# eTemplate-Referenz - Templates and Dialog-Editor for phpGroupware

### by Ralf Becker RalfBecker AT outdoor-training DOT de

© Copyright 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation Inc.

A referenz documentation about the new eTemplates and the syntax and parameters of the several widgets.

# Introduction - The concept of the eTemplates

As I already covered this in the Tutorial, I like would suggest to have a look there if your are not familiar with the overal concept.

There are two possibilities now to create an eTemplate:

1. Use the eTemplate-Editor (as descript in the Tutorial) to interactivly design your template.
2. Write a xml-file in a Syntax similar to XUL (the mozilla UI-interface definition language) and import it into the database with the eTemplate-Editor

# The xml-interface to the eTemplates

The eTemplates-Editor can import and export now eTemplates as xml-files. Here is short example showing an eTemplate from the example app in the Tutorial (here are screenshots of the template in the editor and the show-function):

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <!-- $Id: referenz.html,v 1.13.2.3 2003/09/07 01:26:41 skwashd Exp $ -->
    <overlay>
      <grid id="et_media.edit" template="" lang="" group="" version="" width="100%">
        <columns>
          <column/>
          <column/>
          <column/>
          <column/>
        </columns>
        <rows>
          <row>
            <description options="ib" span="all" value="eTemplates MediaDB" no_lang="1" id="msg"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <hrule span="all"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <description span="all"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <description value="Name"/>
            <textbox size="100" maxlength="100" span="all" id="name" statustext="here goes the name of the publication / record"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <description value="Author"/>
            <textbox size="100" maxlength="100" span="all" id="author" statustext="please use Name, First Name"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <description value="Type"/>
            <menulist span="all" statustext="select the type fitting most">
              <menupopup id="type"/>
            </menulist>
          </row>
          <row>
            <description value="Description"/>
            <textbox ="" cols="3" rows="100" span="all" id="descr" statustext="we have a fulltext search using that description"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <description span="all"/>
          </row>
          <row>
            <button label="Read" id="read" statustext="reads or searches for entries matching the criteria above"/>
            <button label="Save" id="save" statustext="saves the change to the db"/>
            <button label="Cancel" id="cancel" statustext="clears the form, without changing anything"/>
            <button label="Delete" id="delete" statustext="deletes an entry"/>
          </row>
        </rows>
      </grid>
    </overlay>

The tags / widget-names and attributes / parameters used are as close as possible to XUL. For more information about XUL refer to www.xulplanet.com or the Mozilla docs www.mozilla.org/xpfe/xulref/.

Please keep in mind that the xml-files used to store the eTemplates are only similar to XUL and implement only a subset of XUL. Here are the main differences:

- only certain widgets and widget attributes are implemented
- xul-files can contain the actual content or refer to it via a datasources (RDF's) and use a different template syntax to fill in content from a variable: <label value="?label"/>
  eTemplates get there content from an array passed to the exec or show-function of the template-object and referenz to the content by the id / name-field of each widget.
- xul-files can contain an unlimited number of nested elements, where as the eTemplates xml-root-node has to be a xul-grid and can not contain other grids as element (vbox and hbox are Ok). This limitation might be removed in the near future, for now you have to use the non-xul-element <template id="app.template_name"/> us load an other template by its name.

Like XUL the eTemplate-xml-files are quite strict with the xml-syntax:

- All tags and attributes must be written in lowercase
- All strings must be double quoted, like id="string"
- Every XUL widget must use close tags (either <tag></tag> or <tag/>) to be well-formed
- All attributes must have a value, no <tag attr> it has to be <tag attr="">

# Syntax and Parameter Referenz

## Standard parametes / attributes for all widgets

Name in Editor | xml attr | xul | internal name | description of the attribut |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Type | type (only for sub-types) | no | type | The type of the widget is stored in the tag itself, some widgets have sub-types (unknow to XUL). In that case the subtype is stored in the type attribut. The Type / tag has to be either the name of a standard eTemplate-widget or of an already existing extension.

Name

id

yes

name

A string to locate the content for the widget in the content array (index) to show the dialog and for the returned content. Can be left blank or be obmitted as xml-attribut if the widget needs no content.

