clonefish elements

Element class

The form elements are represented in $clonefish->elements as an array of object references. Each element is an object of the element class or one of its descendants. To manipulate the elements, you have the following options: 

Adding an element

The elements are added through the configuration array passed to the clonefish->addElements() method. The configuration array settings are described under  the Input types and the Validation types sections in the manual.

Getting a reference to an element

You can reach an element with the clonefish->getElementByName() method:

class clonefish {
  element clonefish->getElementByName( string $name ); 
}

This method returns an object reference if the element was found, and FALSE otherwise.

Setting value

class element {
  boolean element->setValue( mixed $value, boolean $slashes_already_added );
}

Sets the value of an element. The returned value is not the result of any kind of validation, do not use it for such purposes.

Parameters:

  • value is not a taken as a reference but as a copy.
  • $slashes_already_added defines if slashes are already added to the value. If it evaluates to true, stripslashes() will be used on the value (even recursively if it's an array).

Return values:

TRUE on success, FALSE on failure. Failure is less likely: only selectDate->setValue() returns FALSE when strftime() wasn't successful for the incoming date/timestamp. The returned value shouldn't be used as some kind of validation flag.

Getting value

class element {
  mixed element->getValue( boolean $addslashes ); 
}

and

class select extends element {
  mixed select->getValueArray( boolean $addslashes ); 
}

Returns the value of the element.

Parameters:

  • If $addslashes is set to TRUE, the returned value will be escaped using the built-in PHP addslashes() function (even recursively, if the returned value is an array).

Return values:

It returns the value for a simple field (like an inputText).
element->getValue() for a multiple select (or selectDynamic, or selectFile) element may return the following:

  • NULL for empty arrays
  • if it's an array with only one array element, it returns that array element as scalar value (not in an array)
  • if the array has more than one elements, it returns the array.

This triplet matches the behaviour of HTTP GET/POST and PHP when receiving multiple selects during a form submission.

If you expect arrays for a multiple select in every case above, use select->getValueArray(). Arrays are often expected when the select is used as the "multiple" (N-part) in an 1-N database relation and the returned values are to be inserted in a table.

Getting type of an element

class element {
  string element->getType( string $name );
}

Returns the class name of an element.

form validation for developers!

clonefish is a proven, mature form generator class that helps PHP developers to create, validate and process secure, flexible and easy-to-maintain forms
learn more
Bookmark and Share