tgext.ajaxforms 0.3.2
Makes easier to create AJAX forms in TurboGears2
License: MIT
Keywords: turbogears2.extension

About Ajax Forms
-------------------------

tgext.ajaxforms makes quick and easy to create ajax loaded and submitted forms in TurboGears2
applications.

To make a form ajax based just apply the **ajaxforms.ajaxloaded** decorator to any ToscaWidgets
form and declare a *ajaxurl* variable to specify the method that loads the form. 
The method can be automatically generated or hand-written. 
By default ajax validation is automatically supported.

Installing
-------------------------------

tgext.ajaxform can be installed both from pypi or from bitbucket::

    easy_install tgext.ajaxforms

should just work for most of the users

Making an Ajax Form
----------------------------------

The form itself can be any ToscaWidgets form, the only required additions
are to apply the **@ajaxloaded** decorator to the form itself and
specify the **ajaxurl** of the form that will point to the related
controller method::

    from tgext.ajaxforms import ajaxloaded

    @ajaxloaded
    class TestForm(twf.TableForm):
        class fields(WidgetsList):
            name = twf.TextField('Name', validator=validators.String(not_empty=True))
            surname = twf.TextField('Surname', validator=validators.String(not_empty=True))

        ajaxurl = '/form_show'
        action = '/form_submit' 
        submit_text = "GO"
    test_form = TestForm()


Showing The Form
----------------------------------

To show the form it is necessary to add a controller method bound to the **ajaxurl**
parameter of the form that will display the form itself and that will be used
by ajaxform each time that it has to display the form. For most cases this
method can be generated by using the **ajaxform** call.
Also you have to create a page where the form will be loaded. 

For example to show the form in the index page having *ajaxurl = '/form_show'*::

    from tgext.ajaxforms import ajaxform    

    class RootController(BaseController):    
        form_show = ajaxform(test_form)

        @expose('myapp.templates.index')
        def index(self):
            return dict(form=test_form)

The *myapp.templates.index* template should look the usual template
that you would use to display a ToscaWidgets based form::

    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
          xmlns:py="http://genshi.edgewall.org/"
          xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
        <xi:include href="master.html" />
        <head>
            <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type" py:replace="''"/>
            <title>Ajax Form Test Example</title>
        </head>
        <body>
            <div id="myform">
               ${form(name='HI')}
            </div>
        </body>
    </html>


Handling Submit and Validation
-------------------------------

Submit and validation should look the same that you would use for any ToscaWidgets
form, simply using the **ajaurl** bound method as an error_handler::

    class RootController(BaseController):    
        @expose()
        @validate(test_form, error_handler=form_show)
        def form_submit(self, **kw):
            return 'Thanks: {name} {surname}'.format(**kw)

Complete Example
----------------------------


myapp.templates.index::

    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
          xmlns:py="http://genshi.edgewall.org/"
          xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
        <xi:include href="master.html" />
        <head>
            <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type" py:replace="''"/>
            <title>Ajax Form Test Example</title>
        </head>
        <body>
            <div id="myform">
               ${form(name='HI')}
            </div>
        </body>
    </html>

myapp.controllers.root::

    from tgext.ajaxforms import ajaxloaded, ajaxform

    @ajaxloaded
    class TestForm(twf.TableForm):
        class fields(WidgetsList):
            name = twf.TextField('Name', validator=validators.String(not_empty=True))
            surname = twf.TextField('Surname', validator=validators.String(not_empty=True))

        ajaxurl = '/form_show'
        action = '/form_submit' 
        submit_text = "GO"
    test_form = TestForm()

    class RootController(BaseController):    
        form_show = ajaxform(test_form)

        @expose('myapp.templates.index')
        def index(self):
            return dict(form=test_form)

        @expose()
        @validate(test_form, error_handler=form_show)
        def form_submit(self, **kw):
            return 'Thanks: {name} {surname}'.format(**kw)



Showing the Form on Demand
------------------------------

AjaxForm since version 0.1.2 supports on demand display of forms.
This permits to show a form when a javascript event happens.

To do this, you must use ``form.on_demand()`` instead of ``form()`` to
display the form inside the template. This will create a javascript
function named: ``FormClassName_on_demand(where, params)`` the ``where``
argument is any valid selector where to display the form, while the
params method is a dictionary with the arguments that have to be sent
to the backend. By default any argument specified inside the params
dictionary will be used to fill the form fields.

For example, to display on demand this form::

    @ajaxloaded
    class TryAjax(TableForm):
        class fields(WidgetsList):
            field1 = TextField(validator=validators.String(not_empty=True))
            field2 = TextField(validator=validators.String(not_empty=True))
        action = '/dosomething'
        ajaxurl = '/TryAjax_show'
    ajax_test = TryAjax()

Your template might look like this::

    <div id="myform_box">
        ${form.on_demand()}
        <div onclick="TryAjax_on_demand('#myform_box', {'field2':'random text'})">Show Form</div>
    </div>