A reference documentation about the new eTemplates and the syntax and parameters of the several widgets.
As I already covered this in the Tutorial, I like would suggest to have a look there if your are not familiar with the overal concept.
There are two possibilities now to create an eTemplate:
The eTemplates-Editor can import and export now eTemplates as xml-files. Here is short example showing an eTemplate from the example app in the Tutorial (here are screenshots of the template in the editor and the show-function):
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- $Id$ -->
<overlay>
<template id="et_media.edit" template="" lang="" group="" version="">
<grid width="100%">
<columns>
<column/>
<column/>
<column/>
<column/>
</columns>
<rows>
<row>
<description options="ib" span="all" value="eTemplates MediaDB" no_lang="1" id="msg"/>
</row>
<row>
<hrule span="all"/>
</row>
<row>
<description span="all"/>
</row>
<row>
<description value="Name"/>
<textbox size="100" maxlength="100" span="all" id="name" statustext="here goes the name of the publication / record"/>
</row>
<row>
<description value="Author"/>
<textbox size="100" maxlength="100" span="all" id="author" statustext="please use Name, First Name"/>
</row>
<row>
<description value="Type"/>
<menulist span="all" statustext="select the type fitting most">
<menupopup id="type"/>
</menulist>
</row>
<row>
<description value="Description"/>
<textbox ="" cols="3" rows="100" span="all" id="descr" statustext="we have a fulltext search using that description"/>
</row>
<row>
<description span="all"/>
</row>
<row>
<button label="Read" id="read" statustext="reads or searches for entries matching the criteria above"/>
<button label="Save" id="save" statustext="saves the change to the db"/>
<button label="Cancel" id="cancel" statustext="clears the form, without changing anything"/>
<button label="Delete" id="delete" statustext="deletes an entry"/>
</row>
</rows>
</grid>
</template>
</overlay>
The tags / widget-names and attributes / parameters used are as close as possible to XUL. For more information about XUL refer to www.xulplanet.com or the Mozilla docs www.mozilla.org/xpfe/xulref/.
Please keep in mind that the xml-files used to store the eTemplates are only similar to XUL and implement only a subset of XUL. Here are the main differences:
Like XUL the eTemplate-xml-files are quite strict with the xml-syntax:
Name in Editor | xml attr | xul | internal name | description of the attribut | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | type (only for sub-types) |
no | type |
The type of the widget is stored in the tag itself, some widgets have sub-types (unknow to XUL).
In that case the subtype is stored in the type attribut. The Type / tag has to be either the name of a standard eTemplate-widget or of an already existing extension. |
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Name | id | yes | name |
A string to locate the content for the widget in the content array (index) to show the dialog
and for the returned content.
Can be left blank or be obmitted as xml-attribut if the widget needs no content.
The name can contain the following variables, which gets expanded before they are used as
array index (for an example see the Tutorial):
|
||||||||||||
Label | label | no | label |
The label is displayed by default in front (for radiobuttons behind) each widget (if not empty).
If you want to specify a different position, use a '%s' in the label, which gets replaced by
the widget itself. Eg. '%s Name' to have the label Name behind a checkbox.
The label can contain variables, as descript for name.
