Manuel Amago: Forms

This page explains how you can embed input forms into wiki pages.

Input forms don't actually handle processing of the form data — the feature simply allows creation of forms inside wiki pages. Forms processing can be found in the Cookbook (see below).

Markup

Two directives are used to begin and end forms:

    (:input form "url" method:)
    …
    (:input end:)

The (:input form:) directive starts a form that will post to url (optional action=url) using the supplied method (optional method=method). The url must be in quotes if not specified via action=. If the url is omitted, then the current page is assumed. If method is omitted then "POST" is assumed. An optional name="FormName" argument can be used to name the form. You can explicitly state action=url or method=get or you can simply use them as positional parameters.

If your site uses ?n=Group.Page to specify the pagename then having a field (:input hidden name=n value={$FullName}:) will allow your form to post to the current page as an alternative to fully specifying the action=url.

The (:input end:) directive ends the current form.

Note that this feature doesn't ensure that the form output is correct HTML — it assumes the author knows a little bit of what he or she is doing. Notably, (:input form:) and (:input end:) shouldn't appear inside tables, and all form fields and controls should be inside an (:input form:)...(:input end:) block.

Standard input controls

The standard input controls are:

    (:input text name value size=n:)
    (:input hidden name value:)
    (:input password name value:)
    (:input search name value:)
    (:input number name value min=x max=y step=z:)
    (:input email name value:)
    (:input url name value:)
    (:input date name value:)
    (:input radio name value label checked=checked:)
    (:input checkbox name value label checked=checked:)
    (:input select name value label:)
    (:input default default-name default-value:) 
    (:input submit name value:)
    (:input textarea name [=value=] rows=n cols=n:)
    (:input reset name label:)
    (:input file name label:)
    (:input image name "src" alt:)

Where name and value are in the HTML syntax: name="addr" value="808 W Franklin".

For most controls the markup has the form:

    (:input type name value parameter=value:)

where type is the type of input element (described below), name is the name of the control, value is its initial value, and parameters are used to specify additional attributes to the control. If value contains spaces, enclose it in quotes; if it contains newlines (for textarea and hidden elements), enclose it in [=...=].

For example, the following creates a text input control with a size of 30 characters:

For convenience, an author can also specify name and value arguments directly using name= and value= attributes (same as HTML):

For the textarea control a value can be set from PmWiki 2.2.0beta45 onwards. Enclose the value in [=...=] if it contains spaces or new lines.

The submit control will more often be written as:

    (:input submit value=label:)

Here's a more complete example, e.g., for a login prompt:

General form field attributes

• (:input ... focus=1:) Setting focus=1 causes that field to receive the initial focus when the form is first opened.
• The following advanced HTML attributes are supported: name, value, id, class, rows, cols, size, maxlength, action, method, accesskey, tabindex, multiple, checked, disabled, readonly, enctype, src, alt. For a more detailed description, see their counterparts in the w3c reference: HTML forms (not all of them can be used for all types of form fields).

(:input select ... :)

The basic form of a select box is a sequence of options:

The values can be specified positionally:

 (:input select abc 1 alpha :)

We can specify the size of the selection box:

 (:input select abc 1 alpha size=3 :)

You can specify a multiple select box (only the first item needs to have "size=3 multiple" attributes):

 (:input select abc 1 alpha size=3 multiple:)

To have an element selected, use selected=selected:

 (:input select abc 2 beta selected=selected:)

Note that to have two select boxes inline, not only should you give them different name= parameters, but also place a separator, like a character,   or even the null sequence [==] between them:

See Also

• Cookbook:Input Default
• Cookbook:Form Validation
• Cookbook:Form Extensions
• Cookbook:Input Forms and JavaScript

Compatible recipes:

• Cookbook:PmForm
• Cookbook:Fox
• Cookbook:Wiki Forms
• Cookbook:ProcessForm