Provided by: libcgi-formbuilder-perl_3.08-2_all bug

NAME

       CGI::FormBuilder - Easily generate and process stateful forms

SYNOPSIS

           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           # Assume we did a DBI query to get existing values
           my $dbval = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;

           # First create our form
           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           name     => 'acctinfo',
                           method   => 'post',
                           stylesheet => '/path/to/style.css',
                           values   => $dbval,   # defaults
                      );

           # Now create form fields, in order
           # FormBuilder will automatically determine the type for you
           $form->field(name => 'fname', label => 'First Name');
           $form->field(name => 'lname', label => 'Last Name');

           # Setup gender field to have options
           $form->field(name => 'gender',
                        options => [qw(Male Female)] );

           # Include validation for the email field
           $form->field(name => 'email',
                        size => 60,
                        validate => 'EMAIL',
                        required => 1);

           # And the (optional) phone field
           $form->field(name => 'phone',
                        size => 10,
                        validate => '/^1?-?\d{3}-?\d{3}-?\d{4}$/',
                        comment  => '<i>optional</i>');

           # Check to see if we're submitted and valid
           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # Get form fields as hashref
               my $field = $form->fields;

               # Do something to update your data (you would write this)
               do_data_update($field->{lname}, $field->{fname},
                              $field->{email}, $field->{phone},
                              $field->{gender});

               # Show confirmation screen
               print $form->confirm(header => 1);
           } else {
               # Print out the form
               print $form->render(header => 1);
           }

DESCRIPTION

       If this is your first time using FormBuilder, you should check out the website for
       tutorials and examples at <http://formbuilder.org>.

       You should also consider joining the google group at
       <http://groups.google.com/group/perl-formbuilder>.  There are some pretty smart people on
       the list that can help you out.

   Overview
       I hate generating and processing forms. Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. My forms
       almost always end up looking the same, and almost always end up doing the same thing.
       Unfortunately, there haven't really been any tools out there that streamline the process.
       Many modules simply substitute Perl for HTML code:

           # The manual way
           print qq(<input name="email" type="text" size="20">);

           # The module way
           print input(-name => 'email', -type => 'text', -size => '20');

       The problem is, that doesn't really gain you anything - you still have just as much code.
       Modules like "CGI.pm" are great for decoding parameters, but not for generating and
       processing whole forms.

       The goal of CGI::FormBuilder (FormBuilder) is to provide an easy way for you to generate
       and process entire CGI form-based applications.  Its main features are:

       Field Abstraction
           Viewing fields as entities (instead of just params), where the HTML representation,
           CGI values, validation, and so on are properties of each field.

       DWIMmery
           Lots of built-in "intelligence" (such as automatic field typing), giving you about a
           4:1 ratio of the code it generates versus what you have to write.

       Built-in Validation
           Full-blown regex validation for fields, even including JavaScript code generation.

       Template Support
           Pluggable support for external template engines, such as "HTML::Template",
           "Text::Template", "Template Toolkit", and "CGI::FastTemplate".

       Plus, the native HTML generated is valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

   Quick Reference
       For the incredibly impatient, here's the quickest reference you can get:

           # Create form
           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(

              # Important options
              fields     => \@array | \%hash,   # define form fields
              header     => 0 | 1,              # send Content-type?
              method     => 'post' | 'get',     # default is get
              name       => $string,            # namespace (recommended)
              reset      => 0 | 1 | $str,            # "Reset" button
              submit     => 0 | 1 | $str | \@array,  # "Submit" button(s)
              text       => $text,              # printed above form
              title      => $title,             # printed up top
              required   => \@array | 'ALL' | 'NONE',  # required fields?
              values     => \%hash | \@array,   # from DBI, session, etc
              validate   => \%hash,             # automatic field validation

              # Lesser-used options
              action     => $script,            # not needed (loops back)
              cookies    => 0 | 1,              # use cookies for sessionid?
              debug      => 0 | 1 | 2 | 3,      # gunk into error_log?
              fieldsubs  => 0 | 1,              # allow $form->$field()
              javascript => 0 | 1 | 'auto',     # generate JS validate() code?
              keepextras => 0 | 1 | \@array,    # keep non-field params?
              params     => $object,            # instead of CGI.pm
              sticky     => 0 | 1,              # keep CGI values "sticky"?
              messages   => $file | \%hash | $locale | 'auto',
              template   => $file | \%hash | $object,   # custom HTML

              # HTML formatting and JavaScript options
              body       => \%attr,             # {background => 'black'}
              disabled   => 0 | 1,              # display as grayed-out?
              fieldsets  => \@arrayref          # split form into <fieldsets>
              font       => $font | \%attr,     # 'arial,helvetica'
              jsfunc     => $jscode,            # JS code into validate()
              jshead     => $jscode,            # JS code into <head>
              linebreaks => 0 | 1,              # put breaks in form?
              selectnum  => $threshold,         # for auto-type generation
              smartness  => 0 | 1 | 2,          # tweak "intelligence"
              static     => 0 | 1 | 2,          # show non-editable form?
              styleclass => $string,            # style class to use ("fb")
              stylesheet => 0 | 1 | $path,      # turn on style class=
              table      => 0 | 1 | \%attr,     # wrap form in <table>?
              td         => \%attr,             # <td> options
              tr         => \%attr,             # <tr> options

              # These are deprecated and you should use field() instead
              fieldtype  => 'type',
              fieldattr  => \%attr,
              labels     => \%hash,
              options    => \%hash,
              sortopts   => 'NAME' | 'NUM' | 1 | \&sub,

              # External source file (see CGI::FormBuilder::Source::File)
              source     => $file,
           );

           # Tweak fields individually
           $form->field(

              # Important options
              name       => $name,          # name of field (required)
              label      => $string,        # shown in front of <input>
              type       => $type,          # normally auto-determined
              multiple   => 0 | 1,          # allow multiple values?
              options    => \@options | \%options,   # radio/select/checkbox
              value      => $value | \@values,       # default value

              # Lesser-used options
              fieldset   => $string,        # put field into <fieldset>
              force      => 0 | 1,          # override CGI value?
              growable   => 0 | 1 | $limit, # expand text/file inputs?
              jsclick    => $jscode,        # instead of onclick
              jsmessage  => $string,        # on JS validation failure
              message    => $string,        # other validation failure
              other      => 0 | 1,          # create "Other:" input?
              required   => 0 | 1,          # must fill field in?
              validate   => '/regex/',      # validate user input

              # HTML formatting options
              cleanopts  => 0 | 1,          # HTML-escape options?
              columns    => 0 | $width,     # wrap field options at $width
              comment    => $string,        # printed after field
              disabled   => 0 | 1,          # display as grayed-out?
              labels     => \%hash,         # deprecated (use "options")
              linebreaks => 0 | 1,          # insert breaks in options?
              nameopts   => 0 | 1,          # auto-name options?
              sortopts   => 'NAME' | 'NUM' | 1 | \&sub,   # sort options?

              # Change size, maxlength, or any other HTML attr
              $htmlattr  => $htmlval,
           );

           # Check for submission
           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {

               # Get single value
               my $value = $form->field('name');

               # Get list of fields
               my @field = $form->field;

               # Get hashref of key/value pairs
               my $field = $form->field;
               my $value = $field->{name};

           }

           # Print form
           print $form->render(any_opt_from_new => $some_value);

       That's it. Keep reading.

   Walkthrough
       Let's walk through a whole example to see how FormBuilder works.  We'll start with this,
       which is actually a complete (albeit simple) form application:

           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my @fields = qw(name email password confirm_password zipcode);

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => \@fields,
                           header => 1
                      );

           print $form->render;

       The above code will render an entire form, and take care of maintaining state across
       submissions. But it doesn't really do anything useful at this point.

       So to start, let's add the "validate" option to make sure the data entered is valid:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields   => \@fields,
                           header   => 1,
                           validate => {
                              name  => 'NAME',
                              email => 'EMAIL'
                           }
                      );

       We now get a whole bunch of JavaScript validation code, and the appropriate hooks are
       added so that the form is validated by the browser "onsubmit" as well.

       Now, we also want to validate our form on the server side, since the user may not be
       running JavaScript. All we do is add the statement:

           $form->validate;

       Which will go through the form, checking each field specified to the "validate" option to
       see if it's ok. If there's a problem, then that field is highlighted, so that when you
       print it out the errors will be apparent.