The name can contain the following variables, which gets expanded before they are used as array index (for an example see the Tutorial):

$c | the column-number (starting with 0, if you have a header, data-cells start at 1)
$col | the column-letter: 'A', 'B', 'C', ...
$row | the row-number (starting with 0, if you have a header, data-cells start at 1)
$cont | the content-array the (sub-)template, on auto-repeated row's this could eg. be used to generate button-names with id-values in it: "del[$cont[id]]" expands to "del[123]", if $cont = array('id' => 123)
$row_cont | the sub-array indexed by $row of the content-array, on auto-repeated row's this could eg. be used to generate button-names with id-values in it: "del[$row_cont[id]]" expands to "del[123]", if $cont = array('1' => array('id' => 123),'2' => array('id' => 456)) and $row = 1
$c_ $col_ $row_ | are the respective values of the previous template-inclusion, eg. the column-headers in the eTemplate-editor are templates itself, to show the column-name in the header you can not use $col as it will be constant as it is always the same col in the header-template, what you want is the value of the previous template-inclusion.

Label

label

no

label

The label is displayed by default in front (for radiobuttons behind) each widget (if not empty). If you want to specify a different position, use a '%s' in the label, which gets replaced by the widget itself. Eg. '%s Name' to have the label Name behind a checkbox. The label can contain variables, as descript for name. If the label starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this index (with the '@'-removed and after expanding the variables).
Note: The label gets always translated, if its longer than 1 char! If this is not disired, use a label widget, place the not-to-translate label in the content-array and check NoTranslation or set the xml attribute no_lang.

Help | statustext | yes | help | This text / help-message is displayed in the status-bar of the browser when the widget gets focus (or as tooltip for buttons or general in gtk). If the user has JavaScript switched off, the help-texts get NOT submitted, as this is detected. If the helptext starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this index (with the '@'-removed).
Options | ? | ? | size | This attribute controls certain aspects of the different widgets. It's meaning and xml / xul-values are document with the widgets. If the options-string starts with a '@' it is replaced by the value of the content-array at this index (with the '@'-removed).
NoTranslation | no_lang | no | no_lang | If checked the content of the widget and the label gets NOT translated. The helptext of a widget is always translated.
needed | needed | no | needed | If checked (xml-attr: needed="1") the etemplates will reprompt the user if he left the widget / field empty. This is not yet implemented, but should be filled if applicable.

Readonly

readonly

yes

readonly

If checked (xml-attr: readonly="true") the widget will NOT be editable. If it is not supported by the browser, the etemplate-class makes shure that no changes / content is transmitted back to the app. Only applicable to widgets with input capabilities. Readonly Buttons get removed from the dialog, like they where disabled. The readonly attribute could be set on runtime via a readonly-array sublied to the exec or show function of the class, the value on index=name/id has to be true to make a widget readonly.

Disabled | disabled | yes | disabled | If checked (xml-attr: disabled="true") the widget will NOT be shown. For buttons this could be archived on runtime via setting them readonly.
onChange | onchange | ? | onchange | If checked (xml-attr: onchange="1") and the contet of the widget is changed by the user, the form will be submitted. Via xml or by a program other values can be set (not in the editor at the moment and this is not compatible with the phpGTK implementation of the eTemplates).
Span, Class | span class | span: no class: yes | span | In the editor and internaly this field contains two comma-separated values: span: how many cell a widget should span (default is one), the special value of 'all' can be used to indicate it should span all remaining cells of a row. This is not supported by xul-grid's at the moment, but is planned to be. class: the CSS class for the widget.
Align | align | yes | align | Can be set to 'left' (default), 'center' or 'right'.
Width, Disabled column-attr. | width | yes | row[0][#] | Can be set to a percentage (eg. '10%'), a number of pixels or ...
Height, Disabled row-attr. | height | yes | row[0][h#] | Can be set to a percentage (eg. '10%'), a number of pixels or ...

