Intermediate Tutorial - Step 3: Default Values Print

Intelligent handling of defaults is another one of FormBuilder's real strengths. It's another painful task that FormBuilder makes very easy.

Let's assume you want to create a form that allows a customer to update their contact information, as basically every company must do. This info is stored in a database, and you want to create an easy interface to it.

Doing so is easy:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use DBI;
use CGI::FormBuilder;

$user = $ENV{REMOTE_USER};        # from .htaccess
$dbh  = DBI->connect(...);        # your db here
$sth  = $dbh->prepare("select * from pers where user = $user");
$defs = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;

@fields = qw(first_name last_name email phone
             address city state zip mail_list);

$form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
             method => 'post',
             fields => \@fields,
             values => $defs,     # values from hashref
             required => 'ALL'
        );

# Setup attributes for some fields
$form->field(name => 'state', options => \@states);
$form->field(name => 'zip', size => 10, maxlength => 10);
$form->field(name => 'mail_list', options => [qw/Yes No/]);

# No confirmation to demonstrate stickiness
print $form->render(header => 1);

You should really see this in action before continuing. Notice how the CGI values override the defaults from the database across multiple submissions.

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