If the label starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this
index (with the '@'-removed and after expanding the variables). Note: The label gets always translated, if its longer than 1 char! If this is not disired, use a label widget, place the not-to-translate label in the content-array and check NoTranslation or set the xml attribute no_lang. |
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Help | statustext | yes | help | This text / help-message is displayed in the status-bar of the browser when the widget gets focus (or as tooltip for buttons or general in gtk). If the user has JavaScript switched off, the help-texts get NOT submitted, as this is detected. If the helptext starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this index (with the '@'-removed and after expanding the variables). | ||||||||||||
Options | ? | ? | size | This attribute controls certain aspects of the different widgets. It's meaning and xml / xul-values are document with the widgets. If the options-string starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this index (with the '@'-removed and after expanding the variables). | ||||||||||||
NoTranslation | no_lang | no | no_lang |
If checked the content of the widget and the label gets NOT translated. The helptext of a widget is always translated. |
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needed | needed | no | needed |
If checked (xml-attr: needed="1") the etemplates will reprompt the user if he left
the widget / field empty. |
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Readonly | readonly | yes | readonly | If checked (xml-attr: readonly="true") the widget will NOT be editable. If it is not supported by the browser, the etemplate-class makes shure that no changes / content is transmitted back to the app. Only applicable to widgets with input capabilities. Readonly Buttons get removed from the dialog, like they where disabled. The readonly attribute could be set on runtime via a readonly-array sublied to the exec or show function of the class, the value on index=name/id has to be true to make a widget readonly. | ||||||||||||
Disabled | disabled | yes | disabled | If checked (xml-attr: disabled="true") the widget will NOT be shown. For buttons this could be archived on runtime via setting them readonly. | ||||||||||||
onChange | onchange | ? | onchange | If checked (xml-attr: onchange="1") and the contet of the widget is changed by the user, the form will be submitted. Via xml or by a program other values can be set (not in the editor at the moment and this is not compatible with the phpGTK implementation of the eTemplates). | ||||||||||||
Span, Class | span class |
span: no class: yes |
span |
In the editor and internaly this field contains two comma-separated values: span: how many cell a widget should span (default is one), the special value of 'all' can be used to indicate it should span all remaining cells of a row. This is not supported by xul-grid's at the moment, but is planned to be. class: the CSS class for the widget. If the class-string starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this index (with the '@'-removed and after expanding the variables). |
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Align | align | yes | align | Can be set to 'left' (default), 'center' or 'right'. | ||||||||||||
Width, Disabled column-attr. |
width | yes | row[0][#] | Can be set to a percentage (eg. '10%'), a number of pixels or ... | ||||||||||||
Height, Disabled row-attr. |
height | yes | row[0][h#] | Can be set to a percentage (eg. '10%'), a number of pixels or ... | ||||||||||||
Disabled column-attr. row-attr. |
disabled | no | disabled |
Syntax: [!]{@name|value}[={@name2|value2}] Disables (=dont show it) a row/column if a certain criteria is (not (=!)) meet. If no '=...' / 2. value is given, the test is made on the first value being not empty, else the test is made by comparing the two values. Instead of a value you can give a name as an index into the content prefixed by @. Examples: !@data disables row/col if value of data is empty, @val=false disables if value of val is equal to (the string) 'false' |
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Class, Valign row-attr. |
class valign |
both: yes | row[0][c#] |
In the editor and internaly this field contains two comma-separated values: class: the CSS class for the row, there are 4 predefined css-classes: nmh: next-match-header-background, nmr: alternating next-match-row-background which gets replaced by the etemplate class with nmr0 or nmr1. valign: vertical alignment of the widgets in the row: 'top', 'middle' (default) or 'bottom' |
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blurText | blur | no | blur |
This text get displayed if an input-field is empty and does not have the
input-focus (blur). It can be used to show a default value or a kind of help-text. If it contains a text (eg. 'Search...'), this text is run through lang(), if it contains a reference to the content array (eg. '@blur_text') it does not get translated. |
Widget Name in Editor |
xml tag | xul | internal name | description of the widget | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Label | <description /> | yes | label |
a textual label The content is taken from the content-array but it can have an own label from the label attribute too.
Options has 5 comma-separated fields: |
|
Text | <textbox /> | yes | text |
a single-line input field for text In the html-UI this is rendered as <input ...>
Options has 3 comma-separated fields: |
|
Integer | <textbox type="int" /> |
? | int |
a input-field to enter an integer In the html-UI this is rendered as <input ...>. The input-validation is done at the moment only on server-side, clientside validation and input-restriction to only numbers is planed.
Options has 3 comma-separated fields: |
|
Float | <textbox type="float"/> |
? | float |
a input-field to enter a float In the html-UI this is rendered as <input ...>. The input-validation is done at the moment only on server-side, clientside validation and input-restriction to only numbers is planed.
