Ferreteria/v2/usage/forms

About

Forms in Ferreteria consist of several sets of classes that work together:

• control classes render editable (and eventually non-editable) data fields
• field classes handle translating values between internal storage and on-disk storage (database)

Code files:

• Template:Ferreteria/code
• Template:Ferreteria/code

Classes

The way this is organized is a little messed up; the descendants of clsCtrls handle database interaction -- but shouldn't it be the descendants of clsFields? It works reasonably well as is, but some rethinking might be a good idea, once everything is all mapped out.

collections

• clsCtrls (abstract): a collection of clsCtrl form controls -- often referred to in code as a "form object"
  • clsForm_recs: form object that knows how to interact with a database table
    • clsForm_recs_indexed: form object that knows how to interact with a keyed database table (allowing for additional functionality)
• clsFields: a collection of clsField objects

unitary objects

• clsField: a generic (unspecialized) field, suitable for plain text
  • clsFieldTime: field for storing date/time
  • clsFieldNum: field for storing numeric (int or float) data
  • clsFieldBool: field for storing a BIT-type boolean field (which, oddly, is returned as a single character instead of numeric)
    • should be renamed clsFieldBool_bit, or maybe this class should be abstract and clsFieldBool_bit should descend from it
    • clsFieldBool_Int: field for storing a boolean value stored as an integer
• clsCtrl (abstract): a generic UI control
  • clsCtrlHTML: a control for an HTML form, suitable for single-line text entry
    • clsCtrlHTML_TextArea: HTML multiline text entry control
    • clsCtrlHTML_CheckBox: HTML checkbox control
    • clsCtrlHTML_DropDown: HTML single-choice drop-down control
    • clsCtrlHTML_Hidden: HTML invisible control, for returning calculated data
    • clsCtrlHTML_Fixed: HTML control for displaying pre-set data; useful for creating new records
    • clsCtrlHTML_ReadOnly: HTML control for non-editable data
    • clsCtrlHTML_Rating: HTML control for entering a rating (integer with fixed range and intervals)