NAME
    CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM - Help validate CGI::Application
    run modes using Data::FormValidator

SYNOPSIS
     use CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM; 

     my  $results = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile') || return $self->check_rm_error_page;

     # Optionally, you can pass additional options to HTML::FillInForm->fill()
     my $results = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile', { fill_password => 0 })
            || return $self->check_rm_error_page;

DESCRIPTION
    CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM helps to validate web forms when
    using the CGI::Application framework and the Data::FormValidator module.

  check_rm()
    Validates a form displayed in a run mode with a "Data::FormValidator"
    profile, returning the results and possibly an a version of the form
    page with errors marked on the page.

    In scalar context, it returns simply the Data::FormValidator::Results
    object which conveniently evaluates to false in a boolean context if
    there were any missing or invalide fields. This is the recommended
    calling convention.

    In list context, it returns the results object followed by the error
    page, if any. This was the previous recommended syntax, and was used
    like this:

     my ($results,$err_page) = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile');
     return $err_page if $err_page;

    The inputs are as follows:

    Return run mode
        This run mode will be used to generate an error page, with the form
        re-filled (using HTML::FillInForm) and error messages in the form.
        This page will be returned as a second output parameter.

        The errors will be passed in as a hash reference, which can then be
        handed to a templating system for display. Following the above
        example, the form_display() routine might look like:

         sub form_display {
            my $self = shift;
            my $errs = shift;                             # <-- prepared for form reloading
            my $t = $self->load_tmpl('form_display.html');
            $t->param($errs) if $errs;                    # <-- Also necessary. 
            # ...

         }

        The fields should be prepared using Data::FormValidator's built-in
        support for returning error messages as a hash reference. See the
        documentation for "msgs" in the Data::FormValidator::Results
        documentation.

        Returning the errors with a prefix, such as "err_" is recommended.
        Using "any_errors" is also recommended to make it easy to display a
        general "we have some errors" message.

        HTML::Template users may want to pass "die_on_bad_params=>0" to the
        HTML::Template constructor to prevent the presence of the "err_"
        tokens from triggering an error when the errors are *not* being
        displayed.

    Data::FormValidator profile
        This can either be provided as a hash reference, or as the name of a
        CGI::Application method that will return such a hash reference.

    HTML::FillInForm options (optional)
        If desired, you can pass additional options to the HTML::FillInForm
        "fill" method through a hash reference. See an example above.

    Additionally, the value of the 'dfv_defaults' param from the calling
    object is optionally used to pass defaults to the "new()" constructor.

      $self->param('dfv_defaults')

    By setting this to a hash reference of defaults in your "cgiapp_init"
    routine in your own super-class, you could make it easy to share some
    default settings for Data::FormValidator across several forms. Of
    course, you could also set parameter through an instance script via the
    PARAMS key.

    Here's an example that I've used:

     sub cgiapp_init {
         my $self = shift;
 
         # Set some defaults for DFV unless they already exist.  
         $self->param('dfv_defaults') ||
             $self->param('dfv_defaults', {
                     missing_optional_valid => 1,
                     filters => 'trim',
                     msgs => {
                         any_errors => 'err__',
                         prefix     => 'err_',
                         invalid    => 'Invalid',
                         missing    => 'Missing',
                         format => '<span class="dfv-errors">%s</span>',
                     },
                 });
     }

    Now all my applications that inherit from a super class with this
    "cgiapp_init()" routine and have these defaults, so I don't have to add
    them to every profile.

  CGI::Application::Plugin::Forward support
    Experimental support has been added for
    CGI::Application::Plugin::Forward, which keeps the current run mode up
    to date. This would be useful if you were automatically generating a
    template name based on the run mode name, and you wanted this to work
    with the form run mode used with ::ValidateRM.

    If we detect that ::Forward is loaded, we will set the current run mode
    name to be accurate while the error page is being generated, and then
    set it back to the previous value afterwards. There is a caveat: This
    currently only works when the run name name is the same as the
    subroutine name for the form page. If they differ, the current run mode
    name inside of the form page will be inaccurate. If this is a problem
    for you, get in touch to discuss a solution.

  check_rm_error_page()
    After check_rm() is called this accessor method can be used to retrieve
    the error page described in the check_rm() docs above. The method has an
    alias named "dfv_error_page()" if you find that more intuitive.

  dfv_results()
     $self->dfv_results;

    After "check_rm()" or "validate_rm()" has been called, the DFV results
    object can also be accessed through this method. I expect this to be
    most useful to other plugin authors.

  validate_rm()
    Works like "check_rm" above, but returns the old style $valid hash
    reference instead of the results object. It's no longer recommended, but
    still supported.

EXAMPLE
    In a CGI::Application module:

     # This is the run mode that will be validated. Notice that it accepts
     # some errors to be passed in, and on to the template system.
     sub form_display {
            my $self = shift;
            my $errs = shift;
 
            my $t = $self->load_tmpl('page.html');
 
            $t->param($errs) if $errs;
            return $t->output;
     }
 
     sub form_process {
            my $self = shift;
 
            use CGI::Application::Plugin::ValidateRM (qw/check_rm/);
            my ($results, $err_page) = $self->check_rm('form_display','_form_profile');
            return $err_page if $err_page; 

            #..  do something with DFV $results object now
 
            my $t = $self->load_tmpl('success.html');
            return $t->output;

     }
 
     sub _form_profile {
            return {
                    required => 'email',
                    msgs => {
                            any_errors => 'some_errors', 
                            prefix => 'err_',
                    },
            };
     }

    In page.html:

     <!-- tmpl_if some_errors -->
            <h3>Some fields below are missing or invalid</h3>
     <!-- /tmpl_if -->
     <form>
            <input type="text" name="email"> <!-- tmpl_var err_email -->
     </form>

SEE ALSO
    CGI::Application, Data::FormValidator, HTML::FillInForm, perl(1)

AUTHOR
    Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com>

MAILING LIST
    If you have any questions, comments, bug reports or feature suggestions,
    post them to the support mailing list! This the Data::FormValidator
    list. To join the mailing list, visit
    <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/cascade-dataform>

LICENSE
    Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com>

    This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the terms of either:

    a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
    Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any later version,

    or

    b) the "Artistic License"

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
    WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either the GNU
    General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.

    For a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if
    not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
    330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA