Page 495 - Beginning PHP 5.3

Chapter 15: Making Your Job Easier with PEAR

Method Description
,
addRule( $ element Adds a validation rule to the form element with name $ element .
,
,
$ message $ type $ format
,
$ message is the error message to display next to the form

$ validation $ reset , field if the entered data is invalid, and $ type is the rule type
,

$ force ) to use (for example, “ required ” to check that the field
contains data, or “ alphanumeric ” to check that the data in
the field is alphanumeric). $ format is required by some rules

(for example, the “ regex ” type expects a regular expression
as the $ format argument).

$ validation can be “ server ” or “ client . Forms are
”

usually validated in the PHP script (that is, server - side). By
specifying “ client ” here, HTML_QuickForm also includes
JavaScript in the form for additional client - side validation.
$ reset works in tandem with the “ client ” $ validation

setting; if set to true , the form element is reset to its original
value if there was an error. (The default is false .)
Finally, $ force forces the validation rule to be applied even if

the element in question doesn ’ t exist in the form. The default
is false ; set to true to force validation.
All arguments are optional except $ element $ message ,

,

and $ type (and $ format if required by the rule type).

applyFilter( $ element Applies a filter to an element ’ s data. The filter is a callback
,
$ filter ) function. $ element is the element to filter, and $ filter is

the callback name. For example, to trim whitespace from a

form field called “ username ”, you could use $form - >
applyFilter( “ username ” , “ trim ” ) . To run all fields
through a filter, use the special element name “ __ALL__ ” .
You can also write your own filter callback functions.
isSubmitted() Returns true if the form has been sent back to the script by the user,
or false if this is the first time the form is being displayed. (Only
works if you created the form with $ trackSubmit set to true .)

validate() Runs all validation rules on the submitted form data, returning
true if the form is valid and false otherwise. In addition, error
messages are automatically inserted into the form, next to the
invalid form fields.
,
process( $ callback Processes the submitted form by passing the form data to the
$ mergeFiles ) function called $ callback . You need to create this function

yourself, and it should expect an associative array containing
the submitted form fields and values. Any uploaded files are
also passed to the callback function by default (turn this
feature off by setting $ mergeFiles to false ).

toHtml() Returns the HTML markup to display the form. Call this
method once you ’ ve created your form to retrieve the HTML
for inserting into the Web page.
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