NAME

       HTML::FormHandler::Manual::Database - FormHandler use recipes

VERSION

       version 0.40064

SYNOPSIS

       Manual Index

       Information on interfacing FormHandler forms and fields with a database.  Also see
       HTML::FormHandler::TraitFor::Model::DBIC.

Form Models

       For a database form, use a model base class that interfaces with the database, such as
       HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC, which needs to be installed as a separate package. There's
       also a sample 'object' model in HTML::FormHandler::Model::Object, which will update a
       simple object.

       When using a database model, form field values for the row are retrieved from the database
       using the field 'accessor' attributes (defaults to field name) as database class
       accessors.

       FormHandler will use relationships to populate single and multiple selection lists, and
       validate input. A 'single' relationship is processed by
       HTML::FormHandler::Field::Compound. A 'has_many' relationship is processed by
       HTML::FormHandler::Field::Repeatable.

       Do not use database row method names, such as 'delete', as field names in a database form.

       You can pass in either the primary key or a row object to the form. If a primary key
       (item_id) is passed in, you must also provide the schema.  The model will use the
       item_class (DBIC source name) to fetch the row from the database. If you pass in a row
       object (item), the schema, item_class, and item_id will be set from the row.

       Executing "$form->process( item => $row, params => $params );" will validate the
       parameters and then update or create the database row object.

Fields that map to database relationships

   Select
       A select field will automatically retrieve a select list from the database, if the proper
       column names are provided. Single selects handle 'belongs_to' relationships, where the
       related table is used to construct a selection list from the database.

       See also HTML::FormHandler::Field::Select and 'lookup_options' in
       HTML::FormHandler::TraitFor::Model::DBIC.

   Multiple Select
       A multiple select is either a 'Select' with multiple => 1 set, or a field of the
       'Multiple' type. The name of a Multiple select which pulls options from the database
       automatically should be the name of the 'many_to_many' relationship. The 'value' of the
       field is derived from the 'has_many' part of the relationship.

       The primary key is used for the 'id' of the select. The 'label' column of the select is
       assumed to be 'name'. If the label column has a different name, it must be specified with
       'label_column'.

       Pertinent attributes:

          label_column
          active_column
          sort_column

       See also HTML::FormHandler::Field::Select and HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC.

   Compound fields
       A compound field represents a single relationship to another table.  Although most
       compound relations can be handled without providing a primary key, in some circumstances
       you may need to provide a PrimaryKey field, or add extra values in update_model.

       See also HTML::FormHandler::Field::Compound.

       The default for compound fields is that if all subfields are empty, the value of the
       compound field is set to undef (null). For some types of relations, you may want to set
       the 'not_nullable' flag to force the field to contain all subfields anyway, such as when
       the related rows are not deleted when empty. See test t/compound/empty.t for a
       demonstration of the difference in output.

   Repeatable fields
       The 'Repeatable' field type allows you to update arrays of columns from related tables
       easily. You will need to provide a 'PrimaryKey' hidden field in the compound field
       contained in the Repeatable.

         has_field 'addresses' => ( type => 'Repeatable' );
         has_field 'addresses.address_id' => ( type => 'PrimaryKey' );
         has_field 'addresses.street';
         has_field 'addresses.city';
         has_field 'addresses.state';

       There are some complications with creating Repeatable elements (with the PrimaryKey field
       set to undef) in a database and re-presenting the form.  See
       HTML::FormHandler::Field::Repeatable for more info.

Flags

   writeonly
       Do not read the value from the 'item' when populating the form.

   noupdate
       Do not update the database with this field, i.e. do not include it in "$form->value".

Form generator

       A DBIC form generator is installed with the HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC package. See
       HTML::FormHandler::Generator::DBIC.

       There's also a role, HTML::FormHandler::TraitFor::DBICFields, that allows simple form
       fields to be auto-generated from a DBIC result class.

           my $form = HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC->new_with_traits(
               traits => ['HTML::FormHandler::TraitFor::DBICFields'],
               includes => ['title', 'author' ],
               field_list => [ 'submit' => { type => 'Submit', value => 'Save', order => 99 } ],
               item => $book );

AUTHOR

       FormHandler Contributors - see HTML::FormHandler

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Gerda Shank.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
       the Perl 5 programming language system itself.