Forms with Typemill

Whenever a user wants to customize something, he will probably do it with forms. TYPEMILL provides an easy and flexible way to generate such forms on the fly. Developers can define forms with simple YAML definitions and users (authors) can use such forms for different purposes:

• Use forms to configure a plugin.
• Use forms to configure a theme.
• Use forms to add meta-data to a page.
• Use forms to add public forms to the website (e.g. a contact form).

• Forms with Typemill
  • Basics
  • Meta-Tabs and Public Forms
  • Validation

Basics

You can define forms in the YAML configuration files of your plugin and your theme.

A very simple form configuration looks like this:

forms:
  fields:

    myfieldname:
      type: text
      label: Add a short text

    anotherfield:
      type: textarea
      label:  Add a long text

The rules are pretty simple:

• The form definition starts with the keyword forms followed by the keyword fields.
• Each field definition starts with a unique field-name.
• Below the field-name are the field definitions with the field-type, a label, attributes, and more.

Typemill will use these definitions to generate the form with all input fields on the fly.

If a user fills out the form and clicks on save, then Typemill will store the input data. Developer have access to the input data in various ways.

A short example: If you add the form above to the configuration-yaml file of a theme called "mytheme.yaml", then Typemill will display the configuration-form in the theme-area and store the input-data from the author in the settings-file. The developer can now use the data in the theme like this:

{{ settings.themes.mytheme.myfieldname }}

Meta-Tabs and Public Forms

With the keyword forms you can generate configuration forms for your theme and for your plugin. That is great, but it is not all. Because with plugins, you can also create input forms for meta-tabs of a page or you can even generate public forms like a contact form:

• If you want to add new input fields in the meta-tab of a page, then use the keyword metatabs instead of forms.
• If you want to create public forms like a contact form, then use the keyword public instead of forms.

Find more information and examples under metatabs and public forms.

Validation

The input of a user is automatically validated. The backend validation of Typemill is pretty strict and you should always test the input fields intensively. If you run into unwanted validation errors, please report them on GitHub.