Re: CDBI and FormBuilder

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Nathan Wiger wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> Tony suggested I post this to the list.
>
> So I'm putting together an article for perl.com on CGI::FormBuilder, as
> well as coordinating the 3.03 release of CFB. I know that there are many
> CDBI users that also use CFB, so I'm hoping you all can shed some 
> light on:
>
>     1. Ways that CDBI and CFB work well together
>
>     2. Areas in need of improvement (aka things that suck)
>
>     3. Specific suggestions/examples
>
> In the 3.x series, CFB's internals have been completely rewritten and
> extremely modularized; the 3.03 release will see individual classes for
> all elements, with inherited classes for select/radio/etc items (which 
> allow polymorphic fields via reblessing). So, if there are any
> suggestions, now is a good time.


Hi Nate,

I've been a big fan of CGI::FormBuilder for ages, even though I prefer 
HTML::Mason as a templating system. That meant some pretty scary hackery 
to get anything out of CGI::FB 2.x. The 3.x re-write changed all that!

A couple of weeks back I released CDBI::FormBuilder, which pulls 
metadata out of CDBI and uses it to configure forms. It also provides 
some methods to tie form handling to CDBI. I also made 
Maypole::FormBuilder, which replaces the default Maypole model with one 
that uses CDBI::FormBuilder. There's a demo at 
beerfb.riverside-cms.co.uk. And I might as well mention 
Maypole::Plugin::QuickTable, which got tied in to all this. Not to 
mention SQL::Abstract::Limit. Really it's getting a bit embarrassing!

I've been vaguely wondering about integrating custom widgets with 
CGI::FormBuilder - javascript calendars or simpler date-picker combos. I 
haven't looked into it yet, maybe it's straightforward, and the new 
classes will probably help there.

Cheers,

d.