       Of course, the above returns a truth value, which we should use to see if the form was
       valid. That way, we only update our database if everything looks good:

           if ($form->validate) {
               # print confirmation screen
               print $form->confirm;
           } else {
               # print the form for them to fill out
               print $form->render;
           }

       However, we really only want to do this after our form has been submitted, since otherwise
       this will result in our form showing errors even though the user hasn't gotten a chance to
       fill it out yet. As such, we want to check for whether the form has been "submitted()"
       yet:

           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # print confirmation screen
               print $form->confirm;
           } else {
               # print the form for them to fill out
               print $form->render;
           }

       Now that know that our form has been submitted and is valid, we need to get our values. To
       do so, we use the "field()" method along with the name of the field we want:

           my $email = $form->field(name => 'email');

       Note we can just specify the name of the field if it's the only option:

           my $email = $form->field('email');   # same thing

       As a very useful shortcut, we can get all our fields back as a hashref of field/value
       pairs by calling "field()" with no arguments:

           my $fields = $form->field;      # all fields as hashref

       To make things easy, we'll use this form so that we can pass it easily into a sub of our
       choosing:

           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # form was good, let's update database
               my $fields = $form->field;

               # update database (you write this part)
               do_data_update($fields);

               # print confirmation screen
               print $form->confirm;
           }

       Finally, let's say we decide that we like our form fields, but we need the HTML to be laid
       out very precisely. No problem! We simply create an "HTML::Template" compatible template
       and tell FormBuilder to use it. Then, in our template, we include a couple special tags
       which FormBuilder will automatically expand:

           <html>
           <head>
           <title><tmpl_var form-title></title>
           <tmpl_var js-head><!-- this holds the JavaScript code -->
           </head>
           <tmpl_var form-start><!-- this holds the initial form tag -->
           <h3>User Information</h3>
           Please fill out the following information:
           <!-- each of these tmpl_var's corresponds to a field -->
           <p>Your full name: <tmpl_var field-name>
           <p>Your email address: <tmpl_var field-email>
           <p>Choose a password: <tmpl_var field-password>
           <p>Please confirm it: <tmpl_var field-confirm_password>
           <p>Your home zipcode: <tmpl_var field-zipcode>
           <p>
           <tmpl_var form-submit><!-- this holds the form submit button -->
           </form><!-- can also use "tmpl_var form-end", same thing -->

       Then, all we need to do add the "template" option, and the rest of the code stays the
       same:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields   => \@fields,
                           header   => 1,
                           validate => {
                              name  => 'NAME',
                              email => 'EMAIL'
                           },
                           template => 'userinfo.tmpl'
                      );

       So, our complete code thus far looks like this:

           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my @fields = qw(name email password confirm_password zipcode);

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields   => \@fields,
                           header   => 1,
                           validate => {
                              name  => 'NAME',
                              email => 'EMAIL'
                           },
                           template => 'userinfo.tmpl',
                      );

           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # form was good, let's update database
               my $fields = $form->field;

               # update database (you write this part)
               do_data_update($fields);

               # print confirmation screen
               print $form->confirm;

           } else {
               # print the form for them to fill out
               print $form->render;
           }

       You may be surprised to learn that for many applications, the above is probably all you'll
       need. Just fill in the parts that affect what you want to do (like the database code), and
       you're on your way.

       Note: If you are confused at all by the backslashes you see in front of some data pieces
       above, such as "\@fields", skip down to the brief section entitled "REFERENCES" at the
       bottom of this document (it's short).

METHODS

       This documentation is very extensive, but can be a bit dizzying due to the enormous number
       of options that let you tweak just about anything.  As such, I recommend that you stop and
       visit:

           www.formbuilder.org

       And click on "Tutorials" and "Examples". Then, use the following section as a reference
       later on.

   new()
       This method creates a new $form object, which you then use to generate and process your
       form. In the very shortest version, you can just specify a list of fields for your form:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => [qw(first_name birthday favorite_car)]
                      );

       As of 3.02:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           source => 'myform.conf'   # form and field options
                      );

       For details on the external file format, see CGI::FormBuilder::Source::File.

       Any of the options below, in addition to being specified to "new()", can also be
       manipulated directly with a method of the same name. For example, to change the "header"
       and "stylesheet" options, either of these works:

           # Way 1
           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => \@fields,
                           header => 1,
                           stylesheet => '/path/to/style.css',
                      );

           # Way 2
           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => \@fields
                      );
           $form->header(1);
           $form->stylesheet('/path/to/style.css');

       The second form is useful if you want to wrap certain options in conditionals:

           if ($have_template) {
               $form->header(0);
               $form->template('template.tmpl');
           } else {
               $form->header(1);
               $form->stylesheet('/path/to/style.css');
           }

       The following is a description of each option, in alphabetical order:

       action => $script
           What script to point the form to. Defaults to itself, which is the recommended
           setting.

       body => \%attr
           This takes a hashref of attributes that will be stuck in the "<body>" tag verbatim
           (for example, bgcolor, alink, etc).  See the "fieldattr" tag for more details, and
           also the "template" option.

       charset
           This forcibly overrides the charset. Better handled by loading an appropriate
           "messages" module, which will set this for you.  See CGI::FormBuilder::Messages for
           more details.

       debug => 0 | 1 | 2 | 3
           If set to 1, the module spits copious debugging info to STDERR.  If set to 2, it spits
           out even more gunk. 3 is too much. Defaults to 0.

       fields => \@array | \%hash
           As shown above, the "fields" option takes an arrayref of fields to use in the form.
           The fields will be printed out in the same order they are specified. This option is
           needed if you expect your form to have any fields, and is the central option to
           FormBuilder.

           You can also specify a hashref of key/value pairs. The advantage is you can then
           bypass the "values" option. However, the big disadvantage is you cannot control the
           order of the fields. This is ok if you're using a template, but in real-life it turns
           out that passing a hashref to "fields" is not very useful.

       fieldtype => 'type'
           This can be used to set the default type for all fields in the form.  You can then
           override it on a per-field basis using the "field()" method.

       fieldattr => \%attr
           This option allows you to specify any HTML attribute and have it be the default for
           all fields. This used to be good for stylesheets, but now that there is a "stylesheet"
           option, this is fairly useless.

       fieldsets => \@attr
           This allows you to define fieldsets for your form. Fieldsets are used to group fields
           together. Fields are rendered in order, inside the fieldset they belong to. If a field
           does not have a fieldset, it is appended to the end of the form.

           To use fieldsets, specify an arrayref of "<fieldset>" names:

               fieldsets => [qw(account preferences contacts)]

           You can get a different "<legend>" tag if you specify a nested arrayref:

               fieldsets => [
                   [ account  => 'Account Information' ],
                   [ preferences => 'Website Preferences' ],
                   [ contacts => 'Email and Phone Numbers' ],
               ]

           If you're using the source file, that looks like this:

               fieldsets: account=Account Information,preferences=...

           Then, for each field, specify which fieldset it belongs to:

               $form->field(name => 'first_name', fieldset => 'account');
               $form->field(name => 'last_name',  fieldset => 'account');
               $form->field(name => 'email_me',   fieldset => 'preferences');
               $form->field(name => 'home_phone', fieldset => 'contacts');
               $form->field(name => 'work_phone', fieldset => 'contacts');

           You can also automatically create a new "fieldset" on the fly by specifying a new one:

               $form->field(name => 'remember_me', fieldset => 'advanced');

           To set the "<legend>" in this case, you have two options.  First, you can just choose
           a more readable "fieldset" name:

               $form->field(name => 'remember_me',
                            fieldset => 'Advanced');

           Or, you can change the name using the "fieldset" accessor:

               $form->fieldset(advanced => 'Advanced Options');

           Note that fieldsets without fields are silently ignored, so you can also just specify
           a huge list of possible fieldsets to "new()", and then only add fields as you need
           them.

       fieldsubs => 0 | 1
           This allows autoloading of field names so you can directly access them as:

               $form->$fieldname(opt => 'val');

           Instead of:

               $form->field(name => $fieldname, opt => 'val');

           Warning: If present, it will hide any attributes of the same name.  For example, if
           you define "name" field, you won't be able to change your form's name dynamically.
           Also, you cannot use this format to create new fields. Use with caution.

       font => $font | \%attr
           The font face to use for the form. This is output as a series of "<font>" tags for old
           browser compatibility, and will properly nest them in all of the table elements. If
           you specify a hashref instead of just a font name, then each key/value pair will be
           taken as part of the "<font>" tag:

               font => {face => 'verdana', size => '-1', color => 'gray'}

           The above becomes:

               <font face="verdana" size="-1" color="gray">

           I used to use this all the time, but the "stylesheet" option is SO MUCH BETTER. Trust
           me, take a day and learn the basics of CSS, it's totally worth it.

       header => 0 | 1
           If set to 1, a valid "Content-type" header will be printed out, along with a whole
           bunch of HTML "<body>" code, a "<title>" tag, and so on. This defaults to 0, since
           often people end up using templates or embedding forms in other HTML.

       javascript => 0 | 1
           If set to 1, JavaScript is generated in addition to HTML, the default setting.

       jserror => 'function_name'
           If specified, this will get called instead of the standard JS "alert()" function on
           error. The function signature is:

               function_name(form, invalid, alertstr, invalid_fields)

           The function can be named anything you like. A simple one might look like this:

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                   jserror => 'field_errors',
                   jshead => <<'EOJS',
           function field_errors(form, invalid, alertstr, invalid_fields) {
               // first reset all fields
               for (var i=0; i < form.elements.length; i++) {
                   form.elements[i].className = 'normal_field';
               }
               // now attach a special style class to highlight the field
               for (var i=0; i < invalid_fields.length; i++) {
                   form.elements[invalid_fields[i]].className = 'invalid_field';
               }
               alert(alertstr);
               return false;
           }
           EOJS
               );

           Note that it should return false to prevent form submission.

