1. Simple example
2. Benefits
3. Usage
4. Advanced fields configuration
5. Form configurations
6. Access Control
7. Links

In a web full of complex html form templates, this extension provides a faster way to draw fields in Yii Framework 1.1.
It also has an access control system in order to give read / hide / write access to any field according to Yii RBAC Access Rules.

Project page on GitHub: https://github.com/letsjump/Yii-AutoActiveForm
Report an issue: https://github.com/letsjump/Yii-AutoActiveForm/issues

Simple example ¶

this code

echo $form->autoTextField($model, 'Name');

generates this html ~~~ [html]

<label for="Model_name" class="required">
    Oggetto 
    <span class="required">*</span>
</label>
<span class="field">
		<input name="Model[name]" id="Model_name" type="text" maxlength="255" value="" />
		<span class="errorMessage" id="Model_name_em_" style="display:none"></span>
</span>

echo $form->autoDatePicker($model,'cr_date');

generates ~~~ [html]

<label for="Model_cr_date">Data Creazione</label>
<span class="field">
	<input id="Model_cr_date" name="Model[cr_date]" type="text" value="05/07/2014" />
	<span class="errorMessage" id="Model_cr_date_em_" style="display:none"></span>
</span>

Benefits ¶

• It extends Yii CActiveForm native method so you can invoke any field (like $form->inputField, $form->passwordField, $form->checkbox and so on...) just adding the auto prefix. Example: $form->textArea(...) becomes $form->autoTextArea(...)
• It can be extended so you can use your field generator plugin like Chosen or TinyMce with just some line of code in your CustomForm.php configuration file
• You can change configuration globally or locally: just one form or just one field.
• Field templates are mastered as normal Yii view files
• You can also use CActiveForm native method, EG: $form->label(...), $form->textField(...) and $form->error(...)
• A complete access control to draw field according with user permissions

Usage ¶

• put AutoActiveForm folder in your ext directory
• copy CustomForm.php in your components directory and configure it
• modify Yii::import('ext.autoActiveForm.AutoActiveForm') according to fit the extension's alias path
• call Yii ActiveForm widget with the path of your custom form:

$form=$this->beginWidget('application.components.CustomForm',
	array(
	...
	)
);

• call any CActiveForm field method adding the auto prefix

$form->autoTextField($model, 'surname');
$form->autoPassword($model, 'pass');
$form->autoCheckBox($model, 'yes_no');
$form->autoDropDownList($model, ',my_list', Array(1=>'One', 2=>'Two', 3=>'Three));

In addiction, it is strongly recommended to copy the view folder that contains your field template into your theme folder and configure $this->viewPath value according to its path:

class CustomForm extends AutoActiveForm
{
 	public function init() {
     		$this->viewPath = 'my.theme.folder.my.autoactiveform-view.folder'
 	...

Doing so, your work will not be deleted after new AutoActiveForm plugin releases.

Advanced fields configuration ¶

Add field HTML options ¶

As in CActiveForm you'll pass configurations using $htmlOptions array:

$form->autoTextField($model, 'surname', Array('class'=>'my_class', 'style'=>'color: green'));

Add label or error HTML options ¶

If you need to pass configurations to the label or error HTML tag, AutoActiveForm provides two special array of parameters inside $htmlOptions:

• labelHtmlOptions (array)
• errorHtmlOptions (array)

Example:

$form->autoTextField($model, 'gender', Array('labelHtmlOptions'=>Array('class'=>'required'));
$form->autoTextField($model, 'age', Array('errorHtmlOptions'=>Array('class'=>'blink'));

Additional field configuration settings ¶

In addition to labelHtmlOptions and errorHtmlOptions, you can pass some other array of parameters to $htmlOptions:

• jsOptions: (array) special options used in complex jQuery fields like TinyMce
• roValue: (string) read only value for this field
• viewFile: (string) alternative view just for this field

Form configurations ¶

AutoActiveForm has some special configuration that changes the default behavior:

• $viewPath: (string) path alias to the view's folder
• $viewFile: (string) name of the default view
• $accessControl: (bool) enable / disable access control
• $addHtmlOptions: (array) add an array of $htmlOptions to every field of the form
• $allowAction: (string) action to perform when access control is disabled. Usually the action write that draw a form field with its label and its error tag
• $showLabels: (bool) enable / disable the label generator. Usually set to false when use placeholder
• $labelToPlaceholder: (bool) automatically generates a placeholder="" attribute with the label's text for any field

Set form configurations globally ¶

To set configurations globally, you'll have to act in the init() method of your CustomForm class:

class CustomForm extends AutoActiveForm
{
	public function init() {
    		// set here your global configurations
			$this->formParameterName = your global value
			parent::init();
    	}
    	...
    }
    ...
}

Set form configurations locally (this form) ¶

To set a form parameter just for a form, there is an $autoActiveForm array to set in its form $this->beginWidget() configuration:

$form=$this->beginWidget('application.components.customForm',
		array(
		'id'=>'my-automatic-form',
		'autoActiveForm'=>Array(
			// add here some configurations just for this form
			'accessControl' => true,
			...
		),
		'enableAjaxValidation'=>true,
		'htmlOptions' => array(
			'class'=>'stdform'),
		)
	);

If you also need to add some $htmlOptions to every field of this form, there is a special addHtmlOptions parameter:

$form=$this->beginWidget('application.components.customForm',
		array(
		'id'=>'my-coloured-form',
		'autoActiveForm'=>Array(
			// add here some configurations just for this form
			'addHtmlOptions'=>Array('class'=>'green_border')
		),
		'enableAjaxValidation'=>true,
		'htmlOptions' => array(
			'class'=>'stdform'),
		)
	);

In the above example, every field of the generated form will have the html property class="green-border" automagically setted.

Access Control ¶

In order to give access control to the fields, you must create the getFieldAccessRules() method in its CActiveRecord parent model. getFieldAccessRules() returns a multidimensional array similar to CActiveRecord's rules() method.<br/>This array is composed by a key which is the RBAC rule that fields must respect, and the value of this key that is a sub-array where:

• the first item is a comma separated list of fields
• the second item is the action that the access control must run (usually read / write)
• the third optional item is the scenario in which the rule should apply

class myDatabaseTable extends CActiveRecord {
	...
	public function getFieldAccessRules()
	{
		return Array(
			'guest' => Array(
				Array('my_field_a, my_field_b',
					'read',
					'on' => 'low-level-scenario'
				),
			),
			'staffThatCanDoSomething' => Array(
				Array('my_field_c, my_field_d, my_field_f',
					'read',
					'on' => 'next-level-scenario'
				),
				Array('my_field_a, my_field_b',
					'write',
					'on' => 'next-level-scenario'
				),
				Array('my_field_a, my_field_b',
					'read',
					'on' => 'some-other-scenario'
				),
			),
		);
	}
	...
}

Access Control disclaimer ¶

Watch out: Even if a field is in read mode or in hide mode, this don't prevent that an advanced user / cracker is passing parameters to your action's request, so YOU ARE ADVICED to take an appropriate strategy to prevent this, like using model's filters depending on scenario, or unsetting unused parameters from request before processing it.

Links ¶

Project page on GitHub: https://github.com/letsjump/Yii-AutoActiveForm
Report an issue: https://github.com/letsjump/Yii-AutoActiveForm/issues