# SimpleForm - Rails forms made easy. [![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/plataformatec/simple_form.png)](http://travis-ci.org/plataformatec/simple_form) **SimpleForm** aims to be as flexible as possible while helping you with powerful components to create your forms. The basic goal of simple form is to not touch your way of defining the layout, letting you find the better design for your eyes. Most of the DSL was inherited from Formtastic, which we are thankful for and should make you feel right at home. INFO: This README is [also available in a friendly navigable format](http://simple-form.plataformatec.com.br/). ## Installation Add it to your Gemfile: `gem 'simple_form'` Run the following command to install it: `bundle install` Run the generator: `rails generate simple_form:install` Also, if you want to use the country select, you will need the [country_select gem](https://rubygems.org/gems/country_select), add it to your Gemfile: `gem 'country_select'` And you are ready to go. Since this branch aims Rails 3 support, if you want to use it with Rails 2.3 you should check this branch: `http://github.com/plataformatec/simple_form/tree/v1.0` ## Configuration **SimpleForm** has several configuration options. You can read and change them in the initializer created by **SimpleForm**, so if you haven't executed the command below yet, please do: `rails generate simple_form:install` ### Twitter Bootstrap **SimpleForm** 2.0 can be easily integrated to the [Twitter Bootstrap](http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap). To do that you have to use the `bootstrap` option in the install generator, like this: `rails generate simple_form:install --bootstrap` You have to be sure that you added a copy of the [Twitter Bootstrap](http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap) assets on your application. For more information see the generator output, our [example application code](https://github.com/rafaelfranca/simple_form-bootstrap) and [the live example app](http://simple-form-bootstrap.plataformatec.com.br/). **NOTE**: **SimpleForm** integration requires Twitter Bootstrap version 2.0 or higher. ### The wrappers API With **SimpleForm** you can configure how your components will be rendered using the wrappers API. The syntax looks like this: ```ruby config.wrappers :tag => :div, :class => :input, :error_class => :field_with_errors do |b| # Form extensions b.use :html5 b.optional :pattern b.use :maxlength b.use :placeholder b.use :readonly # Form components b.use :label_input b.use :hint, :tag => :span, :class => :hint b.use :error, :tag => :span, :class => :error end ``` The _Form components_ will generate the form tags like labels, inputs, hints or errors contents. The _Form extensions_ are used to generate some attributes or perform some lookups on the model to add extra information to your components. You can create new _Form components_ using the wrappers API as in the following example: ```ruby config.wrappers do |b| b.use :placeholder b.use :label_input b.use :tag => :div, :class => 'separator' do |component| component.use :hint, :tag => :span, :class => :hint component.use :error, :tag => :span, :class => :error end end ``` this will wrap the hint and error components within a `div` tag using the class `'separator'`. If you want to customize the custom _Form components_ on demand you can give it a name like this: ```ruby config.wrappers do |b| b.use :placeholder b.use :label_input b.use :my_wrapper, :tag => :div, :class => 'separator' do |component| component.use :hint, :tag => :span, :class => :hint component.use :error, :tag => :span, :class => :error end end ``` and now you can pass options to your `input` calls to customize the `:my_wrapper` _Form component_. ```ruby # Completely turns off the custom wrapper f.input :name, :my_wrapper => false # Configure the html f.input :name, :my_wrapper_html => { :id => 'special_id' } # Configure the tag f.input :name, :my_wrapper_tag => :p ``` You can also define more than one wrapper and pick one to render in a specific form or input. To define another wrapper you have to give it a name, as the follow: ```ruby config.wrappers :small do |b| b.use :placeholder b.use :label_input end ``` and use it in this way: ```ruby # Specifying to whole form simple_form_for @user, :wrapper => :small do |f| f.input :name end # Specifying to one input simple_form_for @user do |f| f.input :name, :wrapper => :small end ``` **SimpleForm** also allows you to use optional elements. For instance, let's suppose you want to use hints or placeholders, but you don't want them to be generated automatically. You can set their default values to `false` or use the `optional` method. Is preferible to use the `optional` syntax: ```ruby config.wrappers :placeholder => false do |b| b.use :placeholder b.use :label_input b.use :tag => :div, :class => 'separator' do |component| component.optional :hint, :tag => :span, :class => :hint component.use :error, :tag => :span, :class => :error end end ``` By setting it as `optional`, a hint will only be generated when `:hint => true` is explicitly used. The same for placehold. ## Usage **SimpleForm** was designed to be customized as you need to. Basically it's a stack of components that are invoked to create a complete html input for you, which by default contains label, hints, errors and the input itself. It does not aim to create a lot of different logic from the default Rails form helpers, as they do a great work by themselves. Instead, **SimpleForm** acts as a DSL and just maps your input type (retrieved from the column definition in the database) to an specific helper method. To start using **SimpleForm** you just have to use the helper it provides: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username %> <%= f.input :password %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` This will generate an entire form with labels for user name and password as well, and render errors by default when you render the form with invalid data (after submitting for example). You can overwrite the default label by passing it to the input method. You can also add a hint or even a placeholder: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username, :label => 'Your username please' %> <%= f.input :password, :hint => 'No special characters.' %> <%= f.input :email, :placeholder => 'user@domain.com' %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` In some cases you may want to disable labels, hints or error. Or you may want to configure the html of any of them: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username, :label_html => { :class => 'my_class' } %> <%= f.input :password, :hint => false, :error_html => { :id => 'password_error'} %> <%= f.input :password_confirmation, :label => false %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` It is also possible to pass any html attribute straight to the input, by using the `:input_html` option, for instance: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username, :input_html => { :class => 'special' } %> <%= f.input :password, :input_html => { :maxlength => 20 } %> <%= f.input :remember_me, :input_html => { :value => '1' } %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` If you want to pass the same options to all inputs in the form (for example, a default class), you can use the `:defaults` option in `simple_form_for`. Specific options in `input` call will overwrite the defaults: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user, :defaults => { :input_html => { :class => 'default_class' } } do |f| %> <%= f.input :username, :input_html => { :class => 'special' } %> <%= f.input :password, :input_html => { :maxlength => 20 } %> <%= f.input :remember_me, :input_html => { :value => '1' } %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` Since **SimpleForm** generates a wrapper div around your label and input by default, you can pass any html attribute to that wrapper as well using the `:wrapper_html` option, like so: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username, :wrapper_html => { :class => 'username' } %> <%= f.input :password, :wrapper_html => { :id => 'password' } %> <%= f.input :remember_me, :wrapper_html => { :class => 'options' } %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` By default all inputs are required, which means an * is prepended to the label, but you can disable it in any input you want: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :name, :required => false %> <%= f.input :username %> <%= f.input :password %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` **SimpleForm** also lets you overwrite the default input type it creates: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username %> <%= f.input :password %> <%= f.input :description, :as => :text %> <%= f.input :accepts, :as => :radio_buttons %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` So instead of a checkbox for the *accepts* attribute, you'll have a pair of radio buttons with yes/no labels and a text area instead of a text field for the description. You can also render boolean attributes using `:as => :select` to show a dropdown. It is also possible to give the `:disabled` option to **SimpleForm**, and it'll automatically mark the wrapper as disabled with a css class, so you can style labels, hints and other components inside the wrapper as well: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username, :disabled => true, :hint => 'You cannot change your username.' %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` **SimpleForm** accepts same options as their corresponding input type helper in Rails: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :date_of_birth, :as => :date, :start_year => Date.today.year - 90, :end_year => Date.today.year - 12, :discard_day => true, :order => [:month, :year] %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` **SimpleForm** also allows you to use label, hint, input_field, error and full_error helpers (please take a look at the rdocs for each method for more info): ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.label :username %> <%= f.input_field :username %> <%= f.hint 