[pmwiki-users] fun with forms

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Thu, Apr 19, 2007 at 06:13:29PM -0400, The Editor wrote:
> Just a few initial questions:
> 
> 1) This only stores/updates info in hidden PTV formats? No other kinds
> of text vars?

It goes into any type of PTV.  It's extensible so that sites with
other PTV formats can make use of it.

> 2) Are you thinking of a way to erase a data var, or only allow its
> value to be cleared, but leave the (:field: :) on the target page.

Currently the way to clear a value is to use spaces.  I think
this is safest in the long run (and again it's customizable).
So far I'm not planning to use this interface to completely
remove page text variables from pages.

> 3) What happens if a matching PTV can't be found on the target page,
> does it insert it?

Not yet -- I'm still figuring out how I want to implement
this feature.

> 4) Does the form automatically retrieve default values from the target
> page to prefill input fields?

It retrieves them if told to do so via  
(:input defaults source=<target>:) .  This allows defaults to
come from many places, and it also keeps form designers from
being surprised if the values arrive from somewhere unexpected.

> Also, any recommendations yet about how other recipes should look
> towards tapping into this?  

Not at the moment -- depends on what the other recipes want to
achieve.  This particular piece is just dealing with forms,
page text variables, and templates -- the next pieces deal with
creating new pages.

Pm