Options has 4 comma-separated fields: |
|
Textarea | <textbox multiline="true" /> |
yes | textarea |
a multiline input-field for text In the html-UI this is rendered as <textarea ...>.
Options has 2 comma-separated fields: |
|
Formatted Text (HTML) |
<htmlarea /> | no | htmlarea |
a multiline input-field for formatted (HTML) text In the html-UI this is rendered as <textarea ...> and the HTMLarea javascript editor is used.
Options has 5 comma-separated fields: |
|
Checkbox | <checkbox /> | yes | checkbox |
a widget that can be checked or unchecked In the html-UI this is rendered as <input type="checkbox" ...>. Multiple checkboxes can have an identical name ending with [], in that case the value will be an array with the set_value's of the checked boxes. You can use a button with a custom javascript onclick action of eg. "toggle_all(this.form,form::name('nm[rows][checkbox][]')); return false;" and a set_value of "$row_cont[id]" to toggle all checkboxes in the lines of a nextmatch widget. The form::name( ) function translate the name used in the template into the name used in the form. If the button is an image-button, check needed to render it as button and not as image with link, which has no this.form property! Options: [set_value][,unset_value[,ro_true[,ro_false]]]set_value: which value in the content represents the checked state, default=1 unset_value: value in the content representing the unchecked state, default=0 ro_true: what should be displayed for a readonly checked box, default=x ro_false: display for an unchecked box, can be set to 'disable', to not display the widget (incl. label), default is empty |
|
Radiobutton | <radio /> | ? | radio |
a widget in a group of which only one can be checked In the html-UI this is rendered as <input type="radio" ...> Unlike XUL (and like html) the radio-buttons are grouped by giving them the same name / id. Options: [set_value][,ro_true[,ro_false]] set_value: which value in the content represents the checked state, default=1 ro_true: what should be displayed for a readonly checked box, default=x ro_false: display for an unchecked box, can be set to 'disable', to not display the widget (incl. label), default is empty If the value of the content array at index name/id matches set_value the radiobutton is marked 'checked'. |
|
Submitbutton | <button image="img.gif" ro_image="img-grey.gif" /> | yes | button |
a button to submit the form / end the dialog In the html-UI this is rendered as <input type="submit" ...>. If a button is set readonly (via seting its id in the $readonlys array passed to exec) it is not rendered at all (if no ro_image is given), like it would be disabled.
needed: if set and the user has JavaScript enabled the button is renderd as a link around the label
and a hidden input to set id if the link is clicked. |
|
Button | <buttononly image="img.gif" ro_image="img-grey.gif" /> | no | buttononly |
a button Same as Submitbutton but it is rendered as <input type="button" ...> in the html-UI |
|
Horizonatal Rule | <hrule /> | no | hrule |
a horizontal rule / line In the html-UI this is rendered as <hr ...> Options can contain a width of the rule, default is 100% |
|
Template | <template id="app.name" content="subarr" /> | yes | template |
a separate eTemplate to be loaded into this cell Name xml: id: the name of the etemplate to load Options xml: content: if set, the template uses an own sub-array of the content array indexed by the value of this field (if not the full content-array is used). Variables like $row can be used as descript for the general attribute Name. |
|
Image | <image src="foo.gif" label="Get a foo" options="app.class.method" /> | yes | image |
shows an image Label xml: label: the label is shown as tooltip (like html-title) Name xml: src: the name of the image to load, the image is search in the apps template-dirs Options xml: options: up to 4 comma-separated values: 1. link to a methode = app.class.method for the image 2. target for the link, eg. _blank 3. imagemap 4. widthxheight if a popup should be used for the link, eg. 600x400 |
|
Selectbox |
<menulist> <menupopup id="name" options="Select one" /> </menulist>
multiselect: options > 1 Examples for predefined selectboxes: <listbox type="select-cat" rows="5"/>
<menulist>
|
yes | select |
shows a selectbox The content of the selectbox / the options have to be in an array which can be in 2 locations:
xml: rows: only for <listbox>: number of rows to show xml options: only for <menupopup/>: textual label for a first Row, e.g. 'All' or 'None' (id will be ''), additional attr see sub-types
