Advanced Tutorial - Step 10: Custom Messages Print

The last topic we'll cover is custom messaging. Most of the time, the built-in FormBuilder messages are sufficient. However, you may be writing a multi-lingual application, or something else that requires precise control over messages.

FormBuilder's messaging system is very easy to understand. Each message is given a unique tag by FormBuilder. For example, the message that is used in a JavaScript alert about an invalid select list is called js_invalid_select.

Each message you want to customize is specified to the messages parameter to new(), along with what you want the message to say:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::FormBuilder;

$form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
             fields => [qw/name email phone/],
             messages => {
                js_invalid_start  => 'There were %s errors found:',
                js_invalid_text   => '- The "%s" field was invalid',
                js_invalid_end    => 'For more help, click the "Help" button',
                form_invalid_text => 'This field is missing or invalid',
             }
        );

print $form->render(header => 1);

#
# messages.en - messages for English
#
js_invalid_start    There were %s errors found:
js_invalid_text     - The "%s" field was invalid
js_invalid_end      For more help, click the "Help" button
form_invalid_text   This field is missing or invalid

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::FormBuilder;

$lang = $ENV{HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE} || 'en';      # language

$form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
             fields => [qw/name email phone/],
             messages => "messages.$lang",       # messages file  
        );

print $form->render(header => 1);

If you're interested in custom messages, please view the complete list of custom message tags.

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