           This can be used in conjunction with "jsfunc", which can add additional manual
           validations before "jserror" is called.

       jsfunc => $jscode
           This is verbatim JavaScript that will go into the "validate" JavaScript function. It
           is useful for adding your own validation code, while still getting all the automatic
           hooks. If something fails, you should do two things:

               1. append to the JavaScript string "alertstr"
               2. increment the JavaScript number "invalid"

           For example:

               my $jsfunc = <<'EOJS';   # note single quote (see Hint)
                 if (form.password.value == 'password') {
                   alertstr += "Moron, you can't use 'password' for your password!\\n";
                   invalid++;
                 }
               EOJS

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(... jsfunc => $jsfunc);

           Then, this code will be automatically called when form validation is invoked. I find
           this option can be incredibly useful. Most often, I use it to bypass validation on
           certain submit modes. The submit button that was clicked is "form._submit.value":

               my $jsfunc = <<'EOJS';   # note single quotes (see Hint)
                 if (form._submit.value == 'Delete') {
                    if (confirm("Really DELETE this entry?")) return true;
                    return false;
                 } else if (form._submit.value == 'Cancel') {
                    // skip validation since we're cancelling
                    return true;
                 }
               EOJS

           Hint: To prevent accidental expansion of embedding strings and escapes, you should put
           your "HERE" string in single quotes, as shown above.

       jshead => $jscode
           If using JavaScript, you can also specify some JavaScript code that will be included
           verbatim in the <head> section of the document. I'm not very fond of this one, what
           you probably want is the previous option.

       keepextras => 0 | 1 | \@array
           If set to 1, then extra parameters not set in your fields declaration will be kept as
           hidden fields in the form. However, you will need to use "cgi_param()", NOT "field()",
           to access the values.

           This is useful if you want to keep some extra parameters like mode or company
           available but not have them be valid form fields:

               keepextras => 1

           That will preserve any extra params. You can also specify an arrayref, in which case
           only params in that list will be preserved. For example:

               keepextras => [qw(mode company)]

           Will only preserve the params "mode" and "company". Again, to access them:

               my $mode = $form->cgi_param('mode');
               $form->cgi_param(name => 'mode', value => 'relogin');

           See "CGI.pm" for details on "param()" usage.

       labels => \%hash
           Like "values", this is a list of key/value pairs where the keys are the names of
           "fields" specified above. By default, FormBuilder does some snazzy case and character
           conversion to create pretty labels for you. However, if you want to explicitly name
           your fields, use this option.

           For example:

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               fields => [qw(name email)],
                               labels => {
                                   name  => 'Your Full Name',
                                   email => 'Primary Email Address'
                               }
                          );

           Usually you'll find that if you're contemplating this option what you really want is a
           template.

       lalign => 'left' | 'right' | 'center'
           A legacy shortcut for:

               th => { align => 'left' }

           Even better, use the "stylesheet" option and tweak the ".fb_label" class. Either way,
           don't use this.

       lang
           This forcibly overrides the lang. Better handled by loading an appropriate "messages"
           module, which will set this for you.  See CGI::FormBuilder::Messages for more details.

       method => 'post' | 'get'
           The type of CGI method to use, either "post" or "get". Defaults to "get" if nothing is
           specified. Note that for forms that cause changes on the server, such as database
           inserts, you should use the "post" method.

       messages => 'auto' | $file | \%hash | $locale
           This option overrides the default FormBuilder messages in order to provide
           multilingual locale support (or just different text for the picky ones).  For details
           on this option, please refer to CGI::FormBuilder::Messages.

       name => $string
           This names the form. It is optional, but when used, it renames several key variables
           and functions according to the name of the form. In addition, it also adds the
           following "<div>" tags to each row of the table:

               <tr id="${form}_${field}_row">
                   <td id="${form}_${field}_label">Label</td>
                   <td id="${form}_${field}_input"><input tag></td>
                   <td id="${form}_${field}_error">Error</td><!-- if invalid -->
               </tr>

           These changes allow you to (a) use multiple forms in a sequential application and/or
           (b) display multiple forms inline in one document. If you're trying to build a complex
           multi-form app and are having problems, try naming your forms.

       options => \%hash
           This is one of several meta-options that allows you to specify stuff for multiple
           fields at once:

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               fields => [qw(part_number department in_stock)],
                               options => {
                                   department => [qw(hardware software)],
                                   in_stock   => [qw(yes no)],
                               }
                          );

           This has the same effect as using "field()" for the "department" and "in_stock" fields
           to set options individually.

       params => $object
           This specifies an object from which the parameters should be derived.  The object must
           have a "param()" method which will return values for each parameter by name. By
           default a CGI object will be automatically created and used.

           However, you will want to specify this if you're using "mod_perl":

               use Apache::Request;
               use CGI::FormBuilder;

               sub handler {
                   my $r = Apache::Request->new(shift);
                   my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(... params => $r);
                   print $form->render;
               }

           Or, if you need to initialize a "CGI.pm" object separately and are using a "post" form
           method:

               use CGI;
               use CGI::FormBuilder;

               my $q = new CGI;
               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(... params => $q);

           Usually you don't need to do this, unless you need to access other parameters outside
           of FormBuilder's control.

       required => \@array | 'ALL' | 'NONE'
           This is a list of those values that are required to be filled in.  Those fields named
           must be included by the user. If the "required" option is not specified, by default
           any fields named in "validate" will be required.

           In addition, the "required" option also takes two other settings, the strings "ALL"
           and "NONE". If you specify "ALL", then all fields are required. If you specify "NONE",
           then none of them are in spite of what may be set via the "validate" option.

           This is useful if you have fields that are optional, but that you want to be validated
           if filled in:

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               fields => qw[/name email/],
                               validate => { email => 'EMAIL' },
                               required => 'NONE'
                          );

           This would make the "email" field optional, but if filled in then it would have to
           match the "EMAIL" pattern.

           In addition, it is very important to note that if the "required" and "validate"
           options are specified, then they are taken as an intersection. That is, only those
           fields specified as "required" must be filled in, and the rest are optional. For
           example:

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               fields => qw[/name email/],
                               validate => { email => 'EMAIL' },
                               required => [qw(name)]
                          );

           This would make the "name" field mandatory, but the "email" field optional. However,
           if "email" is filled in, then it must match the builtin "EMAIL" pattern.

       reset => 0 | 1 | $string
           If set to 0, then the "Reset" button is not printed. If set to text, then that will be
           printed out as the reset button. Defaults to printing out a button that says "Reset".

       selectnum => $threshold
           This detects how FormBuilder's auto-type generation works. If a given field has
           options, then it will be a radio group by default.  However, if more than "selectnum"
           options are present, then it will become a select list. The default is 5 or more
           options. For example:

               # This will be a radio group
               my @opt = qw(Yes No);
               $form->field(name => 'answer', options => \@opt);

               # However, this will be a select list
               my @states = qw(AK CA FL NY TX);
               $form->field(name => 'state', options => \@states);

               # Single items are checkboxes (allows unselect)
               $form->field(name => 'answer', options => ['Yes']);

           There is no threshold for checkboxes since, if you think about it, they are really a
           multi-radio select group. As such, a radio group becomes a checkbox group if the
           "multiple" option is specified and the field has less than "selectnum" options. Got
           it?

       smartness => 0 | 1 | 2
           By default CGI::FormBuilder tries to be pretty smart for you, like figuring out the
           types of fields based on their names and number of options. If you don't want this
           behavior at all, set "smartness" to 0. If you want it to be really smart, like
           figuring out what type of validation routines to use for you, set it to 2. It defaults
           to 1.

       sortopts => BUILTIN | 1 | \&sub
           If specified to "new()", this has the same effect as the same-named option to
           "field()", only it applies to all fields.

       source => $filename
           You can use this option to initialize FormBuilder from an external configuration file.
           This allows you to separate your field code from your form layout, which is pretty
           cool. See CGI::FormBuilder::Source::File for details on the format of the external
           file.

       static => 0 | 1 | 2
           If set to 1, then the form will be output with static hidden fields.  If set to 2,
           then in addition fields without values will be omitted.  Defaults to 0.

       sticky => 0 | 1
           Determines whether or not form values should be sticky across submissions. This
           defaults to 1, meaning values are sticky. However, you may want to set it to 0 if you
           have a form which does something like adding parts to a database. See the "EXAMPLES"
           section for a good example.

       submit => 0 | 1 | $string | \@array
           If set to 0, then the "Submit" button is not printed. It defaults to creating a button
           that says "Submit" verbatim. If given an argument, then that argument becomes the text
           to show. For example:

               print $form->render(submit => 'Do Lookup');

           Would make it so the submit button says "Do Lookup" on it.

           If you pass an arrayref of multiple values, you get a key benefit.  This will create
           multiple submit buttons, each with a different value.  In addition, though, when
           submitted only the one that was clicked will be sent across CGI via some JavaScript
           tricks. So this:

               print $form->render(submit => ['Add A Gift', 'No Thank You']);

           Would create two submit buttons. Clicking on either would submit the form, but you
           would be able to see which one was submitted via the "submitted()" function:

               my $clicked = $form->submitted;

           So if the user clicked "Add A Gift" then that is what would end up in the variable
           $clicked above. This allows nice conditionality:

               if ($form->submitted eq 'Add A Gift') {
                   # show the gift selection screen
               } elsif ($form->submitted eq 'No Thank You')
                   # just process the form
               }

           See the "EXAMPLES" section for more details.

       styleclass => $string
           The string to use as the "style" name, if the following option is enabled.

       stylesheet => 0 | 1 | $path
           This option turns on stylesheets in the HTML output by FormBuilder.  Each element is
           printed with the "class" of "styleclass" ("fb" by default). It is up to you to provide
           the actual style definitions.  If you provide a $path rather than just a 1/0 toggle,
           then that $path will be included in a "<link>" tag as well.

           The following tags are created by this option:

               ${styleclass}           top-level table/form class
               ${styleclass}_required  labels for fields that are required
               ${styleclass}_invalid   any fields that failed validate()

           If you're contemplating stylesheets, the best thing is to just turn this option on,
           then see what's spit out.

           See the section on "STYLESHEETS" for more details on FormBuilder style sheets.

       table => 0 | 1 | \%tabletags
           By default FormBuilder decides how to layout the form based on the number of fields,
           values, etc. You can force it into a table by specifying 1, or force it out of one
           with 0.