xml: type: can be set to get several predefined select-contents, in that case you dont need to set
the content as descripted above (if set it too its in front of the predefined rows): |
|
FileUpload |
<file id="name"/> |
no | file |
Input and Button to select a file for uploading Returns the file-name of the uploaded file in the servers tmp-dir (the webserver needs to have a writable tmp-dir) plus, if javascript is enabled, the local filename of the client as "${name}_path". |
|
Date |
<date options="Y-m-d,1"/> <date type="date-time"/> <date type="date-timeonly" options="H:i"/> <date type="date-houronly"/> <date type="date-duration"/> |
no | date |
Date-/Time-input via selectboxes or a field for the year The order of the input-fields is determined by the prefs of the user. Options: [datetime-storage-format] [,&1=year-no-selectbox|&2=today-button|&4=one-min-steps|&8=ro-suppress-0h0] datetime-storage-format is the format, in which the date is stored in the variable: empty means an unix-timestamp (in GMT), or a string containing the letters Y, m, d, H, i plus separators, eg. 'Y-m-d': 2002-12-31. The storage format for times is always 24h or timestamp with date 1.1.1970 (if no date used). (This has nothing to do with the format of the display, which is only determined by the users preferences.) year-no-selectbox if set (&1) an int-widget (input-field) is used instead of a select-year widget. today-button: if set (&2) a [Today] button is displayed which sets the fields to the up-to-date date (via javascript) one-min-steps: if set (&4) the minute-selectbox uses one minutes steps, default 5min steps ro-suppress-0h0: if set (&8) the time is suppressed for readonly and a time of 0h0 day-of-week-prefix: if set (&16) readonly dates get prefixed with the day of week week-number-prefix: if set (&32) readonly dates get prefixed with lang('Wk') & weeknumber Sub-widgets: date-time: a date and a time and date-timeonly or date-houronly: only a time / hour These widgets allow the input of times too or only, they use 12h am/pm or 24h format as specified in the user prefs. If readonly is set, this widget can be used to display a date, without the need to convert it.
Duration a floating point input with an optional selectbox for the unit (hours or days) |
|
VBox, HBox, Box |
<vbox> <widget ...> <widget ...> </vbox>
<hbox span="all">
<box orient="horizontal"> |
yes | vbox, hbox, box |
vertical or horizontal container for child widgets. This is useful if one needs more
widgets or widgets outside the column- / row-order of a grid. HBox or VBox is rendered as Grid/html:table
with only one row or colum. Box is rendered as a html:div containing all child-widgets.
Disabled child-cells are completly left out (no empty cells or rows get generated).
Options in the editor: the number of cells in the box (does NOT need to be set in xml). |
|
GroupBox |
<groupbox> <caption label="Legend"/> <widget ...> <widget ...> </groupbox>
|
yes | groupbox |
container to visualy group other widgets by putting a border around them. The upper line may contain a legend. The widgets are ordered vertical, like a VBox. Disabled child-cells are completly left out (no empty cells or rows get generated).
Options in the editor: the number of cells in the box (does NOT need to be set in xml). |
|
Tabs |
<tabbox id="name"> <tabs> <tab label="Tab 1" statustext="Help"/> ... </tabs> <tabpanels> <grid id="app.name.tab1"/> ... </tabpanels> </tabbox> |
yes | tab |
shows a tab-widget The tab-widget is implemented as an extension, as html does not have a tab-widget.
The following fields / attributes are in the Editor and internaly in the class separeted by '|', in the
xml/xul-file the are attributes of each tab- or grid-tag: |
|
Manual | <manual> | no | manual |
open the online help: displays a small manual icon. Name xml: id: optional name of the manual page (as index into $content or direct). If no manual page is given, the link included the referer as _GET param. |
|
Custom fields | <custom_fields> | no | custom_fields |
display custom fields: the fields can be configured with admin.customfields.edit&appname={app} The indexes of the custom fields in content are prefixed with a hash (#). |
|
NextMatch | <nextmatch options="notes.index.rows" id="nm"/> | yes | tab |
shows a table with some selectboxes, a search-field and arrows to scroll the table The nextmatch-widget is implemented as an extension.
