NAME

       HTML::FormHandler::Field::Repeatable - repeatable (array) field

VERSION

       version 0.40068

SYNOPSIS

       In a form, for an array of hashrefs, equivalent to a 'has_many' database relationship.

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

       In a form, for an array of single fields (not directly equivalent to a database relationship) use the
       'contains' pseudo field name:

         has_field 'tags' => ( type => 'Repeatable' );
         has_field 'tags.contains' => ( type => 'Text',
              apply => [ { check => ['perl', 'programming', 'linux', 'internet'],
                           message => 'Not a valid tag' } ]
         );

       or use 'contains' with single fields which are compound fields:

         has_field 'addresses' => ( type => 'Repeatable' );
         has_field 'addresses.contains' => ( type => '+MyAddress' );

       If the MyAddress field contains fields 'address_id', 'street', 'city', and 'state', then this syntax is
       functionally equivalent to the first method where the fields are declared with dots ('addresses.city');

       You can pass attributes to the 'contains' field by supplying an 'init_contains' hashref.

           has_field 'addresses' => ( type => 'Repeatable,
              init_contains => { wrapper_attr => { class => ['hfh', 'repinst'] } },
           );

DESCRIPTION

       This class represents an array. It can either be an array of hashrefs (compound fields) or an array of
       single fields.

       The 'contains' keyword is used for elements that do not have names because they are not hash elements.

       This field node will build arrays of fields from the parameters or an initial object, or empty fields for
       an empty form.

       The name of the element fields will be an array index, starting with 0. Therefore the first array element
       can be accessed with:

          $form->field('tags')->field('0')
          $form->field('addresses')->field('0')->field('city')

       or using the shortcut form:

          $form->field('tags.0')
          $form->field('addresses.0.city')

       The array of elements will be in "$form->field('addresses')->fields".  The subfields of the elements will
       be in a fields array in each element.

          foreach my $element ( $form->field('addresses')->fields )
          {
             foreach my $field ( $element->fields )
             {
                # do something
             }
          }

       Every field that has a 'fields' array will also have an 'error_fields' array containing references to the
       fields that contain errors.

   Complications
       When new elements are created by a Repeatable field in a database form an attempt is made to re-load the
       Repeatable field from the database, because otherwise the repeatable elements will not have primary keys.
       Although this works, if you have included other fields in your repeatable elements that do *not* come
       from the database, the defaults/values must be able to be loaded in a way that works when the form is
       initialized from the database item. This is only an issue if you re-present the form after the database
       update succeeds.

ATTRIBUTES

       index
           This attribute contains the next index number available to create an additional array element.

       init_contains
           When the Repeatable is repeated, this hashref will be used to initialise each instance. It can
           contain any of the same attributes you would normally give to "has_field" in HTML::FormHandler,
           except "type", for obvious reasons.

               has_field 'addresses' => (
                   type => 'Repeatable',
                   init_contains => {
                       wrapper_attr => {
                           rel => 'address'
                       },
                       wrapper_class => [ 'row' ]
                   }
               );

           Note that providing a "wrapper_class" to this hashref will override the default "hfh-repinst" class
           on these instances.

       num_when_empty
           This attribute (default 1) indicates how many empty fields to present in an empty form which hasn't
           been filled from parameters or database rows.

       num_extra
           When the field results are built from an existing object (item or init_object) an additional number
           of repeatable elements will be created equal to this number. Default is 0.

       add_extra
           When a form is submitted and the field results are built from the input parameters, it's not clear
           when or if an additional repeatable element might be wanted. The method 'add_extra' will add an empty
           repeatable element.

               $form->process( params => {....} );
               $form->field('my_repeatable')->add_extra(1);

           This might be useful if the form is being re-presented to the user.

       setup_for_js
               setup_for_js => 1

           Saves information in the form for javascript to use when adding repeatable elements.  If using the
           example javascript, you also must set 'do_wrapper' in the Repeatable field and use the Bootstrap
           widget wrapper (or wrap the repeatable elements in a 'controls' div by setting tags => { controls_div
           => 1 }.  See t/repeatable/js.t for an example. See also HTML::FormHandler::Render::RepeatableJs and
           HTML::FormHandler::Field::AddElement.

AUTHOR

       FormHandler Contributors - see HTML::FormHandler

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2017 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.