           If you specify a hashref instead, then these will be used to create the "<table>" tag.
           For example, to create a table with no cellpadding or cellspacing, use:

               table => {cellpadding => 0, cellspacing => 0}

           Also, you can specify options to the "<td>" and "<tr>" elements as well in the same
           fashion.

       template => $filename | \%hash | \&sub | $object
           This points to a filename that contains an "HTML::Template" compatible template to use
           to layout the HTML. You can also specify the "template" option as a reference to a
           hash, allowing you to further customize the template processing options, or use other
           template engines.

           If "template" points to a sub reference, that routine is called and its return value
           directly returned. If it is an object, then that object's "render()" routine is called
           and its value returned.

           For lots more information, please see CGI::FormBuilder::Template.

       text => $text
           This is text that is included below the title but above the actual form. Useful if you
           want to say something simple like "Contact $adm for more help", but if you want lots
           of text check out the "template" option above.

       title => $title
           This takes a string to use as the title of the form.

       values => \%hash | \@array
           The "values" option takes a hashref of key/value pairs specifying the default values
           for the fields. These values will be overridden by the values entered by the user
           across the CGI. The values are used case-insensitively, making it easier to use DBI
           hashref records (which are in upper or lower case depending on your database).

           This option is useful for selecting a record from a database or hardwiring some
           sensible defaults, and then including them in the form so that the user can change
           them if they wish. For example:

               my $rec = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;
               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(fields => \@fields,
                                                values => $rec);

           You can also pass an arrayref, in which case each value is used sequentially for each
           field as specified to the "fields" option.

       validate => \%hash | $object
           This option takes either a hashref of key/value pairs or a Data::FormValidator object.

           In the case of the hashref, each key is the name of a field from the "fields" option,
           or the string "ALL" in which case it applies to all fields. Each value is one of the
           following:

               - a regular expression in 'quotes' to match against
               - an arrayref of values, of which the field must be one
               - a string that corresponds to one of the builtin patterns
               - a string containing a literal code comparison to do
               - a reference to a sub to be used to validate the field
                 (the sub will receive the value to check as the first arg)

           In addition, each of these can also be grouped together as:

               - a hashref containing pairings of comparisons to do for
                 the two different languages, "javascript" and "perl"

           By default, the "validate" option also toggles each field to make it required.
           However, you can use the "required" option to change this, see it for more details.

           Let's look at a concrete example.  Note that the javascript validation is a negative
           match, while the perl validation is a positive match.

               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                   fields => [qw(
                       username    password    confirm_password
                       first_name  last_name   email
                   )],
                   validate => {
                       username   => [qw(nate jim bob)],
                       first_name => '/^\w+$/',    # note the
                       last_name  => '/^\w+$/',    # single quotes!
                       email      => 'EMAIL',
                       password   => \&check_password,
                       confirm_password => {
                           javascript => '!= form.password.value',       # neg
                           perl       => 'eq $form->field("password")',  # pos
                       },
                   },
               );

               # simple sub example to check the password
               sub check_password ($) {
                   my $v = shift;                   # first arg is value
                   return unless $v =~ /^.{6,8}/;   # 6-8 chars
                   return if $v eq "password";      # dummy check
                   return unless passes_crack($v);  # you write "passes_crack()"
                   return 1;                        # success
               }

           This would create both JavaScript and Perl routines on the fly that would ensure:

               - "username" was either "nate", "jim", or "bob"
               - "first_name" and "last_name" both match the regex's specified
               - "email" is a valid EMAIL format
               - "password" passes the checks done by check_password(), meaning
                  that the sub returns true
               - "confirm_password" is equal to the "password" field

           Any regular expressions you specify must be enclosed in single quotes because they
           need to be used in both JavaScript and Perl code. As such, specifying a "qr//" will
           NOT work.

           Note that for both the "javascript" and "perl" hashref code options, the form will be
           present as the variable named "form". For the Perl code, you actually get a complete
           $form object meaning that you have full access to all its methods (although the
           "field()" method is probably the only one you'll need for validation).

           In addition to taking any regular expression you'd like, the "validate" option also
           has many builtin defaults that can prove helpful:

               VALUE   -  is any type of non-null value
               WORD    -  is a word (\w+)
               NAME    -  matches [a-zA-Z] only
               FNAME   -  person's first name, like "Jim" or "Joe-Bob"
               LNAME   -  person's last name, like "Smith" or "King, Jr."
               NUM     -  number, decimal or integer
               INT     -  integer
               FLOAT   -  floating-point number
               PHONE   -  phone number in form "123-456-7890" or "(123) 456-7890"
               INTPHONE-  international phone number in form "+prefix local-number"
               EMAIL   -  email addr in form "name@host.domain"
               CARD    -  credit card, including Amex, with or without -'s
               DATE    -  date in format MM/DD/YYYY
               EUDATE  -  date in format DD/MM/YYYY
               MMYY    -  date in format MM/YY or MMYY
               MMYYYY  -  date in format MM/YYYY or MMYYYY
               CCMM    -  strict checking for valid credit card 2-digit month ([0-9]|1[012])
               CCYY    -  valid credit card 2-digit year
               ZIPCODE -  US postal code in format 12345 or 12345-6789
               STATE   -  valid two-letter state in all uppercase
               IPV4    -  valid IPv4 address
               NETMASK -  valid IPv4 netmask
               FILE    -  UNIX format filename (/usr/bin)
               WINFILE -  Windows format filename (C:\windows\system)
               MACFILE -  MacOS format filename (folder:subfolder:subfolder)
               HOST    -  valid hostname (some-name)
               DOMAIN  -  valid domainname (www.i-love-bacon.com)
               ETHER   -  valid ethernet address using either : or . as separators

           I know some of the above are US-centric, but then again that's where I live. :-) So if
           you need different processing just create your own regular expression and pass it in.
           If there's something really useful let me know and maybe I'll add it.

           You can also pass a Data::FormValidator object as the value of "validate".  This
           allows you to do things like requiring any one of several fields (but where you don't
           care which one). In this case, the "required" option to "new()" is ignored, since you
           should be setting the required fields through your FormValidator profile.

           By default, FormBuilder will try to use a profile named `fb' to validate itself. You
           can change this by providing a different profile name when you call "validate()".

           Note that currently, doing validation through a FormValidator object doesn't generate
           any JavaScript validation code for you.

       Note that any other options specified are passed to the "<form>" tag verbatim. For
       example, you could specify "onsubmit" or "enctype" to add the respective attributes.

   prepare()
       This function prepares a form for rendering. It is automatically called by "render()", but
       calling it yourself may be useful if you are using Catalyst or some other large framework.
       It returns the same hash that will be used by "render()":

           my %expanded = $form->prepare;

       You could use this to, say, tweak some custom values and then pass it to your own
       rendering object.

   render()
       This function renders the form into HTML, and returns a string containing the form. The
       most common use is simply:

           print $form->render;

       You can also supply options to "render()", just like you had called the accessor functions
       individually. These two uses are equivalent:

           # this code:
           $form->header(1);
           $form->stylesheet('style.css');
           print $form->render;

           # is the same as:
           print $form->render(header => 1,
                               stylesheet => 'style.css');

       Note that both forms make permanent changes to the underlying object. So the next call to
       "render()" will still have the header and stylesheet options in either case.

   field()
       This method is used to both get at field values:

           my $bday = $form->field('birthday');

       As well as make changes to their attributes:

           $form->field(name  => 'fname',
                        label => "First Name");

       A very common use is to specify a list of options and/or the field type:

           $form->field(name    => 'state',
                        type    => 'select',
                        options => \@states);      # you supply @states

       In addition, when you call "field()" without any arguments, it returns a list of valid
       field names in an array context:

           my @fields = $form->field;

       And a hashref of field/value pairs in scalar context:

           my $fields = $form->field;
           my $name = $fields->{name};

       Note that if you call it in this manner, you only get one single value per field. This is
       fine as long as you don't have multiple values per field (the normal case). However, if
       you have a field that allows multiple options:

           $form->field(name => 'color', options => \@colors,
                        multiple => 1);        # allow multi-select

       Then you will only get one value for "color" in the hashref. In this case you'll need to
       access it via "field()" to get them all:

           my @colors = $form->field('color');

       The "name" option is described first, and the remaining options are in order:

       name => $name
           The field to manipulate. The "name =>" part is optional if it's the only argument. For
           example:

               my $email = $form->field(name => 'email');
               my $email = $form->field('email');   # same thing

           However, if you're specifying more than one argument, then you must include the "name"
           part:

               $form->field(name => 'email', size => '40');

       add_after_option => $html
           Adds the specified HTML code after each checkbox (or radio) option.

       add_before_option => $html
           Adds the specified HTML code before each checkbox (or radio) option.

       columns => 0 | $width
           If set and the field is of type 'checkbox' or 'radio', then the options will be
           wrapped at the given width.

       comment => $string
           This prints out the given comment after the field. A good use of this is for
           additional help on what the field should contain:

               $form->field(name    => 'dob',
                            label   => 'D.O.B.',
                            comment => 'in the format MM/DD/YY');

           The above would yield something like this:

               D.O.B. [____________] in the format MM/DD/YY

           The comment is rendered verbatim, meaning you can use HTML links or code in it if you
           want.

       cleanopts => 0 | 1
           If set to 1 (the default), field options are escaped to make sure any special chars
           don't screw up the HTML. Set to 0 if you want to include verbatim HTML in your
           options, and know what you're doing.

       cookies => 0 | 1
           Controls whether to generate a cookie if "sessionid" has been set.  This also requires
           that "header" be set as well, since the cookie is wrapped in the header. Defaults to
           1, meaning it will automatically work if you turn on "header".

       force => 0 | 1
           This is used in conjunction with the "value" option to forcibly override a field's
           value. See below under the "value" option for more details. For compatibility with
           "CGI.pm", you can also call this option "override" instead, but don't tell anyone.

       growable => 0 | 1 | $limit
           This option adds a button and the appropriate JavaScript code to your form to allow
           the additional copies of the field to be added by the client filling out the form.
           Currently, this only works with "text" and "file" field types.

