check_rm()

In scalar context, it returns simply the Data::FormValidator::Results object which conveniently evaluates to false in a boolean context if there were any missing or invalide fields. This is the recommended calling convention.

In list context, it returns the results object followed by the error page, if any. This was the previous recommended syntax, and was used like this:

 my ($results,$err_page) = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile');
 return $err_page if $err_page;

The inputs are as follows:

Return run mode

This run mode will be used to generate an error page, with the form re-filled (using HTML::FillInForm) and error messages in the form. This page will be returned as a second output parameter.

The errors will be passed in as a hash reference, which can then be handed to a templating system for display. Following the above example, the form_display() routine might look like:

 sub form_display {
    my $self = shift;
    my $errs = shift;                             # <-- prepared for form reloading
    my $t = $self->load_tmpl('form_display.html');
    $t->param($errs) if $errs;                    # <-- Also necessary.
    # ...

 }
    

The fields should be prepared using Data::FormValidator's built-in support for returning error messages as a hash reference. See the documentation for "msgs" in the Data::FormValidator::Results documentation.

Returning the errors with a prefix, such as "err_" is recommended. Using "any_errors" is also recommended to make it easy to display a general "we have some errors" message.

HTML::Template users may want to pass "die_on_bad_params=>0" to the HTML::Template constructor to prevent the presence of the "err_" tokens from triggering an error when the errors are not being displayed.

Data::FormValidator profile

This can either be provided as a hash reference, or as the name of a CGI::Application method that will return such a hash reference.

HTML::FillInForm options (optional)

If desired, you can pass additional options to the HTML::FillInForm fill() method through a hash reference. See an example above.

Additional Options

To control things even more, you can set parameters in your CGI::Application object itself.

dfv_defaults

The value of the 'dfv_defaults' param is optionally used to pass defaults to the Data::FormValidator new() constructor.

  $self->param(dfv_defaults => { filters => ['trim'] })
    

By setting this to a hash reference of defaults in your "cgiapp_init" routine in your own super-class, you could make it easy to share some default settings for Data::FormValidator across several forms. Of course, you could also set parameter through an instance script via the PARAMS key.

Here's an example that I've used:

 sub cgiapp_init {
     my $self = shift;

     # Set some defaults for DFV unless they already exist.
     $self->param('dfv_defaults') ||
         $self->param('dfv_defaults', {
                 missing_optional_valid => 1,
                 filters => 'trim',
                 msgs => {
                     any_errors => 'err__',
                     prefix     => 'err_',
                     invalid    => 'Invalid',
                     missing    => 'Missing',
                     format => '<span class="dfv-errors">%s</span>',
                 },
             });
 }
    

Now all my applications that inherit from a super class with this "cgiapp_init()" routine and have these defaults, so I don't have to add them to every profile.

dfv_fif_class

By default this plugin uses HTML::FillInForm to fill in the forms on the error pages with the given values. This option let's you change that so it uses an HTML::FillInForm compatible class (like a subclass) to do the same work.

    $self->param(dfv_fif_class => 'HTML::FillInForm::SuperDuper');
    

dfv_fif_defaults

The value of the 'dfv_fif_defaults' param is optionally used to pass defaults to the HTML::FillInForm "fill()" method.

    $self->param(dfv_fif_defaults => {ignore_fields => ['rm']})
    

By setting this to a hash reference of defaults in your "cgiapp_init" routine in your own super-class, you could make it easy to share some default settings for HTML::FillInForm across several forms. Of course, you could also set parameter through an instance script via the PARAMS key.

CGI::Application::Plugin::Forward support

If we detect that ::Forward is loaded, we will set the current run mode name to be accurate while the error page is being generated, and then set it back to the previous value afterwards. There is a caveat: This currently only works when the run name name is the same as the subroutine name for the form page. If they differ, the current run mode name inside of the form page will be inaccurate. If this is a problem for you, get in touch to discuss a solution.

check_rm_error_page()

dfv_results()

 $self->dfv_results;

After "check_rm()" or "validate_rm()" has been called, the DFV results object can also be accessed through this method. I expect this to be most useful to other plugin authors.

validate_rm()