Using patternslib clone for repeating fields in a formbuilder

pigeonflight · January 28, 2018, 1:12pm

Continuing the discussion from PloneFormGen: Datagridfields - Make it possible to add multiples of one form field type:

According to the description:
http://patternslib.com/clone

The clone pattern is typically used in case you want to create a form on which it is unknown how many instances the user will need of a certain field or group of fields.

This sounds like the "correct" alternative to a datagridfield/widget (at least in "Plone land").

I think there are two ways forward.

add clone support for groups of fields to collective.easyform
ensure that clone support is part of the experimental angular based form builder that @tareqalam started to work on in Barcelona.

Just for information purposes.
It is possible to get PloneFormGen and Datagridfield working on Plone 5.
I had success by adding Products.PFGDataGrid, the latest versions of PFGDataGrid and DataGridField do work with Plone 5.

eggs +=
     ...
     Products.PloneFormGen
     Products.PFGDataGrid

My preference is to move to something dexterity based or even better stores the form schema as json, like what @tareqalam is working on (see: GitHub - tareqalam/plone.formbuilder: an addon to build form using javascript).

Until then... PloneFormGen + PFGDataGrid

Thoughts? Am I overlooking another form builder project compatible with Plone 5 that already uses the clone pattern?

petschki · January 29, 2018, 1:42pm

we use https://github.com/collective/collective.easyform for plone 5 ...

pigeonflight · January 29, 2018, 3:10pm

Last I checked collective.easyform didn't have cloning of repeatable fields but maybe I missed it.

espenmn · January 29, 2018, 3:18pm

Why is pat clone better than
collective.z3cform.datagridfield ?

pigeonflight · January 29, 2018, 3:26pm

With pat clone you can duplicate a fieldset. As far as I see with datagrid it uses a row approach which has limitations for the number of fields in a row.

espenmn · January 29, 2018, 3:29pm

you could use:

github.com

collective/collective.z3cform.datagridfield/blob/master/src/collective/z3cform/datagridfield/blockdatagridfield.py#L13


      
          from z3c.form import interfaces
          from z3c.form.widget import FieldWidget
          from zope.schema.interfaces import IObject
          
          import zope.component
          import zope.interface
          import zope.schema.interfaces
          
          
          class BlockDataGridFieldWidget(DataGridFieldWidget):
              """
              Render edit mode widgets in blocks (vertical) instead of cells
              (horizontal).
              """
          
              klass = "blockdatagridfield"
          
              def createObjectWidget(self, idx):
                  """"""
                  valueType = self.field.value_type

pigeonflight · January 29, 2018, 3:32pm

I'd like to see this stuff out of the box (speaking from ignorance, I'm installing easyform now), so maybe BlockDataGridFields are already supported by easyform. Will get back to you.

pigeonflight · January 29, 2018, 3:43pm

Out of the box, collective.easyform does not appear to provide datagridfield or blockdatagrid field:
see screenshot of available fields:

missing in the screenshot are URL, Yes/No and Choice

espenmn · January 29, 2018, 4:15pm

i dont think adding it would be more difficult than adding pat clone (

you can probably do it by editing the xml-schema, though