'No special characters, please!' %> <%= f.error :username, :id => 'user_name_error' %> <%= f.full_error :token %> <%= f.submit 'Save' %> <% end %> ``` Any extra option passed to these methods will be rendered as html option. ### Collections And what if you want to create a select containing the age from 18 to 60 in your form? You can do it overriding the `:collection` option: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :user %> <%= f.input :age, :collection => 18..60 %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` Collections can be arrays or ranges, and when a `:collection` is given the `:select` input will be rendered by default, so we don't need to pass the `:as => :select` option. Other types of collection are `:radio_buttons` and `:check_boxes`. Those are added by **SimpleForm** to Rails set of form helpers (read Extra Helpers session below for more information). Collection inputs accept two other options beside collections: * _label_method_ => the label method to be applied to the collection to retrieve the label (use this instead of the `text_method` option in `collection_select`) * _value_method_ => the value method to be applied to the collection to retrieve the value Those methods are useful to manipulate the given collection. Both of these options also accept lambda/procs in case you want to calculate the value or label in a special way eg. custom translation. All other options given are sent straight to the underlying helper. For example, you can give prompt as: ```ruby f.input :age, :collection => 18..60, :prompt => "Select your age" ``` It is also possible to create grouped collection selects, that will use the html *optgroup* tags, like this: ```ruby f.input :country_id, :collection => @continents, :as => :grouped_select, :group_method => :countries ``` Grouped collection inputs accept the same `:label_method` and `:value_method` options, which will be used to retrieve label/value attributes for the `option` tags. Besides that, you can give: * _group_method_ => the method to be called on the given collection to generate the options for each group (required) * _group_label_method_ => the label method to be applied on the given collection to retrieve the label for the _optgroup_ (**SimpleForm** will attempt to guess the best one the same way it does with `:label_method`) ### Priority **SimpleForm** also supports `:time_zone` and `:country`. When using such helpers, you can give `:priority` as option to select which time zones and/or countries should be given higher priority: ```ruby f.input :residence_country, :priority => [ "Brazil" ] f.input :time_zone, :priority => /US/ ``` Those values can also be configured with a default value to be used site use through the `SimpleForm.country_priority` and `SimpleForm.time_zone_priority` helpers. Note: While using `country_select` if you want to restrict to only a subset of countries for a specific drop down then you may use the `:collection` option: ```ruby f.input :shipping_country, :priority => [ "Brazil" ], :collection => [ "Australia", "Brazil", "New Zealand"] ``` ### Wrapper **SimpleForm** allows you to add a wrapper which contains the label, error, hint and input. The first step is to configure a wrapper tag: ```ruby SimpleForm.wrapper_tag = :p ``` And now, you no longer need to wrap your `f.input` calls anymore: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :username %> <%= f.input :password %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` ## Associations To deal with associations, **SimpleForm** can generate select inputs, a series of radios buttons or check boxes. Lets see how it works: imagine you have a user model that belongs to a company and has_and_belongs_to_many roles. The structure would be something like: ```ruby class User < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :company has_and_belongs_to_many :roles end class Company < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :users end class Role < ActiveRecord::Base has_and_belongs_to_many :users end ``` Now we have the user form: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :name %> <%= f.association :company %> <%= f.association :roles %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` Simple enough, right? This is going to render a `:select` input for choosing the `:company`, and another `:select` input with `:multiple` option for the `:roles`. You can, of course, change it to use radio buttons and check boxes as well: ```ruby f.association :company, :as => :radio_buttons f.association :roles, :as => :check_boxes ``` The association helper just invokes `input` under the hood, so all options available to `:select`, `:radio_buttons` and `:check_boxes` are also available to association. Additionally, you can specify the collection by hand, all together with the prompt: ```ruby f.association :company, :collection => Company.active.all(:order => 'name'), :prompt => "Choose a Company" ``` ## Buttons All web forms need buttons, right? **SimpleForm** wraps them in the DSL, acting like a proxy: ```erb <%= simple_form_for @user do |f| %> <%= f.input :name %> <%= f.button :submit %> <% end %> ``` The above will simply call submit. You choose to use it or not, it's just a question of taste. ## Wrapping Rails Form Helpers Say you wanted to use a rails form helper but still wrap it in **SimpleForm** goodness? You can, by calling input with a block like so: ```erb <%= f.input :role do %> <%= f.select :role, Role.all.map { |r| [r.name, r.id, { :class => r.company.id }] }, :include_blank => true %> <% end %> ``` In the above example, we're taking advantage of Rails 3's select method that allows us to pass in a hash of additional attributes for each option. ## Extra helpers **SimpleForm** also comes with some extra helpers you can use inside rails default forms without relying on `simple_form_for` helper. They are listed below. ### Simple Fields For Wrapper to use simple form inside a default rails form ```ruby form_for @user do |f| f.simple_fields_for :posts do |posts_form| # Here you have all simple_form methods available posts_form.input :title end end ``` ### Collection Radio Buttons Creates a collection of radio inputs with labels associated (same API as `collection_select`): ```ruby form_for @user do |f| f.collection_radio_buttons :options, [[true, 'Yes'] ,[false, 'No']], :first, :last end ``` ```html ``` ### Collection Check Boxes Creates a collection of check boxes with labels associated (same API as `collection_select`): ```ruby form_for @user do |f| f.collection_check_boxes :options, [[true, 'Yes'] ,[false, 'No']], :first, :last end ``` ```html ``` To use this with associations in your model, you can do the following: ```ruby form_for @user do |f| f.collection_check_boxes :role_ids, Role.all, :id, :name # using :roles here is not going to work. end ``` ## Mappings/Inputs available **SimpleForm** comes with a lot of default mappings: ``` Mapping Input Column Type boolean check box boolean string text field string email email field string with name matching "email" url url field string with name matching "url" tel tel field string with name matching "phone" password password field string with name matching "password" search search - text text area text file file field string, responding to file methods hidden hidden field - integer number field integer float number field float decimal number field decimal range range field - datetime datetime select datetime/timestamp date date select date time time select time select collection select belongs_to/has_many/has_and_belongs_to_many associations radio_buttons collection radio buttons belongs_to check_boxes collection check boxes has_many/has_and_belongs_to_many associations country country select string with name matching "country" time_zone time zone select string with name matching "time_zone" ``` ## Custom inputs It is very easy to add custom inputs to **SimpleForm**. For instance, if you want to add a custom input that extends the string one, you just need to add this file: ```ruby # app/inputs/currency_input.rb class CurrencyInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::Base def input "$ #{@builder.text_field(attribute_name, input_html_options)}".html_safe end end ``` And use it in your views: ```ruby f.input :money, :as => :currency ``` You can also redefine existing **SimpleForm** inputs by creating a new class with the same name. For instance, if you want to wrap date/time/datetime in a div, you can do: ```ruby # app/inputs/date_time_input.rb class DateTimeInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::DateTimeInput def input "
#{super}
".html_safe end end ``` ## Custom form builder You can create a custom form builder that uses **SimpleForm**. Create a helper method that calls `simple_form_for` with a custom builder: ```ruby def custom_form_for(object, *args, &block) options = args.extract_options! simple_form_for(object, *(args << options.merge(:builder => CustomFormBuilder)), &block) end ``` Create a form builder class that inherits from `SimpleForm::FormBuilder`. ```ruby class CustomFormBuilder < SimpleForm::FormBuilder def input(attribute_name, options = {}, &block) options[:input_html].merge! :class => 'custom' super end end ``` ## I18n **SimpleForm** uses all power of I18n API to lookup labels, hints and placeholders. To customize your forms you can create a locale file like this: ```yaml en: simple_form: labels: user: username: 'User name' password: 'Password' hints: user: username: 'User name to sign in.' password: 'No special characters, please.' placeholders: user: username: 'Your username' password: '****' ``` And your forms will use this information to render the components for you. **SimpleForm** also lets you be more specific, separating lookups through actions for labels, hints and placeholders. Let's say you want a different label for new and edit actions, the locale file would be something like: ```yaml en: simple_form: labels: user: username: 'User name' password: 'Password' edit: username: 'Change user name' password: 'Change password' ``` This way **SimpleForm** will figure out the right translation for you, based on the action being rendered. And to be a little bit DRYer with your locale file, you can specify defaults for all models under the 'defaults' key: ```yaml en: simple_form: labels: defaults: username: 'User name' password: 'Password' new: username: 'Choose a user name' hints: defaults: username: 'User name to sign in.' password: 'No special characters, please.' placeholders: defaults: username: 'Your username' password: '****' ``` **SimpleForm** will always look for a default attribute translation under the "defaults" key if no specific is found inside the model key.Note that this syntax is different from 1.x. To migrate to the new syntax, just move "labels.