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Derek Allard3d879d52008-01-18 19:41:32 +000019<meta name='author' content='ExpressionEngine Dev Team' />
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Derek Allard39b622d2008-01-16 21:10:09 +000031<td><h1>CodeIgniter User Guide Version 1.6.0</h1></td>
Derek Allard1a2cbdf2008-01-04 22:26:37 +000032<td id="breadcrumb_right"><a href="../toc.html">Table of Contents Page</a></td>
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43<a href="http://www.codeigniter.com/">CodeIgniter Home</a> &nbsp;&#8250;&nbsp;
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45Form Helper
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57
58
59<h1>Form Helper</h1>
60
61<p>The Form Helper file contains functions that assist in working with forms.</p>
62
63
64<h2>Loading this Helper</h2>
65
66<p>This helper is loaded using the following code:</p>
67<code>$this->load->helper('form');</code>
68
69<p>The following functions are available:</p>
70
71
72
73<h2>form_open()</h2>
74
75<p>Creates an opening form tag with a base URL <strong>built from your config preferences</strong>. It will optionally let you
76add form attributes and hidden input fields.</p>
77
78<p>The main benefit of using this tag rather than hard coding your own HTML is that it permits your site to be more portable
79in the event your URLs ever change.</p>
80
81<p>Here's a simple example:</p>
82
83<code>echo form_open('email/send');</code>
84
85<p>The above example would create a form that points to your base URL plus the "email/send" URI segments, like this:</p>
86
87<code>&lt;form method="post" action="http:/www.your-site.com/index.php/email/send" /></code>
88
89<h4>Adding Attributes</h4>
90
91<p>Attributes can be added by passing an associative array to the second parameter, like this:</p>
92
93<code>
94$attributes = array('class' => 'email', 'id' => 'myform');<br />
95<br />
96echo form_open('email/send', $attributes);</code>
97
98<p>The above example would create a form similar to this:</p>
99
100<code>&lt;form method="post" action="http:/www.your-site.com/index.php/email/send" &nbsp;class="email" &nbsp;id="myform" /></code>
101
102<h4>Adding Hidden Input Fields</h4>
103
104<p>Hidden fields can be added by passing an associative array to the third parameter, like this:</p>
105
106<code>
107$hidden = array('username' => 'Joe', 'member_id' => '234');<br />
108<br />
109echo form_open('email/send', '', $hidden);</code>
110
111<p>The above example would create a form similar to this:</p>
112
113<code>&lt;form method="post" action="http:/www.your-site.com/index.php/email/send" &nbsp;class="email" &nbsp;id="myform" /><br />
114&lt;input type="hidden" name="username" value="Joe" /><br />
115&lt;input type="hidden" name="member_id" value="234" /></code>
116
117
118<h2>form_open_multipart()</h2>
119
120<p>This function is absolutely identical to the <dfn>form_open()</dfn> tag above except that it adds a multipart attribute,
121which is necessary if you would like to use the form to upload files with.</p>
122
123<h2>form_hidden()</h2>
124
125<p>Lets you generate hidden input fields. You can either submit a name/value string to create one field:</p>
126
127<code>form_hidden('username', 'johndoe');<br />
128<br />
129// Would produce:<br /><br />
130&lt;input type="hidden" name="username" value="johnodoe" /></code>
131
132<p>Or you can submit an associative array to create multiple fields:</p>
133
134<code>$data = array(<br />
135&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'name'&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'John Doe',<br />
136&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'email' => 'john@example.com',<br />
137&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'url'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'http://www.example.com'<br />
138&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;);<br />
139<br />
140echo form_hidden($data);<br />
141<br />
142// Would produce:<br /><br />
143&lt;input type="hidden" name="name" value="John Doe" /><br />
144&lt;input type="hidden" name="email" value="john@example.com" /><br />
145&lt;input type="hidden" name="url" value="http://www.example.com" /></code>
146
147
148
149
150<h2>form_input()</h2>
151
152<p>Lets you generate a standard text input field. You can minimally pass the field name and value in the first
153and second parameter:</p>
154
155<code>echo form_input('username', 'johndoe');</code>
156
157<p>Or you can pass an associative array containing any data you wish your form to contain:</p>
158
159<code>$data = array(<br />
160&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'name'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'username',<br />
161&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'id'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'username',<br />
162&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'value'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'johndoe',<br />
163&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'maxlength'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> '100',<br />
164&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'size'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> '50',<br />
