I've been using Data::FormValidator and HTML::FillInForm with
CGI::Application as per a suggestion in an earlier thread on this list. The
technique was demonstrated by Mike & Christine and Mark Stosberg (thread was
Re: [cgiapp] form validation back in July). It works relatively well for
me. This is roughly the code Mike & Christine sent to the list:
my( $valid,$missing,$invalid,$unknown ) =
$validator->validate(\%fdat,$self->param('profile_name'));
if( @$invalid ) {
$form_ok = 0;
for(@$invalid){
$q->param($_."_err",1);
}
}
if( @$missing ) {
$form_ok = 0;
for(@$missing){
$q->param($_."_miss",1);
}
}
For any required form parameter 'foo' that's missing, foo_miss gets setup.
If foo fails validation for another reason, foo_err gets setup. By passing
"associate => $q" in as an option to load_tmpl, you get access to the _miss
and _err variables as TMPL_VARs. By checking for them with TMPL_IF
statements, you can keep all your error messages and error message
formatting in your HTML files.
I created a class that inherits from CGI::Application and does this on a
generic basis. In my .cgi driver I just set:
- the name of the template files to use (for the form and success pages)
- the name of the Data::FormValidator 'profile' file (and which profile
within the file to use)
- the email address of the person that should receive the form data (if
validation succeeds)
- the file name of the file to save form data to (if the form validation
succeeds)
- toggles for 'do_email' and 'do_save' and 'do_extra' settings ('do_extra'
calls an extra function that can be overriden)
One stumbling block I ran into was making the fields appear in a logical
order when they get sent as an email or saved in a file. I have a feeling
my solution (passing additional 'field order' params in the .cgi is not the
best way to do it).
Like I said, the above method seems to work relatively well. I like the
method Joel Gwynn presented though too. With his method, it would be pretty
easy to handle the field order issue gracefully.
-Will
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel Gwynn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'John Lawton'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 2:01 PM
Subject: RE: [cgiapp] Form validation
> Well now, that reminds me of a funny story. I remember like it was
> yesterday ...
>
> I had to code a survey with over 500 fields, with information being
> collected over 6 or so pages. Usually, I would just store the required
> field names in a hash, and loop through the hash and validate. In this
> case, I made a new table in the database, called form_fields. I put a
> row in the table for each form field, along with the type of data, the
> page/runmode it was gathered by, a description (handy for error
> messages), the table into which it was to be inserted, and whether it
> was required. Then for each page, I just called my function
> &validate($self), which selected all the rows matching the current
> runmode, and validated the data accordingly.
>
> There's probably a smarter way to do it, using the data dictionary or
> something, but it did the trick for me, and it's database-independent.
>
> HTH.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Lawton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 1:28 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [cgiapp] Form validation
>
>
> While this may be peripheral to CGI::Application, I'd like to get some
> feedback on what others are using for form validation. I am particularly
>
> interested in documented (tested) packages, as opposed to homegrown, ad
> hoc solutions. (With all due respect to the hackers out there)
>
> I have taken a look at Data::FormValidator. This module makes it
> possible to describe the required/optional parameters, dependencies,
> filters, and constraints in a separate file (metafile). I like the
> approach this module takes, from my experience as a programmer, it seems
>
> like this module is comprehensive. However, I am still wondering if
> CGI::Application people are using any other interesting modules for this
>
> purpose?
>
> -john
>
> PS I have also taken a cursory look at Params::Validate, it appears to
> be designed to solve a slightly different problem, parameter validation
> when passing parameters into methods.
>
>
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