MVC model - correct way to add fields at runtime?

[AJH]

I'm having difficulty injecting new fields to a model's form at runtime.  I have a separate configuration area for field definitions, and I need to add those fields to a model's for at run time.

So far, I have overridden the preprocessForm method of my model, and have kluged together a proof that the field will appear in the view if create a new SimpleXMLElement, and call $form->setField(...) with that xml definition.

What sees more natural is to instantiate the correct JFormField class, and attach it to the form object, but I don't seem to see any API to do so.

Any suggestions?

[KHarmer]

I'm intrigued, but confused about what you're asking. Can you explain a bit more?

K...

[AJH]

I apologize for the somewhat incoherent question I originally posted.  It was late :-)

My component allows for new fields to be defined by the end-user for any object that supports it within the component.

I accomplished this by subclassing JModelAdmin, and making all of my models inherit from my new base admin model.  Within this class, I override the 'preprocessForm' method that is called by the MVC framework and add the custom fields into the form.  It's working great, except I'm curious if there is a better way of doing it.

Here's a snippet from that method. This block of code is looping over all custom fields that are configured for the object.  What seems a bit kludgy is how I have to create an XML representation of the fields and then shove them into the form with the ->setField(..) call.  It seems that you should be able to use the JField objects and add them to the form.

// this defines how the field will be rendered.

$fieldType = 'inputbox';

$fieldOptions = '';

$fieldFormat = '';

switch ($field->typecode)

{

case 'BIT':

$fieldType = 'radio';

$fieldOptions = '<option value="0">JNO</option><option value="1">JYES</option>';

break;

case 'TEXT':

$fieldType = 'textarea';

break;

case 'DATE':

$fieldType = 'calendar';

break;

case 'DATETIME':

$fieldType = 'calendar';

$fieldFormat = 'format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"';

break;

}

$xml = sprintf('<fieldset name="udf"><field type="%s" name="udfId%d" label="%s" description="%s" %s>%s</field></fieldset>'

, $fieldType

, $field->id

, htmlspecialchars($field->code)

, htmlspecialchars($field->description)

, $fieldFormat

, $fieldOptions);

// this assigns the stored UDF data into the data that is bound to the form

$data->{'udfId'.$field->id} = $field->data;

$xmlElement = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);

$form->setField($xmlElement);

[Adam Rifat]

Hi,

For what its worth I find myself doing the same thing on a component I am developing.

It would be nice if there was an api for this but it doesn't seem there is one.

I wonder how easy it would be to add...or if its planned?

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Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

AJH <aaron...@gmail.com> wrote:

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