165&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'style'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; => 'width:50%',<br />
166&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;);<br />
167<br />
168echo form_input($data);<br />
169<br />
170// Would produce:<br /><br />
171&lt;input type="text" name="username" id="username" value="johndoe" maxlength="100" size="50" style="width:50%" /></code>
172
173<p>If you would like your form to contain some additional data, like JavaScript, you can pass it as a string in the
174third parameter:</p>
175
176<code>$js = 'onClick="some_function()"';<br />
177<br />
178echo form_input('username', 'johndoe', $js);</code>
179
180<h2>form_password()</h2>
181
182<p>This function is identical in all respects to the <dfn>form_input()</dfn> function above
183except that is sets it as a "password" type.</p>
184
185<h2>form_upload()</h2>
186
187<p>This function is identical in all respects to the <dfn>form_input()</dfn> function above
188except that is sets it as a "file" type, allowing it to be used to upload files.</p>
189
190<h2>form_textarea()</h2>
191
192<p>This function is identical in all respects to the <dfn>form_input()</dfn> function above
193except that it generates a "textarea" type. Note: Instead of the "maxlength" and "size" attributes in the above
194example, you will instead specify "rows" and "cols".</p>
195
196
197<h2>form_dropdown()</h2>
198
199<p>Lets you create a standard drop-down field. The first parameter will contain the name of the field,
200the second parameter will contain an associative array of options, and the third parameter will contain the
201value you wish to be selected. You can also pass an array through the third parameter, and CodeIgniter will create a multiple select for you. Example:</p>
202
203<code>$options = array(<br />
204&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'small'&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'Small Shirt',<br />
205&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'med'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'Medium Shirt',<br />
206&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'large'&nbsp;&nbsp; => 'Large Shirt',<br />
207&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'xlarge' => 'Extra Large Shirt',<br />
208&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;);<br />
209<br />
210$shirts_on_sale = array('small', 'large');<br />
211<br />
212echo form_dropdown('shirts', $options, 'large');<br />
213<br />
214// Would produce:<br />
215<br />
216&lt;select name=&quot;shirts&quot;&gt;<br />
217&lt;option value=&quot;small&quot;&gt;Small Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
218&lt;option value=&quot;med&quot;&gt;Medium Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
219&lt;option value=&quot;large&quot; selected=&quot;selected&quot;&gt;Large Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
220&lt;option value=&quot;xlarge&quot;&gt;Extra Large Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
221&lt;/select&gt;<br />
222<br />
223echo form_dropdown('shirts', $options, $shirts_on_sale);<br />
224<br />
225// Would produce:<br />
226<br />
227&lt;select name=&quot;shirts&quot; multiple=&quot;multiple&quot;&gt;<br />
228&lt;option value=&quot;small&quot; selected=&quot;selected&quot;&gt;Small Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
229&lt;option value=&quot;med&quot;&gt;Medium Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
230&lt;option value=&quot;large&quot; selected=&quot;selected&quot;&gt;Large Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
231&lt;option value=&quot;xlarge&quot;&gt;Extra Large Shirt&lt;/option&gt;<br />
232&lt;/select&gt;</code>
233
234
235<p>If you would like the opening &lt;select> to contain additional data, like JavaScript, you can pass it as a string in the
236fourth parameter:</p>
237
238<code>$js = 'onChange="some_function()"';<br />
239<br />
240echo form_dropdown('shirts', $options, 'large', $js);</code>
241
242
243<h2>form_fieldset()</h2>
244
245<p>Lets you generate fieldset/legend fields.</p>
246<code>echo form_fieldset('Address Information');<br />
247echo &quot;&lt;p&gt;fieldset content here&lt;/p&gt;\n&quot;;<br />
248echo form_fieldset_close();
249<br />
250<br />
251// Produces<br />
252&lt;fieldset id=&quot;address_info&quot;&gt;
253<br />
254&lt;legend&gt;Address Information&lt;/legend&gt;
255<br />
256&lt;p&gt;form content here&lt;/p&gt;
257<br />
258&lt;/fieldset&gt;</code>
259<p>Similar to other functions, you can submit an associative array in the second parameter if you prefer to set additional attributes. </p>
260<p><code>$attributes = array('id' =&gt; 'address_info', 'class' =&gt; 'address_info');<br />
261 echo form_fieldset('Address Information', $attributes);<br />
262echo &quot;&lt;p&gt;fieldset content here&lt;/p&gt;\n&quot;;<br />
263echo form_fieldset_close(); <br />
264<br />
265// Produces<br />
266&lt;fieldset id=&quot;address_info&quot; class=&quot;address_info&quot;&gt; <br />
267&lt;legend&gt;Address Information&lt;/legend&gt; <br />
268&lt;p&gt;form content here&lt;/p&gt; <br />
269&lt;/fieldset&gt;</code></p>
270<h2>form_fieldset_close()</h2>
271<p>Produces a closing &lt;/fieldset&gt; tag. The only advantage to using this function is it permits you to pass data to it
