Formal

Writing forms suck, it needs to be more easier, and more... formal, formal is a form builder/helper/thing that makes designing forms fun again, Formal gives you the following things:

• a sensible stylesheet to work with
• same conventions that you are used_to like form_for, etc
• common sense abstractions like wrapping inputs with labels or giving you toggle values
• doesn't constrain you to a esoteric form building dsl, so you still have the ability to use this with the other standard rails form helpers like text_field, text_area, etc.
• some nice view helpers to do things like zebra striping
• includes the jquery.validate plugin if you don't want to use active record validation.

WARNING : I just started this so it's still under intense development, fork or use at your own risk!

INSTALLATION

• Run:

    ./script/plugin install http://github.com/vanntastic/Formal
    rake formal:install
  

• Add the following to your layout file (in the head) :

    <%= include_formal %>
    // if you want jquery.validate to be included (requires jquery):
    <%= include_formal :validation => true %>
  

USAGE

Examples below assume the fields are nested in block similar to:

<% form_for @user do |f| %>
  # examples here
<% end %>

Here's a simple example:

# instead of writing this:
<% form_for @user do |f| %>
  <%= f.label :first_name %>
  <%= f.text_field :first_name %>
  <%= f.label :last_name %>
  <%= f.text_field :last_name %>
<% end -%>

# using formal, you can do this:
<% form_for @user do |f| -%>
  <%= f.input_for :first_name, :required => true %>
  <%= f.input_for :last_name %>
<% end -%>

input_for :field, options={}

generates a text_field for an object with a label, takes the same options as text_field, pass in the label option to change it.

EX:

<%= f.input_for :first_name %>

# change the label
<%= f.input_for :first_name, :label => "Your First Name" %>

# set a default one line text_field
<%= f.input_for :first_name, :default => "Please enter in your name" %>

# you can also make sure that this is set to be required
<%= f.input_for :first_name, :required => true %>

# make more changes to the label, :val is the value of the label
<%= f.input_for :first_name, :label => {:val => "Please enter in your name", :class => "something"} %>

text_area_for :field, options={}

generates a text_area field for an object with a label, takes same options as input_for

EX:

<%= f.text_area_for :comments %>

# make the field required
<%= f.text_area_for :comments, :required => true %>

password_for :field, options={}

generates a password_field for an object with a label, works just like input_for with the same exact options.

EX:

<%= f.password_for :password %>

# change the label
<%= f.password_for :password, :label => {:val => "Enter password", :class => "pass"} %>

file_field_for :field, options={}

generates a file_field for an object with a label, works just like input_for with the same exact options.

EX:

<%= f.file_field :photo %>

# change the label
<%= f.file_field :photo, :label => "Picture" %>    

radio_for :field,'value', options={}

generates a radio_button with a label

EX:

# default setup
<%= f.radio_for :option %>

# change the default label
<%= f.radio_for :option, "Select Option" %>

# change the label
<%= f.radio_for :option, "Select your option", :label => {:class => "options"} %>

checkbox_for :field, options={}

generates a checkbox

EX:

# default setup
<%= f.checkbox_for :option %>

# change the label
<%= f.checkbox_for :option, "Select your option" %>

# change the label
<%= f.checkbox_for :option, "Select your option", :label => {:class => "options"} %>

select_for method, choices, options={}

generates a select tag, takes same options as select

EX:

# default setup
<%= f.select_for :gender %>

# pass in some options
<%= f.select_for :gender, %w(Male, Female) %>

# change the label and make it required
<%= f.select_for :gender, %w(Male, Female), :required => true, :label => {:val => "Select a gender"} 

date_select_for method, options={}, html_options={}

generates a date select, takes same options as date_select

EX:

# default setup
<%= f.date_select_for :dob %>

# change the order of the date lists and the label
<%= f.date_select_for :dob, :order => [:month,:day,:year], 
    :label => {:val => "Date of Birth"} %>

# make it required and change the label
<%= f.date_select_for :dob, :required => true, :label => {:val => "Date of Birth"} %>    

datetime_select_for method, options={}, html_options={}

generates a datetime select, takes the same options as datetime_select

EX:

# default setup
<%= f.datetime_select_for :appt %>

# make it required
<%= f.datetime_select_for :appt, :required => true %>

# make it required and change the label
<%= f.datetime_select_for :appt, :required => true, 
    :label => {:val => "Select Appointment"} %>

zebra_stripes options={}, &blk

Zebra stripes allows you to wrap data output (like records and such) in zebra stripes, make sure you set the 'reg' or 'alt' class in your stylesheet so that it gets a proper background color:

EX:

# instead of doing something like:
<%= content_tag :li, data, :class => cycle('alt','reg')  %>

# you can do assuming you are using list items to output your data:
<% zebra_stripes do -%>
  # your data
<% end -%>

# you can also use the stripes alias, if zebra_stripes is too much to type
<% stripes do -%>
  # your data
<% end -%>

# what if you were using a table?
<% stripes :tag => :tr do -%>
  # your data
<% end -%>

# what if you wanted to pass in html options?
<% stripes :class => "nice" do -%>
  # your data
<% end -%>

# the row class defaults to using 'alt' or 'reg', but you can change it
<% stripes :row_classes => ["none","hi-lite"] do -%>
  # your data
<% end -%>

still_in_development &blk

Protects a block of code from running in production, useful if you are working on a feature which isn't ready for production yet.

<% still_in_development do -%>
  # code for the best feature ever
<% end -%>

Copyright (c) 2009 [Vann Ek], released under the MIT license