           If you set "growable" to a positive integer greater than 1, that will become the limit
           of growth for that field. You won't be able to add more than $limit extra inputs to
           the form, and FormBuilder will issue a warning if the CGI params come in with more
           than the allowed number of values.

       jsclick => $jscode
           This is a cool abstraction over directly specifying the JavaScript action. This turns
           out to be extremely useful, since if a field type changes from "select" to "radio" or
           "checkbox", then the action changes from "onchange" to "onclick". Why?!?!

           So if you said:

               $form->field(name    => 'credit_card',
                            options => \@cards,
                            jsclick => 'recalc_total();');

           This would generate the following code, depending on the number of @cards:

               <select name="credit_card" onchange="recalc_total();"> ...

               <radio name="credit_card" onclick="recalc_total();"> ...

           You get the idea.

       jsmessage => $string
           You can use this to specify your own custom message for the field, which will be
           printed if it fails validation. The "jsmessage" option affects the JavaScript popup
           box, and the "message" option affects what is printed out if the server-side
           validation fails.  If "message" is specified but not "jsmessage", then "message" will
           be used for JavaScript as well.

               $form->field(name      => 'cc',
                            label     => 'Credit Card',
                            message   => 'Invalid credit card number',
                            jsmessage => 'The card number in "%s" is invalid');

           The %s will be filled in with the field's "label".

       label => $string
           This is the label printed out before the field. By default it is automatically
           generated from the field name. If you want to be really lazy, get in the habit of
           naming your database fields as complete words so you can pass them directly to/from
           your form.

       labels => \%hash
           This option to field() is outdated. You can get the same effect by passing data
           structures directly to the "options" argument (see below).  If you have well-named
           data, check out the "nameopts" option.

           This takes a hashref of key/value pairs where each key is one of the options, and each
           value is what its printed label should be:

               $form->field(name    => 'state',
                            options => [qw(AZ CA NV OR WA)],
                            labels  => {
                                 AZ => 'Arizona',
                                 CA => 'California',
                                 NV => 'Nevada',
                                 OR => 'Oregon',
                                 WA => 'Washington
                            });

           When rendered, this would create a select list where the option values were "CA",
           "NV", etc, but where the state's full name was displayed for the user to select. As
           mentioned, this has the exact same effect:

               $form->field(name    => 'state',
                            options => [
                               [ AZ => 'Arizona' ],
                               [ CA => 'California' ],
                               [ NV => 'Nevada' ],
                               [ OR => 'Oregon' ],
                               [ WA => 'Washington ],
                            ]);

           I can think of some rare situations where you might have a set of predefined labels,
           but only some of those are present in a given field... but usually you should just use
           the "options" arg.

       linebreaks => 0 | 1
           Similar to the top-level "linebreaks" option, this one will put breaks in between
           options, to space things out more. This is useful with radio and checkboxes
           especially.

       message => $string
           Like "jsmessage", this customizes the output error string if server-side validation
           fails for the field. The "message" option will also be used for JavaScript messages if
           it is specified but "jsmessage" is not. See above under "jsmessage" for details.

       multiple => 0 | 1
           If set to 1, then the user is allowed to choose multiple values from the options
           provided. This turns radio groups into checkboxes and selects into multi-selects.
           Defaults to automatically being figured out based on number of values.

       nameopts => 0 | 1
           If set to 1, then options for select lists will be automatically named using the same
           algorithm as field labels. For example:

               $form->field(name     => 'department',
                            options  => qw[(molecular_biology
                                            philosophy psychology
                                            particle_physics
                                            social_anthropology)],
                            nameopts => 1);

           This would create a list like:

               <select name="department">
               <option value="molecular_biology">Molecular Biology</option>
               <option value="philosophy">Philosophy</option>
               <option value="psychology">Psychology</option>
               <option value="particle_physics">Particle Physics</option>
               <option value="social_anthropology">Social Anthropology</option>
               </select>

           Basically, you get names for the options that are determined in the same way as the
           names for the fields. This is designed as a simpler alternative to using custom
           "options" data structures if your data is regular enough to support it.

       other => 0 | 1 | \%attr
           If set, this automatically creates an "other" field to the right of the main field.
           This is very useful if you want to present a present list, but then also allow the
           user to enter their own entry:

               $form->field(name    => 'vote_for_president',
                            options => [qw(Bush Kerry)],
                            other   => 1);

           That would generate HTML somewhat like this:

               Vote For President:  [ ] Bush [ ] Kerry [ ] Other: [______]

           If the "other" button is checked, then the box becomes editable so that the user can
           write in their own text. This "other" box will be subject to the same validation as
           the main field, to make sure your data for that field is consistent.

       options => \@options | \%options | \&sub
           This takes an arrayref of options. It also automatically results in the field becoming
           a radio (if < 5) or select list (if >= 5), unless you explicitly set the type with the
           "type" parameter:

               $form->field(name => 'opinion',
                            options => [qw(yes no maybe so)]);

           From that, you will get something like this:

               <select name="opinion">
               <option value="yes">yes</option>
               <option value="no">no</option>
               <option value="maybe">maybe</option>
               <option value="so">so</option>
               </select>

           Also, this can accept more complicated data structures, allowing you to specify
           different labels and values for your options. If a given item is either an arrayref or
           hashref, then the first element will be taken as the value and the second as the
           label. For example, this:

               push @opt, ['yes', 'You betcha!'];
               push @opt, ['no', 'No way Jose'];
               push @opt, ['maybe', 'Perchance...'];
               push @opt, ['so', 'So'];
               $form->field(name => 'opinion', options => \@opt);

           Would result in something like the following:

               <select name="opinion">
               <option value="yes">You betcha!</option>
               <option value="no">No way Jose</option>
               <option value="maybe">Perchance...</option>
               <option value="so">So</option>
               </select>

           And this code would have the same effect:

               push @opt, { yes => 'You betcha!' };
               push @opt, { no  => 'No way Jose' };
               push @opt, { maybe => 'Perchance...' };
               push @opt, { so  => 'So' };
               $form->field(name => 'opinion', options => \@opt);

           Finally, you can specify a "\&sub" which must return either an "\@arrayref" or
           "\%hashref" of data, which is then expanded using the same algorithm.

       optgroups => 0 | 1 | \%hashref
           If "optgroups" is specified for a field ("select" fields only), then the above
           "options" array is parsed so that the third argument is taken as the name of the
           optgroup, and an "<optgroup>" tag is generated appropriately.

           An example will make this behavior immediately obvious:

             my $opts = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(
                           "select id, name, category from software
                            order by category, name"
                         );

             $form->field(name => 'software_title',
                          options => $opts,
                          optgroups => 1);

           The "optgroups" setting would then parse the third element of $opts so that you'd get
           an "optgroup" every time that "category" changed:

             <optgroup label="antivirus">
                <option value="12">Norton Anti-virus 1.2</option>
                <option value="11">McAfee 1.1</option>
             </optgroup>
             <optgroup label="office">
                <option value="3">Microsoft Word</option>
                <option value="4">Open Office</option>
                <option value="6">WordPerfect</option>
             </optgroup>

           In addition, if "optgroups" is instead a hashref, then the name of the optgroup is
           gotten from that. Using the above example, this would help if you had the category
           name in a separate table, and were just storing the "category_id" in the "software"
           table.  You could provide an "optgroups" hash like:

               my %optgroups = (
                   1   =>  'antivirus',
                   2   =>  'office',
                   3   =>  'misc',
               );
               $form->field(..., optgroups => \%optgroups);

           Note: No attempt is made by FormBuilder to properly sort your option optgroups - it is
           up to you to provide them in a sensible order.

       required => 0 | 1
           If set to 1, the field must be filled in:

               $form->field(name => 'email', required => 1);

           This is rarely useful - what you probably want are the "validate" and "required"
           options to "new()".

       selectname => 0 | 1 | $string
           By default, this is set to 1 and any single-select lists are prefixed by the message
           "form_select_default" ("-select-" for English). If set to 0, then this string is not
           prefixed.  If set to a $string, then that string is used explicitly.

           Philosophically, the "-select-" behavior is intentional because it allows a null item
           to be transmitted (the same as not checking any checkboxes or radio buttons).
           Otherwise, the first item in a select list is automatically sent when the form is
           submitted.  If you would like an item to be "pre-selected", consider using the "value"
           option to specify the default value.

       sortopts => BUILTIN | 1 | \&sub
           If set, and there are options, then the options will be sorted in the specified order.
           There are four possible values for the "BUILTIN" setting:

               NAME            Sort option values by name
               NUM             Sort option values numerically
               LABELNAME       Sort option labels by name
               LABELNUM        Sort option labels numerically

           For example:

               $form->field(name => 'category',
                            options => \@cats,
                            sortopts => 'NAME');

           Would sort the @cats options in alphabetic ("NAME") order.  The option "NUM" would
           sort them in numeric order. If you specify "1", then an alphabetic sort is done, just
           like the default Perl sort.

