Use of PHP to generate (X)HTML compliant forms from XForms

I've been struggling for a long time with HTML_Quickform from PEAR. The
concept is ideal, but, the implementation is (IMHO) a bit of a kludge.
>
As a developer I want a quick and easy way to generate/validate/process
forms without hand hacking HTML, however, I also want it to be easy to
do! The HTML_Quickform method seems to require more work than it should
and whenever you start getting really complicated forms, the hassle
starts to outweigh the benefits.
>
I know XForm is currently lacking client-side support, but, with the
implemtation of decent XML parsing functions on PHP5 I'm suprised by the
lack of uptake in this area. XForm would be an ideal way of managing the
process, extremely lightweight XML that can be processed on the
server-side and sent as standard HTML to the client. Once the
client-side support picks up then you can just present the original XML
and no-need to re-code your app.
>
Are there some projects that perhaps I haven't found? I noticed they're
working on HTML_Quickform2 to make up PHP5 compatibility, surely a
better solution would be to push forward with Xforms? Or is it more
policital, I know XForms have been around a while, is there something
stopping them getting the support they need.
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Any comments?
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Andrew
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I just find it easier to write the HTML code. It isn't that hard, and
it goes pretty quickly. And I have yet to find any form generation
software which gives me the control I need over them (also, I use a lot
of CSS).

I've been struggling for a long time with HTML_Quickform from PEAR. The
concept is ideal, but, the implementation is (IMHO) a bit of a kludge.
>
As a developer I want a quick and easy way to generate/validate/process
forms without hand hacking HTML, however, I also want it to be easy to
do! The HTML_Quickform method seems to require more work than it should
and whenever you start getting really complicated forms, the hassle
starts to outweigh the benefits.
>
I know XForm is currently lacking client-side support, but, with the
implemtation of decent XML parsing functions on PHP5 I'm suprised by the
lack of uptake in this area. XForm would be an ideal way of managing the
process, extremely lightweight XML that can be processed on the
server-side and sent as standard HTML to the client. Once the
client-side support picks up then you can just present the original XML
and no-need to re-code your app.
>
Are there some projects that perhaps I haven't found? I noticed they're
working on HTML_Quickform2 to make up PHP5 compatibility, surely a
better solution would be to push forward with Xforms? Or is it more
policital, I know XForms have been around a while, is there something
stopping them getting the support they need.

Hello,
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on 02/25/2007 07:48 AM Andrew Taylor said the following:
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>
>>>>>
I don't know aboyt Quickform class because I don't use it, but it seems
the problem is that you are not able to customize the form templates.
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I use this other class that also has an automatic layout renderer like
quickform, but it lets you customize the input row templates.
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The class can also let you render forms with custom HTML templates or
even Smarty templates:
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http://www.phpclasses.org/formsgeneration
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Take a look at some live examples with source code here:
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http://www.meta-language.net/forms-examples.html
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--
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Regards,
Manuel Lemos
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Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generatorhttp://www.metastorage.net/
>
PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHPhttp://www.phpclasses.org/