TWiki Forms

Form-based input in topics, with name/value pairs stored as Meta Data variables; choose one of multiple forms per web & topic

Overview

By adding form-based input to freeform content, you can structure topics with unlimited, easily searchable categories. When forms are enabled for a web and selected in a topic, a single form appears in edit mode, and the contents are rendered as a table when viewed on the display page. You can define unlimited forms per web. For each topic, you can select a template if more than one is defined, or remove forms entirely. Form input values are stored as TWikiMetaData; all data is saved.

Form Templates replace TWikiCategoryTables from the 01-Dec-2000 version of TWiki. - see #FormsVsCategoryTables

Defining a Form Template

A Form Template is simply a page containing your form, defined as a table where each row is one form field.

Form Template Elements

• form template - a set of fields defining a form (replaces category table definition)
  • A web can use one or more form templates
• form - a topic containing additional meta data (besides the freeform TEXTAREA) that categorizes the content (replaces category table)
  • Within a form-enabled web, individual topics can have a form or no form
• form field - a named item in a form (replaces category item name)
• field type - selects the INPUT type:

  Input type	Type field	Size field	Value field
  One or more checkboxes	checkbox	number of checkboxes per line	comma list of checkbox labels
  One or more checkboxes, plus Set and Clear buttons	checkbox+buttons	(same)	(same)
  Read-only label text	label	1	(unused)
  One or more radio buttons	radio	number of radio buttons per line	comma list of checkbox labels
  Drop-down menu or scrollable box	select	1 for drop down, 2 and up for scrollable box	comma list of options
  A one-line text field	text	text box width in number of characters	(unused)
  A text box; size is 40x10 (columns x rows)	textarea	columns x rows, e.g. 40x6	(unused)

• field value - one or more values from a fixed set (select, checkbox, radio type) or free-form (text). (replaces category item value)

Defining a Form in One Topic

1. Create a new topic with your form name: YourForm, ExpenseReport, InfoCategory, RecordReview, whatever you need.
2. Create a TWiki table, with each column head representing one element of an entry field: Name, Type, Size, Values, and Tooltip message (see sample below).
3. For each field, fill in a new line; for the type of field, select from the list.
4. Save the topic (you can later choose to enable/disable individual forms).

Example: WebForm
| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* |
| TopicClassification | select | 1 | NoDisclosure, PublicSupported, PublicFAQ | blah blah... |
| OperatingSystem | checkbox | 3 | OsHPUX, OsLinux, OsSolaris, OsWin | blah blah... |
| OsVersion | text | 16 | | blah blah... |

Name	Type	Size	Values	Tooltip message
TopicClassification	select	1	NoDisclosure, PublicSupported, PublicFAQ	blah blah...
OperatingSystem	checkbox	3	OsHPUX, OsLinux, OsSolaris, OsWin	blah blah...
OsVersion	text	16		blah blah...

Defining a Form with Multiple Topics

Forms can also be defined by using form templates that retrieve field values from one or more separate topics:

• A FormTemplate topic defines the Form, ex: YourFormTemplate.
• For each field that has a value list - select, radio, checkbox - can use separate topic to define the available values.

Example: WebFormTemplate

• WebFormTemplate main definition:
   

  Name	Type	Size	Values	Tooltip message
  TopicClassification	select	1		blah blah...
  OperatingSystem	checkbox	3		blah blah...
  OsVersion	text	16		blah blah...

  
  Leave the Values field blank.

• TopicClassification field value definition:
   

  Name	Type	Tooltip message
  NoDisclosure	option	blah blah...
  PublicSupported	option	blah blah...
  PublicFAQ	option	blah blah...

• Implementation Notes: This format allows you to define field items with or without WikiNames, depending on your needs.
  • Topics can be protected in the usual manner, using TWikiAccessControl, to limit who can change the form template and/or individual value lists.
  • [[...]] links can be used to force a link (at present, the [[...][...]] format is not supported).
  • The Tooltip message column is used as a tooltip for the field name (only if field name is a WikiName) - you only see the tooltip In edit.
  • The first item in the list is the default item. Alternative initial values can be set in a topic template, like WebTopicEditTemplate, with field=value, or, for checkboxes, field=1.
  • The topic definition is not read when a topic is viewed.

