Rendering with blocks in HTML::FormHandler

When rendering, FormHandler loops through the sorted fields in the form and executes the 'render' method on each field. Fields in FormHandler forms, particularly those that interface with a database, are usually structured in a way that matches the data structure. This doesn't always fit with the way that you want to display the form.

'Blocks' provide an alternative way of structuring the display. A 'block' is a fairly basic object that contains a 'render' method. The standard block class, HTML::FormHandler::Widget::Block, has Moose attributes to set the HTML tag, the label, the classes, etc, plus a 'render_list' which contains the names of a list of fields or other blocks to render.

You create a block with 'has_block':

has_block 'comment' => ( tag => 'p', content => 'This is a comment',
        class => ['comment'] );

Blocks can contain lists of fields:

has_block 'fset1' => ( tag => 'fieldset', render_list => ['foo', 'bar'] );

In order to use blocks when rendering instead of fields, you need to provide the form with a 'render_list' too (in addition to any render_lists that might exist in the blocks).

sub build_render_list { ['fset1', 'comment', 'a_field' 'submit_btn' ] }

A complete form that renders using blocks:

package MyApp::Test::Form;
    use HTML::FormHandler::Moose;
    extends 'HTML::FormHandler';

    sub build_render_list {['abc', 'def', 'ghi', 'submit_btn']}
    has_field 'foo';
    has_field 'bar';
    has_field 'flim';
    has_field 'flam';
    has_field 'fee';
    has_field 'fie';
    has_field 'fo';
    has_field 'fum';
    has_field 'submit_btn';
  

    has_block 'abc' => ( tag => 'fieldset', render_list => ['foo', 'fo'] );
    has_block 'def' => ( render_list => ['bar', 'fum'], label => "My DEF Block",
        label_class => ['block', 'label'] );
    has_block 'ghi' => ( render_list => ['flim', 'flam'], wrapper => 0 );

More flexible form rendering in Perl with FormHandler....