Options xml: options: name of the template to display the rows |
|
$content[$id] = array( // I = value set by the app, 0 = value on return / output 'get_rows' => // I method/callback to request the data for the rows eg. 'notes.bo.get_rows' 'filter_label' => // I label for filter (optional) 'filter_help' => // I help-msg for filter (optional) 'no_filter' => True// I disable the 1. filter 'no_filter2' => True// I disable the 2. filter (params are the same as for filter) 'no_cat' => True// I disable the cat-selectbox 'cat_app' => // I application the cat's should be from, default app in get_rows 'template' => // I template to use for the rows, if not set via options 'header_left' => // I template to show left of the range-value, left-aligned (optional) 'header_right' => // I template to show right of the range-value, right-aligned (optional) 'bottom_too' => True// I show the nextmatch-line (arrows, filters, search, ...) again after the rows 'never_hide' => True// I never hide the nextmatch-line if less then maxmatch entrie 'lettersearch' => True// I show a lettersearch 'searchletter' => // I0 active letter of the lettersearch or false for [all] 'start' => // IO position in list 'num_rows' => // IO number of rows to show, defaults to maxmatches from the general prefs 'cat_id' => // IO category, if not 'no_cat' => True 'search' => // IO search pattern 'order' => // IO name of the column to sort after (optional for the sortheaders) 'sort' => // IO direction of the sort: 'ASC' or 'DESC' 'col_filter' => // IO array of column-name value pairs (optional for the filterheaders) 'filter' => // IO filter, if not 'no_filter' => True 'filter_no_lang' => True// I set no_lang for filter (=dont translate the options) 'filter_onchange'=> 'this.form.submit();'// I onChange action for filter, default: this.form.submit(); 'filter2' => // IO filter2, if not 'no_filter2' => True 'filter2_no_lang'=> True// I set no_lang for filter2 (=dont translate the options) 'filter2_onchange'=> 'this.form.submit();'// I onChange action for filter, default: this.form.submit(); 'rows' => // O content set by callback 'total' => // O the total number of entries 'sel_options' => // O additional or changed sel_options set by the callback and merged into $tmpl->sel_options 'no_columnselection' => // I turns off the columnselection completly, turned on by default 'columnselection-pref' => // I name of the preference (plus 'nextmatch-' prefix), default = template-name 'default_cols' => // I columns to use if there's no user or default pref (! as first char uses all but the named columns), default all columns 'options-selectcols' => // I array with name/label pairs for the column-selection, this gets autodetected by default. A name => false suppresses a column completly. 'return' => // IO allows to return something from the get_rows function if $query is a var-param! 'csv_fields' => // I false=disable csv export, true or unset=enable it with auto-detected fieldnames, or array with name=>label or name=>array('label'=>label,'type'=>type) pairs (type is a eT widget-type) ); /* * example: the get_rows function from notes.bo.get_rows (has to be in public_functions !) */ function get_rows($query,&$rows,&$readonlys) { $rows = $this->read($query['start'],$query['search'],$query['filter'],$query['cat_id']); if (!is_array($rows)) { $rows = array( ); } $readonlys = array( ); // set readonlys to enable/disable our edit/delete-buttons while (list($n,$note) = each($rows)) { if (!$this->check_perms($this->grants[$note['owner_id']],PHPGW_ACL_EDIT)) { $readonlys["edit[$note[id]]"] = True; } if (!