272 which will be added below the tag. For example:</p>
273<code>$string = &quot;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&quot;;<br />
274<br />
275echo fieldset_close($string);<br />
276<br />
277// Would produce:<br />
278&lt;/fieldset&gt;<br />
279&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</code>
280<h2>form_checkbox()</h2>
281<p>Lets you generate a checkbox field. Simple example:</p>
282<code>echo form_checkbox('newsletter', 'accept', TRUE);<br />
283<br />
284// Would produce:<br />
285<br />
286&lt;input type=&quot;checkbox&quot; name=&quot;newsletter&quot; value=&quot;accept&quot; checked=&quot;checked&quot; /&gt;</code>
287<p>The third parameter contains a boolean TRUE/FALSE to determine whether the box should be checked or not.</p>
288<p>Similar to the other form functions in this helper, you can also pass an array of attributes to the function:</p>
289
290<code>$data = array(<br />
291&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'name'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'newsletter',<br />
292&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'id'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'newsletter',<br />
293&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'value'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> 'accept',<br />
294&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'checked'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;=> TRUE,<br />
295&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'style'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; => 'margin:10px',<br />
296&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;);<br />
297<br />
298echo form_checkbox($data);<br />
299<br />
300// Would produce:<br /><br />
301&lt;input type="checkbox" name="newsletter" id="newsletter" value="accept" checked="checked" style="margin:10px" /></code>
302
303<p>As with other functions, if you would like the tag to contain additional data, like JavaScript, you can pass it as a string in the
304fourth parameter:</p>
305
306<code>$js = 'onClick="some_function()"';<br />
307<br />
308 echo form_checkbox('newsletter', 'accept', TRUE, $js)</code>
309
310
311<h2>form_radio()</h2>
312<p>This function is identical in all respects to the <dfn>form_checkbox()</dfn> function above except that is sets it as a "radio" type.</p>
313
314
315<h2>form_submit()</h2>
316
317<p>Lets you generate a standard submit button. Simple example:</p>
318<code>echo form_submit('mysubmit', 'Submit Post!');<br />
319<br />
320// Would produce:<br />
321<br />
322&lt;input type=&quot;submit&quot; name=&quot;mysubmit&quot; value=&quot;Submit Post!&quot; /&gt;</code>
323<p>Similar to other functions, you can submit an associative array in the first parameter if you prefer to set your own attributes.
324 The third parameter lets you add extra data to your form, like JavaScript.</p>
325<h2>form_label()</h2>
326<p>Lets you generate a &lt;label&gt;. Simple example:</p>
327<code>echo form_label('What is your Name', 'username');<br />
328<br />
329// Would produce:
330<br />
331&lt;label id=&quot;username&quot;&gt;What is your Name&lt;/label&gt;</code>
332<p>Similar to other functions, you can submit an associative array in the third parameter if you prefer to set additional attributes. </p>
333<p><code>$attributes = array(<br />
334 'class' =&gt; 'mycustomclass',<br />
335 'style' =&gt; 'color: #000;',<br />
336);<br />
337 echo form_label('What is your Name', 'username', $attributes);<br />
338 <br />
339// Would produce: <br />
340&lt;label id=&quot;username&quot; class=&quot;mycustomclass&quot; style=&quot;color: #000;&quot;&gt;What is your Name&lt;/label&gt;</code></p>
341<h2>form_reset()</h2>
342
343<p>Lets you generate a standard reset button. Use is identical to <dfn>form_submit()</dfn>.</p>
344
345<h2>form_close()</h2>
346
347<p>Produces a closing &lt;/form> tag. The only advantage to using this function is it permits you to pass data to it
348which will be added below the tag. For example:</p>
349
350<code>$string = "&lt;/div>&lt;/div>";<br />
351<br />
352echo form_close($string);<br />
353<br />
354// Would produce:<br />
355<br />
356&lt;/form><br />
357&lt;/div>&lt;/div></code>
358
359
360
361
362
363<h2>form_prep()</h2>
364
365<p>Allows you to safely use HTML and characters such as quotes within form elements without breaking out of the form. Consider this example:</p>
366
367<code>$string = 'Here is a string containing <strong>"quoted"</strong> text.';<br />
368<br />
369&lt;input type="text" name="myform" value="<var>$string</var>" /></code>
370
371<p>Since the above string contains a set of quotes it will cause the form to break.
372The form_prep function converts HTML so that it can be used safely:</p>
373
374<code>&lt;input type="text" name="myform" value="<var>&lt;?php echo form_prep($string); ?></var>" /></code>
375
376<p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> If you use any of the form helper functions listed in this page the form
377values will be prepped automatically, so there is no need to call this function. Use it only if you are
378creating your own form elements.</p>
379
380
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