UI Forms

The UI Forms module adds a collection of BoxLang Components/BIFS that will create semantic HTML components that can be used in your applications. We do not skin the components, that will be your job.

Components

This module contributes the following Components to the language:

• form - the wrapping HTML <form...></form> component and other HTML form tag components. Produces an HTML form.

• input - the <input.../> HTML form component

• select - the <select ... ></select> HTML form component

• slider - generates an HTML 5 input range slider

• textarea - the <textarea>...</textarea> HTML form component

Most attributes of these components serve as pass-through attributes of the generated HTML tag.

form

• format - this attribute will throw an error if present and is anything other than HTML. XML and Flash forms will not be supported.

• passthrough - this is a list of passthrough attributes that will be added to the form tag.

• scriptsrc - this defines an external location for the custom forms javascript file, which is sourced into the HTML output

• preservedata - When the form action returns to the page containing the form, this attribute determines whether to override the control values with the submitted values.

<bx:form format="HTML" action="http://www.example.com" method="post" preservedata="true">
    <bx:input type="text" name="name" label="Name" />
    <bx:input type="text" name="email" label="Email" />
    <bx:input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</bx:form>

Unsupported form Component Attributes

The following attributes are unsupported and generate a warning log message if used.

• enablecab

• skin

• preloader

• timeout

• wmode

• accessible

• archive

• codebase

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input

• label - if provided, will generate an HTML label tag before the generated input tag

• message - can be provided as a custom message if validation fails

• passthrough - this is a list of passthrough attributes which will be added to the form tag.

<bx:input type="text" name="name" label="Name" />

Planned input Component Attributes supported

The following have not yet been implemented in the input component but are planned for development in the near-term.

• autosuggest - Valid only for type="text". Specifies entry completion suggestions to display as the user types into a text input. The user can select a suggestion to complete the text entry. The valid value can be either of the following:

  • A string consisting of the suggestion values separated by the delimiter specified by the delimiter attribute.

  • A bind expression that gets the suggestion values based on the current input text.

• autosuggestbinddelay - Valid only for type="text". The minimum time between autosuggest bind expression invocations, in seconds. Use this attribute to limit the number of requests that are sent to the server when a user types.

• autosuggestminlength - Valid only for type="text". The minimum number of characters required in the text box before invoking a bind expression to return items for suggestion.

• delimiter - Optional delimiter which informs the autosuggest attribute

• maxresultsdisplayed - Optional numeric value which informs the max result displayed by the autosuggest

• onbinderror - The name of a JavaScript function to execute if evaluating a bind expression, including an autosuggest bind expression, results in an error. The function must take two attributes: an HTTP status code and a message.

• showautosuggestloadingicon - A Boolean value that specifies whether to display an animated icon when loading an autosuggest value for a text input.

• typeahead - A Boolean value that specifies whether the autosuggest feature should automatically complete a user's entry with the first result in the suggestion list.

• validate - A limited subset of the accepted values for validate will be supported in a future release. It is highly encouraged to use HTML 5 validation, including min, max and mask attributes, however.

Unsupported input Component Attributes

• bind - this attribute is unsupported and will throw an error if used

• validateAt - Since the validate attribute passes through to an HTML5 type attribute on the tag, this attribute is not supported

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slider

The slider component creates a type="range" input component but access the following additional attributes:

• increment - specifies the step value of the slider

• bgColor - specifies the background color of the slider body

• color - specifes the color of the slider control

• vertical - Optional boolean attribute. When true, the slider will have a vertical orientation

<bx:slider name="slider" min="0" max="100" increment="5" bgColor="#f1f1f1" color="#4CAF50" />

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textarea

• passthrough - this is a list of passthrough attributes which will be added to the form tag.

• message - can be provided as a custom message if validation fails

• passthrough - this is a list of passthrough attributes which will be added to the form tag.

<bx:textarea name="message" label="Message" />

Unsupported textarea Component Attributes

The following attributes are not supported and will be ignored if provided:

• stylesXML

• templatesXML

• richtext

• toolbar

• toolbarOnFocus