Disabled
column-attr.
row-attr.

disabled

no

disabled

Syntax: [!]{@name|value}[={@name2|value2}]
Disables (=dont show it) a row/column if a certain criteria is (not (=!)) meet.
If no '=...' / 2. value is given, the test is made on the first value being not empty, else the test is made by comparing the two values. Instead of a value you can give a name as an index into the content prefixed by @. Examples:
!@data disables row/col if value of data is empty,
@val=false disables if value of val is equal to (the string) 'false'

Class, Valign
row-attr.

class
valign

both: yes

row[0][c#]

In the editor and internaly this field contains two comma-separated values:

class: the CSS class for the row, there are 4 predefined css-classes: nmh: next-match-header-background, nmr: alternating next-match-row-background which gets replaced by the etemplate class with nmr0 or nmr1.

valign: vertical alignment of the widgets in the row: 'top', 'middle' (default) or 'bottom'

blurText | blur | no | blur | This text get displayed if an input-field is empty and does not have the input-focus (blur). It can be used to show a default value or a kind of help-text. If it contains a text (eg. 'Search...'), this text is run through lang(), if it contains a reference to the content array (eg. '@blur_text') it does not get translated.

## standard widgets and extensions of the eTemplates

Widget Name in Editor | xml tag | xul | internal name | description of the widget |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Label | <description/> | yes | label | a textual label The content is taken from the content-array but it can have an own label from the label attribute too. Options: if it contains a 'i' and/or a 'b' the content (not the label) is rendered in italic and/or bold.
Text | <textbox/> | yes | text | a single-line input field for text In the html-UI this is rendered as <input ...> Options has 2 comma-separated fields: xml: size: the length in chars of the input-field xml: maxlength: the maximum length of the input
Integer | <textbox type="int"/> | ? | int | a input-field to enter an integer In the html-UI this is rendered as <input ...>. There are no checks implemented at the moment, but the will come in the near future. Options has 3 comma-separated fields: xml: min: minimum value, default none xml: max: maximum value, default none xml: size: the length in chars of the input-field, default 5
Float | <textbox type="float"/> | ? | float | a input-field to enter a float In the html-UI this is rendered as <input ...>. There are no checks implemented at the moment, but the will come in the near future. Options has 3 comma-separated fields: xml: min: minimum value, default none xml: max: maximum value, default none xml: size: the length in chars of the input-field, default 5
Textarea | <textbox multiline="true"/> | yes | textarea | a multiline input-field for text In the html-UI this is rendered as <textarea ...>. Options has 2 comma-separated fields: xml: cols: the width of the field in chars xml: rows: the number of rows
Checkbox | <checkbox/> | yes | checkbox | a widget that can be checked or unchecked In the html-UI this is rendered as <input type="checkbox" ...>.

Radiobutton

<radio/>

?

radio

a widget in a group of which only one can be checked
In the html-UI this is rendered as <input type="radio" ...>
Unlike XUL (and like html) the radio-buttons are grouped by giving them the same name / id. If it is checked, the value is set to what is entered in Options. If the value of the content array at index name/id matches the options-field the radiobutton is marked 'checked'.

Submitbutton

<button image="img.gif" ro_image="img-grey.gif"/>

yes

button

a button to submit the form / end the dialog
In the html-UI this is rendered as <input type="submit" ...>.
If a button is set readonly (via seting its id in the $readonlys array passed to exec) it is not rendered at all (if no ro_image is given), like it would be diabled.

onChange xml: onchange: if set and the user has JavaScript enabled the button is renderd as a link around the label and a hidden input to set id if the link is clicked.
Options xml: image, ro_image: Image to use instead of a Button with a label. There will be no button around the image. If a ro_image is given (separated by a comma in the editors options) it will be used if the button is set readonly (else the button is no rendered at all) .

Horizonatal Rule | <hrule/> | no | hrule | a horizontal rule / line In the html-UI this is rendered as <hr ...> Options can contain a width of the rule, default is 100%

Template

<grid id="app.name" content="subarr"/>

yes

template

a separate eTemplate to be loaded into this cell
Name xml: id: the name of the etemplate to load
Options xml: content: if set, the template uses an own sub-array of the content array indexed by the value of this field (if not the full content-array is used). Variables like $row can be used as descript for the general attribute Name.