$this->check_perms($this->grants[$note['owner_id']],PHPGW_ACL_DELETE)) { $readonlys["delete[$note[id]]"] = True; } } return $this->total_records; } /* * Example how the nextmatch-widget is used in notes.ui.index: */ function index($content = 0) { if (!is_array($content)) { $content = array('nm' => $this->session_data); // restore settings from the session } if (isset($content['nm']['rows'])) // one of the buttons in the rows is pressed { $this->session_data = $values['nm']; // save the settings in the session unset($this->session_data['rows']); // we dont want to save the content of the rows $this->save_sessiondata(); if (isset($values['nm']['rows']['edit'])) { list($id) = each($values['nm']['rows']['edit']); return $this->edit($id); } elseif (isset($values['nm']['rows']['delete'])) { list($id) = each($values['nm']['rows']['delete']); return $this->delete($id); } } $values['nm']['options-filter'] = array ( // set up the data for our filter 'all' => 'Show all', 'public' => 'Only yours', 'private' => 'Private' ); $values['nm']['get_rows'] = 'notes.bo.get_rows'; $values['nm']['no_filter2'] = True; // disable the 2. filter $this->tpl->read('notes.index'); $this->tpl->exec('notes.ui.index',$values); } |
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Nextmatch- SortHeader Nextmatch- Nextmatch- Nextmatch- |
<nextmatch type="nextmatch-sortheader" id="col-name" options="DESC" label="ColLabel"/> <nextmatch type="nextmatch-filterheader" id="col-name"/> <nextmatch type="nextmatch-customfilter" id="col-name" options="select-precent"/> <nextmatch type="nextmatch-accountfilter" id="col-name"/> |
no | nextmatch- sortheader nextmatch- nextmatch- nextmatch- nextmatch- |
These widget are an optional part of the nextmatch widget.
nextmatch-sortheader
nextmatch-filterheader
nextmatch-customfilter
nextmatch-accountfilter
nextmatch-header Note: All four widgets interoperate with the nextmatch-widget which passes the set values as part if the query-parameter to its get_rows function, they are not returned in the rows sub-array. |
|
LinkWidgets |
<link type="link-to" id="name"/> <link type="link-list" id="name"/> <link type="link-string" id="name"/>
|
no | link-to link-list link-string |
These widgets are the UI-part of the link-class ({bo|so}link) in the API. eGroupWare has a linking system that lets you link two records from different apps together. For example, you can link the addressbook entry of the person you're meeting with to the meeting on your calendar, or an infolog entry for the phone call you made to postpone the meeting. To display links in your own application, you should use the LinkList group of widgets.
link-list It needs an array with two entries. If you name the LinkList widget 'links', you need: $data['links']['to_app'] = 'myapp'; $data['links']['to_id'] = $record_id; This will display links where the $record_id record of myapp is one side of the link. Make sure that both variables are properly defined before the form template gets executed. link-to Note: Both Widgets can be used on the same template with the same name. They share the content of the variable with that name, which contains just the id of the entry in the current app.
link-string
Before you can use a link to your application, you need to specify some information in a 'search_link' hook. In your setup.inc.php, you need to point $setup_info['myapp']['hooks']['search_link'] to a function that will return an array:
return array( 'query' => 'myapp.bo_myapp.link_query', // A function that takes a search string // and returns a list of matching records 'title' => 'myapp.bo_myapp.link_title', // A function that takes an id from one side // of a link and returns a string for that entry 'view' => array('menuaction'=>'myapp.ui_myapp.link_view'), // Function to view a link, may be an existing view function 'view_id' => 'link_id', // name of the id variable provided to the view function above 'add' => array('menuaction' => 'myapp.ui_myapp.new_entry'), // Function to add a new entry ); Also, make sure that the declared methods are implemented and methods from the UI class are listed in its $public_methods attribute: class ui_myapp { var $public_methods = array( 'view' => true, 'add' => true ); ... } |
The eTemplates have an interface to extend them with new widgets. These widgets are php-classes, can use eTemplates to define the UI of the new widget and are stored in the eTemplate's inc-dir or the inc-dir of a eGroupWare application. The editor and the etemplate-class autoload the existing extensions.
I will made more documentation about the interface availible soon. For now have a look for the source of the existing extensions.