMW, SF, SFI should I use for
