I think you should have a form bean for doing that.
The approach I am following is having a form definition in XML
which parameterizes a form bean. Some details:
- Validation logic can be in Java or in script. Anyway, it is
just an extra Validation object which is also parameterized
in the XML definition;
- Other cases where different-then-usual logic often pops up
will follow the same approach - pluggable in the form object
as above - and for really hard stuff, just make your own
form object;
- The form object exposes any properties necessary to build
the HTML form via very simple Velocity template;
- And takes care of all the "complicated" stuff as handling
defaults, processing user input and validating elsewhere.
There are separated templates for each type of control
supported that are (TADAA...) just Velocity templates. You can
even use them as skins. (No, I am not building an MP3 player!)
These templates are processed by the form object behind the
scenes just to avoid loads of #macros across de final template.
Finally, the user (designer) chooses how much he wants to
customize the final template. He can just do something like:
<form ... >
$myForm.full.form
</form>
to get the complete form or:
$myForm.full.view
for a detailed view of the data, but he can also go:
<form
<br>
<b>$myForm.fields("name").caption<b> $myForm.fields("name").control
<br>
...
or even
<br>
<b>$myForm.fields("name").caption<b>
<input type="text" name="name"
title="$myForm.fields("name").hint"
value="$myForm.fields("name").value" size="$myForm.fields("name").size"
/>
<br>
...
And the template to define a text control is similar to the
above. Something like:
<input type="text" name="$field.name"
title="$field.hint"
value="$field.value" size="$field.size" />
And the template to define the simple form view that one
gets from the above mentioned construct:
$myForm.full.form
would be something like:
<table>
#foreach($field in $form.fields)
<tr><td><b>$field.caption</b></td><td>$field.control</td></tr>
#end
</table>
And finally, the form definition is something like:
<form name="myform">
<field name="name" type="text" control="text" size="50" caption="Name"
hint="Enter your name" ... />
<field name="age" type="int" contro="text" caption="Age" hint="Enter
your age" ... >
<validator type="min-max" min="15" max="120" msg="You must be
kidding!"/>
</field>
....
<validator lang="java" class="xpto.xyz.MyValidatorClass" />
</form>
Use your imagination to fill the blanks, because that is
exactly what I am doing... and will be doing for a while.
So, in such a scheme you can do it really simple or you can
go as detailed as you want. And I really see not need to
change Velocity to make such thing work.
This implementation is still far from complete but on the
templating side is being MUCH easier than the previous one
I did - with FreeMarker - because Velocity makes it so much
easier to get stuff from the Java side.
And the complex stuff, one does in the Java side.
(Of course that I am not trying to use JSP! hehehe)
Have fun,
Paulo Gaspar
http://www.krankikom.de
http://www.ruhronline.de
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Donnie Hale [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 2:44 AM
> To: Velocity Developers List
> Subject: RE: #macro functionality
>
>
> Jon,
>
> >>What convinced me that it was ok was that it didn't add any new
> 'language'
> to Velocity. It simply allows you to create reusable bits which
> actually has
> the potential to simplify things.<<
>
> And that's all I'm wanting to do. Struts <html:form> tag library has a lot
> of simplifying (for the web developer, at least :) code in it.
> And at least
> one other person wanted a knock-off Velocity form macro library.
> To achieve
> that, calling args by name-value seems most appropriate.
>
> Donnie
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jon Stevens [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 8:18 PM
> To: velocity-dev
> Subject: Re: #macro functionality
>
>
> on 11/26/01 5:22 PM, "Donnie Hale" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Now if we want to debate whether #macro should exist at
> > all... ;)
>
> FYI, I was against it as well for a long time.
>
> What convinced me that it was ok was that it didn't add any new 'language'
> to Velocity. It simply allows you to create reusable bits which
> actually has
> the potential to simplify things.
>
> Needless to say, you can always disable the ability to use #macro.
>
> -jon
>
>
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