Forms & HTML
- Installation
- Opening A Form
- CSRF Protection
- Form Model Binding
- Form Model Accessors
- Labels
- Text, Text Area, Password & Hidden Fields
- Checkboxes and Radio Buttons
- File Input
- Number Input
- Date Input
- Drop-Down Lists
- Buttons
- Custom Macros
- Custom Components
- Generating URLs
Installation
To install through composer, run the following command from terminal:
composer require "laravie/html"
Next, add your new provider to the providers
array of config/app.php
:
'providers' => [
// ...
Collective\Html\HtmlServiceProvider::class,
],
Finally, add two class aliases to the aliases
array of config/app.php
:
'aliases' => [
// ...
'Form' => Collective\Html\FormFacade::class,
'Html' => Collective\Html\HtmlFacade::class,
],
Looking to install this package in Lumen? First of all, making this package compatible with Lumen will require some core changes to Lumen, which we believe would dampen the effectiveness of having Lumen in the first place. Secondly, it is our belief that if you need this package in your application, then you should be using Laravel anyway.
Opening A Form
Opening A Form
{!! Form::open(['url' => 'foo/bar']) !!}
//
{!! Form::close() !!}
By default, a POST
method will be assumed; however, you are free to specify another method:
echo Form::open(['url' => 'foo/bar', 'method' => 'put'])
Note: Since HTML forms only support
POST
andGET
,PUT
andDELETE
methods will be spoofed by automatically adding a_method
hidden field to your form.
You may also open forms that point to named routes or controller actions:
echo Form::open(['route' => 'route.name'])
echo Form::open(['action' => 'Controller@method'])
You may pass in route parameters as well:
echo Form::open(['route' => ['route.name', $user->id]])
echo Form::open(['action' => ['Controller@method', $user->id]])
If your form is going to accept file uploads, add a files
option to your array:
echo Form::open(['url' => 'foo/bar', 'files' => true])
CSRF Protection
Adding The CSRF Token To A Form
Laravel provides an easy method of protecting your application from cross-site request forgeries. First, a random token is placed in your user's session. If you use the Form::open
method with POST
, PUT
or DELETE
the CSRF token will be added to your forms as a hidden field automatically. Alternatively, if you wish to generate the HTML for the hidden CSRF field, you may use the token
method:
echo Form::token();
Attaching The CSRF Filter To A Route
Route::post('profile', ['before' => 'csrf', function() {
//
}]);
Form Model Binding
Opening A Model Form
Often, you will want to populate a form based on the contents of a model. To do so, use the Form::model
method:
echo Form::model($user, ['route' => ['user.update', $user->id]])
Now, when you generate a form element, like a text input, the model's value matching the field's name will automatically be set as the field value. So, for example, for a text input named email
, the user model's email
attribute would be set as the value. However, there's more! If there is an item in the Session flash data matching the input name, that will take precedence over the model's value. So, the priority looks like this:
- Session Flash Data (Old Input)
- Explicitly Passed Value
- Model Attribute Data
This allows you to quickly build forms that not only bind to model values, but easily re-populate if there is a validation error on the server!
Note: When using
Form::model
, be sure to close your form withForm::close
!
Form Model Accessors
Laravel's Eloquent Accessor allow you to manipulate a model attribute before returning it. This can be extremely useful for defining global date formats, for example. However, the date format used for display might not match the date format used for form elements. You can solve this by creating two separate accessors: a standard accessor, and/or a form accessor.
To define a form accessor, create a formFooAttribute
method on your model where Foo
is the "camel" cased name of the column you wish to access. In this example, we'll define an accessor for the date_of_birth
attribute. The accessor will automatically be called by the HTML Form Builder when attempting to pre-fill a form field when Form::model()
is used.
Labels
Generating A Label Element
echo Form::label('email', 'E-Mail Address');
Specifying Extra HTML Attributes
echo Form::label('email', 'E-Mail Address', ['class' => 'awesome']);
Note: After creating a label, any form element you create with a name matching the label name will automatically receive an ID matching the label name as well.
Text, Text Area, Password & Hidden Fields
Generating A Text Input
echo Form::text('username');
Specifying A Default Value
echo Form::text('email', 'example@gmail.com');
Note: The hidden and textarea methods have the same signature as the text method.