           In addition, you can specify a sub reference which takes pairs of values to compare
           and returns the appropriate return value that Perl "sort()" expects.

       type => $type
           The type of input box to create. Default is "text", and valid values include anything
           allowed by the HTML specs, including "select", "radio", "checkbox", "textarea",
           "password", "hidden", and so on.

           By default, the type is automatically determined by FormBuilder based on the following
           algorithm:

               Field options?
                   No = text (done)
                   Yes:
                       Less than 'selectnum' setting?
                           No = select (done)
                           Yes:
                               Is the 'multiple' option set?
                               Yes = checkbox (done)
                               No:
                                   Have just one single option?
                                       Yes = checkbox (done)
                                       No = radio (done)

           I recommend you let FormBuilder do this for you in most cases, and only tweak those
           you really need to.

       value => $value | \@values
           The "value" option can take either a single value or an arrayref of multiple values.
           In the case of multiple values, this will result in the field automatically becoming a
           multiple select list or radio group, depending on the number of options specified.

           If a CGI value is present it will always win. To forcibly change a value, you need to
           specify the "force" option:

               # Example that hides credit card on confirm screen
               if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
                   my $val = $form->field;

                   # hide CC number
                   $form->field(name => 'credit_card',
                                value => '(not shown)',
                                force => 1);

                   print $form->confirm;
               }

           This would print out the string "(not shown)" on the "confirm()" screen instead of the
           actual number.

       validate => '/regex/'
           Similar to the "validate" option used in "new()", this affects the validation just of
           that single field. As such, rather than a hashref, you would just specify the regex to
           match against.

           This regex must be specified as a single-quoted string, and NOT as a qr// regex. The
           reason for this is it needs to be usable by the JavaScript routines as well.

       $htmlattr => $htmlval
           In addition to the above tags, the "field()" function can take any other valid HTML
           attribute, which will be placed in the tag verbatim. For example, if you wanted to
           alter the class of the field (if you're using stylesheets and a template, for
           example), you could say:

               $form->field(name => 'email', class => 'FormField',
                            size => 80);

           Then when you call "$form-"render> you would get a field something like this:

               <input type="text" name="email" class="FormField" size="80">

           (Of course, for this to really work you still have to create a class called
           "FormField" in your stylesheet.)

           See also the "fieldattr" option which provides global attributes to all fields.

   cgi_param()
       The above "field()" method will only return fields which you have explicitly defined in
       your form. Excess parameters will be silently ignored, to help ensure users can't mess
       with your form.

       But, you may have some times when you want extra params so that you can maintain state,
       but you don't want it to appear in your form. Branding is an easy example:

           http://hr-outsourcing.com/newuser.cgi?company=mr_propane

       This could change your page's HTML so that it displayed the appropriate company name and
       logo, without polluting your form parameters.

       This call simply redispatches to "CGI.pm"'s "param()" method, so consult those docs for
       more information.

   tmpl_param()
       This allows you to manipulate template parameters directly.  Extending the above example:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(template => 'some.tmpl');

           my $company = $form->cgi_param('company');
           $form->tmpl_param(company => $company);

       Then, in your template:

           Hello, <tmpl_var company> employee!
           <p>
           Please fill out this form:
           <tmpl_var form-start>
           <!-- etc... -->

       For really precise template control, you can actually create your own template object and
       then pass it directly to FormBuilder.  See CGI::FormBuilder::Template for more details.

   sessionid()
       This gets and sets the sessionid, which is stored in the special form field "_sessionid".
       By default no session ids are generated or used. Rather, this is intended to provide a
       hook for you to easily integrate this with a session id module like "CGI::Session".

       Since you can set the session id via the "_sessionid" field, you can pass it as an
       argument when first showing the form:

           http://mydomain.com/forms/update_info.cgi?_sessionid=0123-091231

       This would set things up so that if you called:

           my $id = $form->sessionid;

       This would get the value "0123-091231" in your script. Conversely, if you generate a new
       sessionid on your own, and wish to include it automatically, simply set is as follows:

           $form->sessionid($id);

       If the sessionid is set, and "header" is set, then FormBuilder will also automatically
       generate a cookie for you.

       See "EXAMPLES" for "CGI::Session" example.

   submitted()
       This returns the value of the "Submit" button if the form has been submitted, undef
       otherwise. This allows you to either test it in a boolean context:

           if ($form->submitted) { ... }

       Or to retrieve the button that was actually clicked on in the case of multiple submit
       buttons:

           if ($form->submitted eq 'Update') {
               ...
           } elsif ($form->submitted eq 'Delete') {
               ...
           }

       It's best to call "validate()" in conjunction with this to make sure the form validation
       works. To make sure you're getting accurate info, it's recommended that you name your
       forms with the "name" option described above.

       If you're writing a multiple-form app, you should name your forms with the "name" option
       to ensure that you are getting an accurate return value from this sub. See the "name"
       option above, under "render()".

       You can also specify the name of an optional field which you want to "watch" instead of
       the default "_submitted" hidden field. This is useful if you have a search form and also
       want to be able to link to it from other documents directly, such as:

           mysearch.cgi?lookup=what+to+look+for

       Normally, "submitted()" would return false since the "_submitted" field is not included.
       However, you can override this by saying:

           $form->submitted('lookup');

       Then, if the lookup field is present, you'll get a true value.  (Actually, you'll still
       get the value of the "Submit" button if present.)

   validate()
       This validates the form based on the validation criteria passed into "new()" via the
       "validate" option. In addition, you can specify additional criteria to check that will be
       valid for just that call of "validate()". This is useful is you have to deal with
       different geos:

           if ($location eq 'US') {
               $form->validate(state => 'STATE', zipcode => 'ZIPCODE');
           } else {
               $form->validate(state => '/^\w{2,3}$/');
           }

       You can also provide a Data::FormValidator object as the first argument. In that case, the
       second argument (if present) will be interpreted as the name of the validation profile to
       use. A single string argument will also be interpreted as a validation profile name.

       Note that if you pass args to your "validate()" function like this, you will not get
       JavaScript generated or required fields placed in bold. So, this is good for conditional
       validation like the above example, but for most applications you want to pass your
       validation requirements in via the "validate" option to the "new()" function, and just
       call the "validate()" function with no arguments.

   confirm()
       The purpose of this function is to print out a static confirmation screen showing a short
       message along with the values that were submitted. It is actually just a special wrapper
       around "render()", twiddling a couple options.

       If you're using templates, you probably want to specify a separate success template, such
       as:

           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               print $form->confirm(template => 'success.tmpl');
           } else {
               print $form->render(template => 'fillin.tmpl');
           }

       So that you don't get the same screen twice.

   mailconfirm()
       This sends a confirmation email to the named addresses. The "to" argument is required;
       everything else is optional. If no "from" is specified then it will be set to the address
       "auto-reply" since that is a common quasi-standard in the web app world.

       This does not send any of the form results. Rather, it simply prints out a message saying
       the submission was received.

   mailresults()
       This emails the form results to the specified address(es). By default it prints out the
       form results separated by a colon, such as:

           name: Nate Wiger
           email: nate@wiger.org
           colors: red green blue

       And so on. You can change this by specifying the "delimiter" and "joiner" options. For
       example this:

           $form->mailresults(to => $to, delimiter => '=', joiner => ',');

       Would produce an email like this:

           name=Nate Wiger
           email=nate@wiger.org
           colors=red,green,blue

       Note that now the last field ("colors") is separated by commas since you have multiple
       values and you specified a comma as your "joiner".

   mailresults() with plugin
       Now you can also specify a plugin to use with mailresults, in the namespace
       "CGI::FormBuilder::Mail::*".  These plugins may depend on other libraries.  For example,
       this:

           $form->mailresults(
               plugin          => 'FormatMultiPart',
               from            => 'Mark Hedges <hedges@ucsd.edu>',
               to              => 'Nate Wiger <nwiger@gmail.com>',
               smtp            => $smtp_host_or_ip,
               format          => 'plain',
           );

       will send your mail formatted nicely in text using "Text::FormatTable".  (And if you used
       format => 'html' it would use "HTML::QuickTable".)

       This particular plugin uses "MIME::Lite" and "Net::SMTP" to communicate directly with the
       SMTP server, and does not rely on a shell escape.  See
       CGI::FormBuilder::Mail::FormatMultiPart for more information.

       This establishes a simple mail plugin implementation standard for your own mailresults()
       plugins.  The plugin should reside under the "CGI::FormBuilder::Mail::*" namespace. It
       should have a constructor new() which accepts a hash-as-array of named arg parameters,
       including form => $form.  It should have a mailresults() object method that does the right
       thing.  It should use "CGI::FormBuilder::Util" and puke() if something goes wrong.

       Calling $form->mailresults( plugin => 'Foo', ... ) will load "CGI::FormBuilder::Mail::Foo"
       and will pass the FormBuilder object as a named param 'form' with all other parameters
       passed intact.

       If it should croak, confess, die or otherwise break if something goes wrong,
       FormBuilder.pm will warn any errors and the built-in mailresults() method will still try.

   mail()
       This is a more generic version of the above; it sends whatever is given as the "text"
       argument via email verbatim to the "to" address.  In addition, if you're not running
       "sendmail" you can specify the "mailer" parameter to give the path of your mailer. This
       option is accepted by the above functions as well.