Enabling Forms by Web

Forms are enabled on a per web basis. The WEBFORMS variable in WebPreferences is optional and defines a list of possible form templates. Example:

• Set WEBFORMS = BugForm, FeatureForm, BookLoanForm

• With WEBFORMS enabled, an extra button is added to the edit view. If the topic doesn't have a Form, an Add Form button appears at the end of the topic. If a Form is present, a Change button appears in the top row of the Form. The buttons open a screen that enables selection of a form specified in WEBFORMS, or the No form option.

Including Forms in New Topics

• A default Form Template (new topics get this default form) can be provided by creating the WebTopicEditTemplate topic in a web and adding a form to it. Initial Form values can be set there.

• Additionally a new topic can be given a Form using the formtemplate parameter in the URL. Initial values can then be provided in the URLs or as form values:
  • other than checkboxes: name, ex: ?BugPriority=1
  • checkbox: namevalue=1, ex: ?ColorRed=1.
    Boxes with a tick must be specified.

Setting Up Multiple Form Options

• The optional WEBFORMS variable defines alternative forms that can be selected by pressing Change in edit mode.

• A topic template can use any form.

• New topics with a form are created by simple HTML forms asking for a topic name. For example, you can have a SubmitExpenseReport topic where you can create new expense reports, a SubmitVacationRequest topic, and so on. These can specify the required template topic with its associated form.

Form Data Storage

The form topic name, fields and values are stored as TWikiMetaData - the order of the field/value pairs is the same as in the template.

Using Form Data

TWikiForms accept user-input data, stored as TWikiMetaData. Meta data also contains program-generated info about changes, attachments, etc. To find, format and display form and other meta data, see TWikiMetaData, SEARCH and METASEARCH variables in TWikiVariables, and TWiki Formatted Search for various options.

Main Changes from Category Tables

The Form Template system is a more powerful, flexible replacement for the original TWikiCategoryTable. Data from existing category tables can be imported directly.

Form Templates	Category Tables
defined in topics	defined in templates
many forms per web	one table per web
saved as Meta Data	saved as HTML
Change & Add Form buttons	UseCategory radio button

Importing Category Table Data

On upgrading from the previous TWiki, a Form Template topic has to be built for each web that used a Category Table, recreating the fields and values from the old twikicatitems.tmpl. The replacement Form Template must be set as the first item in the WebPreferences variable WEBFORMS. If missing, pages will display, but attempting to edit results in an error message.

The new Form Template system should work with old Category Table data with no special conversion. Data is assigned to Meta variables the first time an imported topic is edited and saved in the new system.

NOTE: If things aren't working correctly, there may be useful entries in data/warning.txt.

Using Forms For Settings

Example process to change your WebPreferences to use forms instead of {3 spaces}* Set statements:

1. create WebPrefencesForm topic
2. fill it with a table like this:
   | *Name*|*Type*|*Size*|*Value*|*Tooltip message*|*Attributes*|
| WEBTOPICLIST |textarea| |     | List of topics of the %WEB% web |S|
| SITEMAPLIST  |select  |3| on, | list this web in the Site Map  |S|
| SITEMAPWHAT  |textarea| |     | short web summary             |S|
| WEBBGCOLOR   |text    |8|     | Web specific background color |S|
   etc...
3. Edit WebPreferences and:
   • Add or Change the form to WebPrefencesForm
   • add WebPrefencesForm to the Set WEBFORMS line
   • Save
4. Edit WebPreferences, jump straight down to the form ignoring all the textarea stuff, and set as you like
5. if everything works as you like it, you can delete the Set statements (the form overrides set if they are both used).

Notes:

If it isn't working, double check that the S attribute has been specified (S for Setting). If you change the form, the changes will not take affect until you edit and save the preferences' topics again.

Using the TWiki:Plugins.EditTablePlugin on WebPreferencesForm makes adding new prefedrences a breeze.

A possibly unwanted side effect for using forms for the SKINS setting in their personal user topic: because the User Preferences are final you can't have different skins for different webs as the user's setting always wins. A workaround is to simply omit SKIN in the form.

Another example, this one using EditTablePlugin, source:

%EDITTABLE{ header="|*Name*|*Type*|*Size*|*Values*|*Tooltip message*|*Attributes*|" format="|text,20|text,20|text,20|text,20|text,20|text,1|" }%

Result (after some editing):

-- TWiki:Main.JohnTalintyre - 16 Aug 2001
-- TWiki:Main.MikeMannix - 05 Jan 2002
-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 25 Apr 2004
-- TWiki:Main.MattWilkie - 27 Jul 2004