#{attribute}" to "labels.defaults.#{attribute}". In addition, **SimpleForm** will fallback to default human_attribute_name from Rails when no other translation is found for labels. Finally, you can also overwrite any label, hint or placeholder inside your view, just by passing the option manually. This way the I18n lookup will be skipped. **SimpleForm** also has support for translating options in collection helpers. For instance, given a User with a `:gender` attribute, you might want to create a select box showing translated labels that would post either `male` or `female` as value. With **SimpleForm** you could create an input like this: ```ruby f.input :gender, :collection => [:male, :female] ``` And **SimpleForm** will try a lookup like this in your locale file, to find the right labels to show: ```yaml en: simple_form: options: user: gender: male: 'Male' female: "Female' ``` You can also use the `defaults` key as you would do with labels, hints and placeholders. It is important to notice that **SimpleForm** will only do the lookup for options if you give a collection composed of symbols only. This is to avoid constant lookups to I18n. It's also possible to translate buttons, using Rails' built-in I18n support: ```yaml en: helpers: submit: user: create: "Add %{model}" update: "Save Changes" ``` There are other options that can be configured through I18n API, such as required text and boolean. Be sure to check our locale file or the one copied to your application after you run `rails generate simple_form:install`. ## HTML 5 Notice By default, **SimpleForm** will generate input field types and attributes that are supported in HTML5, but are considered invalid HTML for older document types such as HTML4 or XHTML1.0. The HTML5 extensions include the new field types such as email, number, search, url, tel, and the new attributes such as required, autofocus, maxlength, min, max, step. Most browsers will not care, but some of the newer ones - in particular Chrome 10+ - use the required attribute to force a value into an input and will prevent form submission without it. Depending on the design of the application this may or may not be desired. In many cases it can break existing UI's. It is possible to disable all HTML 5 extensions in **SimpleForm** with the following configuration: ```ruby SimpleForm.html5 = false # default is true ``` If you want to have all other HTML 5 features, such as the new field types, you can disable only the browser validation: ```ruby SimpleForm.browser_validations = false # default is true ``` This option adds a new `novalidate` property to the form, instructing it to skip all HTML 5 validation. The inputs will still be generated with the required and other attributes, that might help you to use some generic javascript validation. You can also add `novalidate` to a specific form by setting the option on the form itself: ```erb <%= simple_form_for(resource, :html => {:novalidate => true}) do |form| %> ``` Please notice that any of the configurations above will disable the `placeholder` component, which is an HTML 5 feature. We believe most of the newest browsers are handling this attribute fine, and if they aren't, any plugin you use would take of using the placeholder attribute to do it. However, you can disable it if you want, by removing the placeholder component from the components list in **SimpleForm** configuration file. ## Information ### Google Group If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please use the Google Group instead of the GitHub Issues tracker: http://groups.google.com/group/plataformatec-simpleform ### RDocs You can view the **SimpleForm** documentation in RDoc format here: http://rubydoc.info/github/plataformatec/simple_form/master/frames If you need to use **SimpleForm** with Rails 2.3, you can always run `gem server` from the command line after you install the gem to access the old documentation. ### Bug reports If you discover any bugs, feel free to create an issue on GitHub. Please add as much information as possible to help us fixing the possible bug. We also encourage you to help even more by forking and sending us a pull request. https://github.com/plataformatec/simple_form/issues ## Maintainers * José Valim (https://github.com/josevalim) * Carlos Antonio da Silva (https://github.com/carlosantoniodasilva) * Rafael Mendonça França (https://github.com/rafaelfranca) ## License MIT License. Copyright 2012 Plataforma Tecnologia. http://blog.plataformatec.com.br