COMPATIBILITY

       The following methods are provided to make FormBuilder behave more like other modules,
       when desired.

   header()
       Returns a "CGI.pm" header, but only if "header => 1" is set.

   param()
       This is an alias for "field()", provided for compatibility. However, while "field()" does
       act "compliantly" for easy use in "CGI::Session", "Apache::Request", etc, it is not 100%
       the same. As such, I recommend you use "field()" in your code, and let receiving objects
       figure the "param()" thing out when needed:

           my $sess = CGI::Session->new(...);
           $sess->save_param($form);   # will see param()

   query_string()
       This returns a query string similar to "CGI.pm", but ONLY containing form fields and any
       "keepextras", if specified. Other params are ignored.

   self_url()
       This returns a self url, similar to "CGI.pm", but again ONLY with form fields.

   script_name()
       An alias for "$form->action".

STYLESHEETS (CSS)

       If the "stylesheet" option is enabled (by setting it to 1 or the path of a CSS file), then
       FormBuilder will automatically output style classes for every single form element:

           fb              main form table
           fb_label        td containing field label
           fb_field        td containing field input tag
           fb_submit       td containing submit button(s)

           fb_input        input types
           fb_select       select types
           fb_checkbox     checkbox types
           fb_radio        radio types
           fb_option       labels for checkbox/radio options
           fb_button       button types
           fb_hidden       hidden types
           fb_static       static types

           fb_required     span around labels for required fields
           fb_invalid      span around labels for invalid fields
           fb_comment      span around field comment
           fb_error        span around field error message

       Here's a simple example that you can put in "fb.css" which spruces up a couple basic form
       features:

           /* FormBuilder */
           .fb {
               background: #ffc;
               font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif;
               font-size: 10pt;
           }

           .fb_label {
               text-align: right;
               padding-right: 1em;
           }

           .fb_comment {
               font-size: 8pt;
               font-style: italic;
           }

           .fb_submit {
               text-align: center;
           }

           .fb_required {
               font-weight: bold;
           }

           .fb_invalid {
               color: #c00;
               font-weight: bold;
           }

           .fb_error {
               color: #c00;
               font-style: italic;
           }

       Of course, if you're familiar with CSS, you know a lot more is possible.  Also, you can
       mess with all the id's (if you name your forms) to manipulate fields more exactly.

EXAMPLES

       I find this module incredibly useful, so here are even more examples, pasted from sample
       code that I've written:

   Ex1: order.cgi
       This example provides an order form, complete with validation of the important fields, and
       a "Cancel" button to abort the whole thing.

           #!/usr/bin/perl

           use strict;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my @states = my_state_list();   # you write this

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           method => 'post',
                           fields => [
                               qw(first_name last_name
                                  email send_me_emails
                                  address state zipcode
                                  credit_card expiration)
                           ],

                           header => 1,
                           title  => 'Finalize Your Order',
                           submit => ['Place Order', 'Cancel'],
                           reset  => 0,

                           validate => {
                                email   => 'EMAIL',
                                zipcode => 'ZIPCODE',
                                credit_card => 'CARD',
                                expiration  => 'MMYY',
                           },
                           required => 'ALL',
                           jsfunc => <<EOJS,
           // skip js validation if they clicked "Cancel"
           if (this._submit.value == 'Cancel') return true;
       EOJS
                      );

           # Provide a list of states
           $form->field(name    => 'state',
                        options => \@states,
                        sortopts=> 'NAME');

           # Options for mailing list
           $form->field(name    => 'send_me_emails',
                        options => [[1 => 'Yes'], [0 => 'No']],
                        value   => 0);   # "No"

           # Check for valid order
           if ($form->submitted eq 'Cancel') {
               # redirect them to the homepage
               print $form->cgi->redirect('/');
               exit;
           }
           elsif ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # your code goes here to do stuff...
               print $form->confirm;
           }
           else {
               # either first printing or needs correction
               print $form->render;
           }

       This will create a form called "Finalize Your Order" that will provide a pulldown menu for
       the "state", a radio group for "send_me_emails", and normal text boxes for the rest. It
       will then validate all the fields, using specific patterns for those fields specified to
       "validate".

   Ex2: order_form.cgi
       Here's an example that adds some fields dynamically, and uses the "debug" option spit out
       gook:

           #!/usr/bin/perl

           use strict;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           method => 'post',
                           fields => [
                               qw(first_name last_name email
                                  address state zipcode)
                           ],
                           header => 1,
                           debug  => 2,    # gook
                           required => 'NONE',
                      );

           # This adds on the 'details' field to our form dynamically
           $form->field(name => 'details',
                        type => 'textarea',
                        cols => '50',
                        rows => '10');

           # And this adds user_name with validation
           $form->field(name  => 'user_name',
                        value => $ENV{REMOTE_USER},
                        validate => 'NAME');

           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # ... more code goes here to do stuff ...
               print $form->confirm;
           } else {
               print $form->render;
           }

       In this case, none of the fields are required, but the "user_name" field will still be
       validated if filled in.

   Ex3: ticket_search.cgi
       This is a simple search script that uses a template to layout the search parameters very
       precisely. Note that we set our options for our different fields and types.

           #!/usr/bin/perl

           use strict;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => [qw(type string status category)],
                           header => 1,
                           template => 'ticket_search.tmpl',
                           submit => 'Search',     # search button
                           reset  => 0,            # and no reset
                      );

           # Need to setup some specific field options
           $form->field(name    => 'type',
                        options => [qw(ticket requestor hostname sysadmin)]);

           $form->field(name    => 'status',
                        type    => 'radio',
                        options => [qw(incomplete recently_completed all)],
                        value   => 'incomplete');

           $form->field(name    => 'category',
                        type    => 'checkbox',
                        options => [qw(server network desktop printer)]);

           # Render the form and print it out so our submit button says "Search"
           print $form->render;

       Then, in our "ticket_search.tmpl" HTML file, we would have something like this:

           <html>
           <head>
             <title>Search Engine</title>
             <tmpl_var js-head>
           </head>
           <body bgcolor="white">
           <center>
           <p>
           Please enter a term to search the ticket database.
           <p>
           <tmpl_var form-start>
           Search by <tmpl_var field-type> for <tmpl_var field-string>
           <tmpl_var form-submit>
           <p>
           Status: <tmpl_var field-status>
           <p>
           Category: <tmpl_var field-category>
           <p>
           </form>
           </body>
           </html>

       That's all you need for a sticky search form with the above HTML layout.  Notice that you
       can change the HTML layout as much as you want without having to touch your CGI code.

   Ex4: user_info.cgi
       This script grabs the user's information out of a database and lets them update it
       dynamically. The DBI information is provided as an example, your mileage may vary:

           #!/usr/bin/perl

           use strict;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;
           use DBI;
           use DBD::Oracle

           my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:Oracle:db', 'user', 'pass');

           # We create a new form. Note we've specified very little,
           # since we're getting all our values from our database.
           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => [qw(username password confirm_password
                                         first_name last_name email)]
                      );

           # Now get the value of the username from our app
           my $user = $form->cgi_param('user');
           my $sth = $dbh->prepare("select * from user_info where user = '$user'");
           $sth->execute;
           my $default_hashref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;

           # Render our form with the defaults we got in our hashref
           print $form->render(values => $default_hashref,
                               title  => "User information for '$user'",
                               header => 1);

   Ex5: add_part.cgi
       This presents a screen for users to add parts to an inventory database.  Notice how it
       makes use of the "sticky" option. If there's an error, then the form is presented with
       sticky values so that the user can correct them and resubmit. If the submission is ok,
       though, then the form is presented without sticky values so that the user can enter the
       next part.

           #!/usr/bin/perl

           use strict;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           method => 'post',
                           fields => [qw(sn pn model qty comments)],
                           labels => {
                               sn => 'Serial Number',
                               pn => 'Part Number'
                           },
                           sticky => 0,
                           header => 1,
                           required => [qw(sn pn model qty)],
                           validate => {
                                sn  => '/^[PL]\d{2}-\d{4}-\d{4}$/',
                                pn  => '/^[AQM]\d{2}-\d{4}$/',
                                qty => 'INT'
                           },
                           font => 'arial,helvetica'
                      );

           # shrink the qty field for prettiness, lengthen model
           $form->field(name => 'qty',   size => 4);
           $form->field(name => 'model', size => 60);

           if ($form->submitted) {
               if ($form->validate) {
                   # Add part to database
               } else {
                   # Invalid; show form and allow corrections
                   print $form->render(sticky => 1);
                   exit;
               }
           }

           # Print form for next part addition.
           print $form->render;

       With the exception of the database code, that's the whole application.

   Ex6: Session Management
       This creates a session via "CGI::Session", and ties it in with FormBuilder:

           #!/usr/bin/perl

           use CGI::Session;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(fields => \@fields);

           # Initialize session
           my $session = CGI::Session->new('driver:File',
                                           $form->sessionid,
                                           { Directory=>'/tmp' });

           if ($form->submitted && $form->validate) {
               # Automatically save all parameters
               $session->save_param($form);
           }

           # Ensure we have the right sessionid (might be new)
           $form->sessionid($session->id);

           print $form->render;

       Yes, it's pretty much that easy. See CGI::FormBuilder::Multi for how to tie this into a
       multi-page form.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

       There are a couple questions and subtle traps that seem to poke people on a regular basis.
       Here are some hints.

   I'm confused. Why doesn't this work like CGI.pm?
       If you're used to "CGI.pm", you have to do a little bit of a brain shift when working with
       this module.

       FormBuilder is designed to address fields as abstract entities.  That is, you don't create
       a "checkbox" or "radio group" per se.  Instead, you create a field for the data you want
       to collect.  The HTML representation is just one property of this field.

