Eitan,
I believe Embperl is capable of what you are looking for. eg.:
[-
$person = new Person;
%fdat = %{ $person->data() }; # data method returns { 'person.name' =>
'Eitan', ... }
-]
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" SIZE="20" NAME="person.name"> [# VALUE automatically
prefilled #]
Thus, no need for .conf files.
ilia.
Eitan Suez wrote:
>
> hi all,
>
> a long time ago, i used to code web pages using webobjects. this tool has
> a really nice feature that deals with binding object properties to form
> elements. besides being very elegant, i found this feature to be very
> useful in
> several respects:
>
> (1) it cleanly separates ui from the data model that represent the state
> of a web application: you could actually give your epl pages to html
> folks (non programmers) without worrying about them messing up your
> code.
> (2) it took care of initializing form elements
> (3) it parses %fdat for you when a form was submitted. it automatically
> distributes fdat's elements to the proper elements within your data
> structures
> based on binding/mapping information.
>
> i wish such a feature were available maybe as an extension to embperl
> (similar to the way embperlobject is currently implemented).
>
> please allow me to describe how this feature might work in the context of
> embperl.
> i am curious to find out whether others in the embperl community might be
> interested
> in such a feature:
>
> 1. all .epl pages would be accompanied by a second file maybe with a
> .conf
> extension as illustrated in this example:
>
> pagex.epl:
> ==========
>
> <HTML>
> <BODY>
> <FORM>
> <EMBPERL NAME="myname">
> </FORM>
> </BODY>
> </HTML>
>
> pagex.conf:
> ===========
> myname:
> type=textfield
> size=20
> name=x
> value=person.name
>
> in the above example, the details of html form elements are abstracted.
> the epl file is reduced to a key (myname) that is a reference to an entry in
> pagex.conf
>
> at runtime, the embperl engine would translate/merge the above two pages
> into:
> <HTML>
> <BODY>
> <FORM>
> <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" SIZE="20" NAME="x" VALUE="[+person->name()+]">
> </FORM>
> </BODY>
> </HTML>
>
> when the form is submitted,
> instead of having an fdat hash, one would have objects
> such as 'person', with its name property set to the value
> of $fdat{x}
>
> in a sense, you create bindings between object properties and
> form elements. embperl would automatically parse fdat for
> and (1) populate the properties automatically and (2) initialize
> the values of form elements based on values of object properties
>
> each type of html form element has a variety of documented properties
> that could be specified in the .conf file.
>
> there are several problems i often see with the epl pages that are
> developed in my environment:
> (1) form elements are often not set to their default values
> (2) values of form elements are often not properly validated when the
> form is submitted
> (3) a large portion of an epl page constitutes of manually mapping the
> form elements'
> values to properties in respective package or module files.
>
> i think a solution similar to what i describe above could help.
>
> here's a link to the webobject reference for this particular feature:
> http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/webobjects/System/Documentation/Develope
> r/WebObjects/Reference/DynamicElements/Introduction.html
>
> it also shows many other concepts that i don't describe here such as
> specifying formatters
> for text fields for date entries (for example).
>
> one example of a component is the WOBrowser which i believe corresponds to
> a combobox
> (html <SELECT> tag). note how you can bind an array to the list of
> selections. better yet,
> one ought to be able to bind a hash to the name/value pairs that map to
> the <select> tag.
> this would do away entirely with constructs like:
> <SELECT name="s1">
> [$ foreach $key (keys(%selectdat)) $]
> <OPTION VALUE="[+$key+]">[+$selectdat{$key}+]</OPTION>
> [$ endforeach $]
> </SELECT>
>
> the code would reduce to:
> <EMBPERL NAME="select1">
> the conf file in turn might contain something like:
> select1:
> name=s1
> hash=%selectdat
>
> if you've made it this far, i would like to thank you for taking the time
> to read this message.
>
> / eitan suez
> austin, texas
>
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