PHP Forms - Code by hand or use tool? Which tool?

I'm starting a new project where I am going to be using more PHP forms/fields/processing.

Do most folks here code PHP forms by hand (as I do), or do you use some tool or CMS that makes this task easier? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

I do it by hand because sometimes generators can be generally confusing - if you have 0 knowledge making forms you can google and find a script and modify it because they are really easy to understand.

 

Hand, generators are good if you don't know what your up to, but they can never get it exactly right, the author has never thought of everything, however, that's not to say its not a good idea to automate the process, you could make templates of different form elements and call them with php instead of the whole tedius business of writing every element.....something like

<?
class forms
{
	var $html;
	
	function start( $method, $extra, $action = null, $name = null )
	{
		if($name)
		{
			$namet = "name = $name ";
		}
		$this->html .= "<form action=\"$action\" method=\"$method\" $namet $extra>\n";
	}
	function input_text($name, $value, $id = null)
	{
	 	if(!$id)
	 	{
			$idt = "id = $id";
		}
		$this->html .= "<input type=\"text\" name=\"$name\" $idt />\n";
	}
	function submit($value, $id = null, $name = null)
	{
		$this->html .= "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"$value\">\n";	
	}
	function select($array, $mode = null, $id = null)
	{
	 	if ($array)
	 	{
			$this->html .= "<select name=\"$name\" id=\"$id\">\n";
		}
		foreach ($array as $key => $value)
		{
			$this->html .= "<option name=\"$key\" value=\"$value\">$value</option>\n";
		}	
	}
	function end()
	{
		$this->html.= "</form>\n";
		echo $this->html;
	}
}

$array = array
(
"First Select Value" => "First Select Text",
"Second Select Value" => "Second Select Text"
);

$form = &new forms;
$form->start("post", "onclick='javascript: whatever();'");
$form->input_text("nameof", "valueof");
$form->select($array);
$form->submit("Submit");
$form->end();

PHP:

It depends how you like to work I spose, I have never used anything like that before, but if I were presented with an overwhelming amount of forms to write I most probably would write something like that

 

I have a forum by hand and I think that it might be better using a prepared one.
Though to make it in the first place took me 3 days, I still have many features missing and have spent a lot of time since them on various features that you are probably not aware of now.
Those include:
1. making it SEO friendly.
2. tracking users.
3. blocking certain texts and or/users.
4. uploading images.
5. adding icons.
6. quoting from other messages.
...

So the basic stuff is fairly easy, but there are tons of features that will take forever to code.
Never tried using a prepared forum, but played a bit with phpbb, which looks good. Only problem is that if you need to change it - it will take long time and I can easily perform changes on my code.

 

Here's the functions I'm using in my current project. I will probably turn it into a class at some point, unless someone else wants to do that.

<?php
/***************************************************************************
  * includes/functions/form_gen.php - HTML form generation functions      **
  * Copyright (C) 2007 Miles Richardson                                   **
  * created 2/18/07 by miles                                              **
                                                                          **
  ----------- TODO -----------                                            **
    * possibly turn it into a class?                                      **
    * maybe improve select box functionality                              **
****************************************************************************/


// openForm - opens a form
   # $action: form action (a file)
   # $method: form method, post|get
   # $name: name of form
   # $att: defines additional attributes, takes an array. e.h. array('target=_blank', 'id=formid')
function openForm($action, $method, $name, $att)
{
	$out = '<form';
	$out .= (!empty($action)) ? ' action="' . $action . '"' : '';
	$out .= (!empty($method)) ? ' method="' . $method . '"' : '';
	$out .= (!empty($name)) ? ' name="' . $name . '"' : '';
	if(is_array($att))
	{
		foreach($att as $k)
		{
			$k = explode('=', $k);
			if( (!empty($k[0])) && (!empty($k[1])) )
			{
				$out .= ' ' . $k[0] . '="' . $k[1] . '"';
			}
		}
	}
	$out .= '>';
	return $out;
}

// closeForm - closes a form
function closeForm()
{
	echo '</form>';
}

// genField - generates a form field
   # $f_type: input|textarea|label|fieldset|legend|select|optgroup|option|button
   # $att: defines attributes, takes an array. e.g. array('value=foo', 'name=bar')
   # $wrap: if applicable (all except button, input, option) what to wrap around (most often the value)
function genField($f_type, $att, $wrap)
{
	$out = '<' . $f_type;
	
	foreach($att as $k)
	{
		$k = explode('=', $k);
		if( (!empty($k[0])) && (!empty($k[1])) )
		{
			$out .= ' ' . $k[0] . '="' . $k[1] . '"';
		}
	}
	if($f_type == 'input' | 'button')
	{
		$out .= ' />';
	}
	else {
		$out .= '>';
		if(!empty($wrap))
		{
			if(is_array($wrap))
			{
				foreach($wrap as $k)
				{
					$out .= $k . '';
				}
			}
			else {
				$out .= $wrap;
			}
		}
		$out .= '</' . $f_type . '>';
	}
	return $out;
}

// open form
openForm($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], 'post', 'form_name', array('id=form_id', 'target=_blank'));

// text input field, value username, name username
$att = array('type=text', 'value=username', 'name=username');
echo genField('input', $att, '');

echo '<br /><br />';

// textarea with 55 columns, 4 rows, value Hello World
$att = array('cols=55', 'rows=4');
echo genField('textarea', $att, '');

echo '<br /><br />';

// option set
$options = array(
				genField('option', array('value=o1'), 'Option 1'), 
				genField('option', array('value=o2', 'selected=selected'), 'Option 2'), 
				genField('option', array('value=o3'), 'Option 3')
				);

$att = array('name=select_box');
echo genField('select', $att, $options);

// close form
closeForm();

?>

PHP:

 

I do it by hand. But if you need a basic generator to get started, this on is a good start: http://www.tele-pro.co.uk/scripts/contact_form/

If you're new to this, I recommend using a form generator to start, and then modifying.

 

Oh, I must have been really tired when writing the above message.
I thought you are referring to forums not forms. Form can be done by hand for sure.

 

How about the validation part? I found a form class that includes validation but I haven't ran into others so I use this one but i'd like to know if there are other options out there to do the validation.

 

if its going to get complex, ill sometimes do a mock up in a wysiwyg editor then strip out all the unneeded bits in notepad2 and go from there..