Generating A Password Input
echo Form::password('password', ['class' => 'awesome']);
Generating Other Inputs
echo Form::email($name, $value = null, $attributes = []);
echo Form::file($name, $attributes = []);
Checkboxes and Radio Buttons
Generating A Checkbox Or Radio Input
echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value');
echo Form::radio('name', 'value');
Generating A Checkbox Or Radio Input That Is Checked
echo Form::checkbox('name', 'value', true);
echo Form::radio('name', 'value', true);
Number
Generating A Number Input
echo Form::number('name', 'value');
Date
Generating A Date Input
echo Form::date('name', \Carbon\Carbon::now());
File Input
Generating A File Input
echo Form::file('image');
Note: The form must have been opened with the
files
option set totrue
.
Drop-Down Lists
Generating A Drop-Down List
echo Form::select('size', ['L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small']);
Generating A Drop-Down List With Selected Default
echo Form::select('size', ['L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small'], 'S');
Generating a Drop-Down List With an Empty Placeholder
This will create an <option>
element with no value as the very first option of your drop-down.
echo Form::select('size', ['L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small'], null, ['placeholder' => 'Pick a size...']);
Generating A Grouped List
echo Form::select('animal', [
'Cats' => ['leopard' => 'Leopard'],
'Dogs' => ['spaniel' => 'Spaniel'],
]);
Generating A Drop-Down List With A Range
echo Form::selectRange('number', 10, 20);
Generating A List With Month Names
echo Form::selectMonth('month');
Buttons
Generating A Submit Button
echo Form::submit('Click Me!');
Generating A Button
echo Form::button('Click Me!');
Note: Default value for third parameter is true. As default, any value that you pass will be escaped.
echo Form::button('<i class="fa fa-trash><i> Destroy"', ['class' => 'btn btn-danger'], false);
Custom Macros
Registering A Form Macro
It's easy to define your own custom Form class helpers called "macros". Here's how it works. First, simply register the macro with a given name and a Closure:
Form::macro('myField', function() {
return '<input type="awesome">';
});
Now you can call your macro using its name:
Calling A Custom Form Macro
echo Form::myField();
Registering A Custom Component
Custom Components are similar to Custom Macros, however instead of using a closure to generate the resulting HTML, Components utilize Laravel Blade Templates. Components can be incredibly useful for developers who use Twitter Bootstrap, or any other front-end framework, which requires additional markup to properly render forms.
Let's build a Form Component for a simple Bootstrap text input. You might consider registering your Components inside a Service Provider's boot
method.
Form::component('bsText', 'components.form.text', ['name', 'value', 'attributes']);
Notice how we reference a view path of components.form.text
. Also, the array we provided is a sort of method signature for your Component. This defines the names of the variables that will be passed to your view. Your view might look something like this:
// resources/views/components/form/text.blade.php
<div class="form-group">
{{ Form::label($name, null, ['class' => 'control-label']) }}
{{ Form::text($name, $value, array_merge(['class' => 'form-control'], $attributes)) }}
</div>
Custom Components can also be created on the
Html
facade in the same fashion as on theForm
facade.
Providing Default Values
When defining your Custom Component's method signature, you can provide default values simply by giving your array items values, like so:
Form::component('bsText', 'components.form.text', ['name', 'value' => null, 'attributes' => []]);
Calling A Custom Form Component
Using our example from above (specifically, the one with default values provided), you can call your Custom Component like so:
{{ Form::bsText('first_name') }}
This would result in something like the following HTML output:
<div class="form-group">
<label for="first_name">First Name</label>
<input type="text" name="first_name" value="" class="form-control">
</div>
link_to
Generate a HTML link to the given URL.
echo link_to('foo/bar', $title = null, $attributes = [], $secure = null);
link_to_asset
Generate a HTML link to the given asset.
echo link_to_asset('foo/bar.zip', $title = null, $attributes = [], $secure = null);
link_to_route
Generate a HTML link to the given named route.
echo link_to_route('route.name', $title = null, $parameters = [], $attributes = []);
link_to_action
Generate a HTML link to the given controller action.
echo link_to_action('HomeController@getIndex', $title = null, $parameters = [], $attributes = []);