       So, if you want a single-option checkbox, simply say something like this:

           $form->field(name    => 'join_mailing_list',
                        options => ['Yes']);

       If you want it to be checked by default, you add the "value" arg:

           $form->field(name    => 'join_mailing_list',
                        options => ['Yes'],
                        value   => 'Yes');

       You see, you're creating a field that has one possible option: "Yes".  Then, you're saying
       its current value is, in fact, "Yes". This will result in FormBuilder creating a single-
       option field (which is a checkbox by default) and selecting the requested value (meaning
       that the box will be checked).

       If you want multiple values, then all you have to do is specify multiple options:

           $form->field(name    => 'join_mailing_list',
                        options => ['Yes', 'No'],
                        value   => 'Yes');

       Now you'll get a radio group, and "Yes" will be selected for you!  By viewing fields as
       data entities (instead of HTML tags) you get much more flexibility and less code
       maintenance. If you want to be able to accept multiple values, simply use the "multiple"
       arg:

           $form->field(name     => 'favorite_colors',
                        options  => [qw(red green blue)],
                        multiple => 1);

       In all of these examples, to get the data back you just use the "field()" method:

           my @colors = $form->field('favorite_colors');

       And the rest is taken care of for you.

   How do I make a multi-screen/multi-mode form?
       This is easily doable, but you have to remember a couple things. Most importantly, that
       FormBuilder only knows about those fields you've told it about. So, let's assume that
       you're going to use a special parameter called "mode" to control the mode of your
       application so that you can call it like this:

           myapp.cgi?mode=list&...
           myapp.cgi?mode=edit&...
           myapp.cgi?mode=remove&...

       And so on. You need to do two things. First, you need the "keepextras" option:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(..., keepextras => 1);

       This will maintain the "mode" field as a hidden field across requests automatically.
       Second, you need to realize that since the "mode" is not a defined field, you have to get
       it via the "cgi_param()" method:

           my $mode = $form->cgi_param('mode');

       This will allow you to build a large multiscreen application easily, even integrating it
       with modules like "CGI::Application" if you want.

       You can also do this by simply defining "mode" as a field in your "fields" declaration.
       The reason this is discouraged is because when iterating over your fields you'll get
       "mode", which you likely don't want (since it's not "real" data).

   Why won't CGI::FormBuilder work with post requests?
       It will, but chances are you're probably doing something like this:

           use CGI qw(:standard);
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           # Our "mode" parameter determines what we do
           my $mode = param('mode');

           # Change our form based on our mode
           if ($mode eq 'view') {
               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               method => 'post',
                               fields => [qw(...)],
                          );
           } elsif ($mode eq 'edit') {
               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               method => 'post',
                               fields => [qw(...)],
                          );
           }

       The problem is this: Once you read a "post" request, it's gone forever. In the above code,
       what you're doing is having "CGI.pm" read the "post" request (on the first call of
       "param()").

       Luckily, there is an easy solution. First, you need to modify your code to use the OO form
       of "CGI.pm". Then, simply specify the "CGI" object you create to the "params" option of
       FormBuilder:

           use CGI;
           use CGI::FormBuilder;

           my $cgi = CGI->new;

           # Our "mode" parameter determines what we do
           my $mode = $cgi->param('mode');

           # Change our form based on our mode
           # Note: since it is post, must specify the 'params' option
           if ($mode eq 'view') {
               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               method => 'post',
                               fields => [qw(...)],
                               params => $cgi      # get CGI params
                          );
           } elsif ($mode eq 'edit') {
               my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                               method => 'post',
                               fields => [qw(...)],
                               params => $cgi      # get CGI params
                          );
           }

       Or, since FormBuilder gives you a "cgi_param()" function, you could also modify your code
       so you use FormBuilder exclusively, as in the previous question.

   How can I change option XXX based on a conditional?
       To change an option, simply use its accessor at any time:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           method => 'post',
                           fields => [qw(name email phone)]
                      );

           my $mode = $form->cgi_param('mode');

           if ($mode eq 'add') {
               $form->title('Add a new entry');
           } elsif ($mode eq 'edit') {
               $form->title('Edit existing entry');

               # do something to select existing values
               my %values = select_values();

               $form->values(\%values);
           }
           print $form->render;

       Using the accessors makes permanent changes to your object, so be aware that if you want
       to reset something to its original value later, you'll have to first save it and then
       reset it:

           my $style = $form->stylesheet;
           $form->stylesheet(0);       # turn off
           $form->stylesheet($style);  # original setting

       You can also specify options to "render()", although using the accessors is the preferred
       way.

   How do I manually override the value of a field?
       You must specify the "force" option:

           $form->field(name  => 'name_of_field',
                        value => $value,
                        force => 1);

       If you don't specify "force", then the CGI value will always win.  This is because of the
       stateless nature of the CGI protocol.

   How do I make it so that the values aren't shown in the form?
       Turn off sticky:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(... sticky => 0);

       By turning off the "sticky" option, you will still be able to access the values, but they
       won't show up in the form.

   I can't get "validate" to accept my regular expressions!
       You're probably not specifying them within single quotes. See the section on "validate"
       above.

   Can FormBuilder handle file uploads?
       It sure can, and it's really easy too. Just change the "enctype" as an option to "new()":

           use CGI::FormBuilder;
           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           enctype => 'multipart/form-data',
                           method  => 'post',
                           fields  => [qw(filename)]
                      );

           $form->field(name => 'filename', type => 'file');

       And then get to your file the same way as "CGI.pm":

           if ($form->submitted) {
               my $file = $form->field('filename');

               # save contents in file, etc ...
               open F, ">$dir/$file" or die $!;
               while (<$file>) {
                   print F;
               }
               close F;

               print $form->confirm(header => 1);
           } else {
               print $form->render(header => 1);
           }

       In fact, that's a whole file upload program right there.

REFERENCES

       This really doesn't belong here, but unfortunately many people are confused by references
       in Perl. Don't be - they're not that tricky.  When you take a reference, you're basically
       turning something into a scalar value. Sort of. You have to do this if you want to pass
       arrays intact into functions in Perl 5.

       A reference is taken by preceding the variable with a backslash (\).  In our examples
       above, you saw something similar to this:

           my @fields = ('name', 'email');   # same as = qw(name email)

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(fields => \@fields);

       Here, "\@fields" is a reference. Specifically, it's an array reference, or "arrayref" for
       short.

       Similarly, we can do the same thing with hashes:

           my %validate = (
               name  => 'NAME';
               email => 'EMAIL',
           );

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new( ... validate => \%validate);

       Here, "\%validate" is a hash reference, or "hashref".

       Basically, if you don't understand references and are having trouble wrapping your brain
       around them, you can try this simple rule: Any time you're passing an array or hash into a
       function, you must precede it with a backslash. Usually that's true for CPAN modules.

       Finally, there are two more types of references: anonymous arrayrefs and anonymous
       hashrefs. These are created with "[]" and "{}", respectively. So, for our purposes there
       is no real difference between this code:

           my @fields = qw(name email);
           my %validate = (name => 'NAME', email => 'EMAIL');

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields   => \@fields,
                           validate => \%validate
                      );

       And this code:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields   => [ qw(name email) ],
                           validate => { name => 'NAME', email => 'EMAIL' }
                      );

       Except that the latter doesn't require that we first create @fields and %validate
       variables.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

   FORMBUILDER_DEBUG
       This toggles the debug flag, so that you can control FormBuilder debugging globally.
       Helpful in mod_perl.

NOTES

       Parameters beginning with a leading underscore are reserved for future use by this module.
       Use at your own peril.

       The "field()" method has the alias "param()" for compatibility with other modules,
       allowing you to pass a $form around just like a $cgi object.

       The output of the HTML generated natively may change slightly from release to release. If
       you need precise control, use a template.

       Every attempt has been made to make this module taint-safe (-T).  However, due to the way
       tainting works, you may run into the message "Insecure dependency" or "Insecure
       $ENV{PATH}". If so, make sure you are setting $ENV{PATH} at the top of your script.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       This module has really taken off, thanks to very useful input, bug reports, and
       encouraging feedback from a number of people, including:

           Norton Allen
           Mark Belanger
           Peter Billam
           Brad Bowman
           Jonathan Buhacoff
           Godfrey Carnegie
           Jakob Curdes
           Laurent Dami
           Bob Egert
           Peter Eichman
           Adam Foxson
           Jorge Gonzalez
           Florian Helmberger
           Mark Hedges
           Mark Houliston
           Victor Igumnov
           Robert James Kaes
           Dimitry Kharitonov
           Randy Kobes
           William Large
           Kevin Lubic
           Robert Mathews
           Mehryar
           Klaas Naajikens
           Koos Pol
           Shawn Poulson
           Victor Porton
           Dan Collis Puro
           Wolfgang Radke
           David Siegal
           Stephan Springl
           Ryan Tate
           John Theus
           Remi Turboult
           Andy Wardley
           Raphael Wegmann
           Emanuele Zeppieri

       Thanks!

SEE ALSO

       CGI::FormBuilder::Template, CGI::FormBuilder::Messages, CGI::FormBuilder::Multi,
       CGI::FormBuilder::Source::File, CGI::FormBuilder::Field, CGI::FormBuilder::Util,
       CGI::FormBuilder::Util, HTML::Template, Text::Template CGI::FastTemplate

REVISION

       $Id: FormBuilder.pm 65 2006-09-07 18:11:43Z nwiger $

AUTHOR

       Copyright (c) Nate Wiger <http://nateware.com>. All Rights Reserved.

       This module is free software; you may copy this under the terms of the GNU General Public
       License, or the Artistic License, copies of which should have accompanied your Perl kit.