PHP Classes

TM::Apeform: A very abstract web form builder and processor

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Version License PHP version Categories
apeform 1.0.0Free for non-comm...4.0.6HTML, Validation
Description 

Author

Thiemo Kreuz

TM::Apeform creates self repeating web forms, so called "Affenformulare" (German for "ape forms"). If a million apes is typing into the form (that's the "Infinite monkey theorem"), the form is displayed again and again as long as it contains errors.

- The usage is not different from the creation, validation and processing of the form values that the user entered. Everything is done in a single script.
- The class hides the access to POST and global variables and simply returns the submitted values.
- It offers an easy way to handle input errors (checking valid email addresses for example).
- It supports all form elements including radio buttons, select boxes, file upload fields and so on.
- It provides an own templating system, so you do not have to deal with HTML at all.
- It creates labels and access keys according to HTML 4 standard and returns XHTML compatible output.
- In addition you can add JavaScript handlers to any form element.

TM::Apeform is optimized to be used with the minimum amount of source code. For example, the following script is a full functional form mailer.

<?php
require_once("Apeform.class.php");
$form = new Apeform();
$message = $form->textarea("Your Message");
$form->submit("Send Email");
$form->display();
if ($form->isValid()) mail("to@example.com", "Subject", $message);
?>

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Name: Thiemo Kreuz <contact>
Classes: 2 packages by
Country: Germany Germany
Age: 47
All time rank: 27612 in Germany Germany
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Instructions

This class is written to use with PHP 4 and no longer works with newer PHP versions. So, please do not use it with newer PHP versions.

Example

<?php

/**
 * Email form example. Shows compatible use of select and radio. Shows basic
 * use of returning by reference. Shows use of acceskey characters.
 *
 * @author Thiemo Mättig (http://maettig.com/)
 */

require_once("Apeform.class.php");
$form = new Apeform();

$form->header("Support email");

// It's very easy to switch between input type "radio" and "select".
$problem = $form->select("Your <u>p</u>roblem", "", "I found 20 &euro;|I need help|It doesn't work");
$problem = $form->radio("Your <u>p</u>roblem", "", "I found 20 &euro;|I need help|It doesn't work");

// Return value as a reference, note the ampersand.
$description = &$form->textarea("<u>D</u>escribe your problem", "", "", 10);
// Due to the reference the following changes are displayed imediatelly.
$description = strtoupper($description);
if (! $description)
{
    $form->error("Description missing");
}

$form->header("Additional information about you");

$name = $form->text("Your <u>n</u>ame");
if (! $name)
{
    $form->error("Name missing");
}

// Return value as a reference, note the ampersand.
$email = &$form->text("Your <u>e</u>mail", "Please specify if you want an answer.");
// Add an individual class label to the form element above.
$form->addClass("important");
// Due to the reference the following changes are displayed imediatelly.
$email = strtolower(trim($email));
if ($email && ! preg_match(
    '/^[^\s"\'<>()@,;:]+@[^\s"\'<>()@,;:]+\.[a-z]{2,6}$/is', $email))
{
    $form->error("Email invalid");
}

$form->submit("Send email");

echo '<style type="text/css">';
echo 'table { margin: auto; }';
echo 'th { background-color: #D2ECD2; }';
echo 'td { background-color: #F4FAF4; }';
echo '.important label, .important strong { background-color: #FE0; }';
echo '</style>';

if ($form->isValid())
{
    // mail("example@example.com", $problem, $description, "From: $email");
    echo "I'm trying to solve your problem. Please wait ...";
}

$form->display();

echo '<p class="important"><strong>Important:</strong> Individual stylesheet class on single form elements.</p>';

?>

Screenshots (3)  
  • example_templates.png
  • example_advertisement.png
  • example_QuickForm_groups.png
  Files folder image Files (24)  
File Role Description
Accessible without login Plain text file Apeform.class.php Class Main class
Accessible without login HTML file Apeform_manual.html Doc. Manual and API reference
Accessible without login Plain text file ChangeLog.txt Doc. Change log
Accessible without login Plain text file example_accesskeys.php Example How to automatically create accesskey attributes
Accessible without login Plain text file example_advertisement.class.php Class Extended class with different templates
Accessible without login Plain text file example_advertisement.php Example Small advertisement form with an image upload
Accessible without login Plain text file example_colors.php Example Ideas for selecting a color in a form
Accessible without login Plain text file example_elements.class.php Class Extended class with special form elements
Accessible without login Plain text file example_elements.php Example How to use the special elements from the extended class
Accessible without login Plain text file example_email.php Example Small form mailer with error checking
Accessible without login Plain text file example_multiform.php Example How to use multiple forms on a single page
Accessible without login Plain text file example_multipage.php Example How to split a form into multiple pages
Accessible without login Plain text file example_multipage2.php Example How to split a form into multiple pages
Accessible without login Plain text file example_multiuse.php Example How to use a form multiple times
Accessible without login Plain text file example_QuickForm_elements.php Example Comparison with the features of PEAR::HTML_QuickForm
Accessible without login Plain text file example_QuickForm_groups.php Example Comparison with the features of PEAR::HTML_QuickForm
Accessible without login Plain text file example_regex_callback.php Example Extended validation methods with callbacks and regular expressions
Accessible without login Plain text file example_templates.php Example How to use different HTML and CSS templates
Accessible without login Plain text file example_tiny.php Example Basic textarea example
Accessible without login Plain text file example_tinymce.php Example How to use TinyMCE instead of a textarea
Accessible without login Plain text file test.php Test PHPUnit 1 unit test

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  Applications that use this package  
All forms in this project are done using TM::Apeform.

Add link image If you know an application of this package, send a message to the author to add a link here.


  Other classes that need this package  
Class Why it is needed Dependency
TM::MyCSV Only for the Administrator class and script, to display all the forms. Conditional

  Related pages  
Detailed description and examples for the class on my personal website