Image | <image src="foo.gif" label="Get a foo" options="app.class.method"/> | yes | image | shows an image Label xml: label: the label is shown as tooltip (like html-title) Name xml: src: the name of the image to load, the image is search in the apps template-dirs Options xml: options: if set, a link to that methode = app.class.method is put around the image

Selectbox

<menulist>
<menupopup id="name" options="Select one"/>
</menulist>

multiselect: options > 1
<listbox rows="#"/>

Examples for predefined selectboxes:

<listbox type="select-cat" rows="5"/>

<menulist>
<menupopup type="select-account" options="All,both,2"/>
</menulist>

yes

select

shows a selectbox
The content of the selectbox / the options have to be in an array which can be in 2 locations:

1. in $content["options-$name"]
2. or in an separate array only for select-box-options under the index name, this array is passed to the exec or show function of the etemplate-class

Options in the editor: if set and > 1 the selectbox is a multiselection with options number of lines

xml: rows: only for <listbox>: number of rows to show

xml options: only for <menupopup/>: textual label for a first Row, e.g. 'All' or 'None' (id will be ''), additional attr see sub-types

xml: type: can be set to get several predefined select-contents, in that case you dont need to set the content as descripted above (if set it too its in front of the predefined rows):
select-cat:
Select a phpgw category
select-account:
Select a user and/or group, determined by the options-field:
,{accounts(default)|groups|both},{''(phpgw-default)|0(only lid)|1(only names)|2(both)}
select-percent, select-priority, select-access, select-country, select-state:
as you expect by the name
select-year, select-month, select-day:
options for year: ,start,end (start and end can be a number of years from now or if > 100 a absolut year)
select-number:
Select a number out of a range specified by the options-field:
,{start (default=1)},{end (incl., default=10)},{decrement (default={padding zeros}1)}.
Example with padding zeros: options=',0,59,05' will give values: 00, 05, 10, ..., 55 (like you would use it for minutes in a time-field)
select-app:
Select an application, availible options: ,{''=user enabled(default)|installed|all)}

FileUpload | <file id="name"/> | no | file | Input and Button to select a file for uploading Returns the file-name of the uploaded file in the servers tmp-dir (the webserver needs to have a writable tmp-dir) plus, if javascript is enabled, the local filename of the client as "${name}_path".

Date

<date options="Y-m-d,1"/>

<date type="date-time"/>

<date type="date-timeonly" options="H:i"/>

no

date

Date-/Time-input via selectboxes or a field for the year
The order of the input-fields is determined by the prefs of the user.
Options: [datetime-storage-format][,&1=year-no-selectbox|&2=today-button]
datetime-storage-format is the format, in which the date is stored in the variable: empty means an unix-timestamp (in GMT), or a string containing the letters Y, m, d, H, i plus separators, eg. 'Y-m-d': 2002-12-31. The storage format for times is always 24h or timestamp with date 1.1.1970 (if no date used). (This has nothing to do with the format of the display, which is only determined by the users preferences.)
year-no-selectbox if set (&1) an int-widget (input-field) is used instead of a select-year widget.
today-button: if set (&2) a [Today] button is displayed which sets the fields to the up-to-date date (via javascript)
Sub-widgets: date-time: a date and a time and date-timeonly: only a time
These widgets allow the input of times too or only, they use 12h am/pm or 24h format as specified in the user prefs.
If readonly is set, this widget can be used to display a date, without the need to convert it.

VBox, HBox

<vbox>
<widget ...>
<widget ...>
</vbox>

<hbox span="all">
<widget ...>
<widget ...>
</hbox>

yes

vbox, hbox

vertical or horizontal container to contain other widgets. This is useful if one needs more widgets or widgets outside the column- / row-order of a grid.
Disabled child-cells are completly left out (no empty cells or rows get generated).

Options in the editor: the number of cells in the box (does NOT need to be set in xml).

Tabs

<tabbox id="name">
<tabs>
<tab label="Tab 1" statustext="Help"/>
...
</tabs>
<tabpanels>
<grid id="app.name.tab1"/>
...
</tabpanels>
</tabbox>

yes

tab

shows a tab-widget
The tab-widget is implemented as an extension, as html does not have a tab-widget.

The following fields / attributes are in the Editor and internaly in the class separeted by '|', in the xml/xul-file the are attributes of each tab- or grid-tag:
Label xml: label: the labels of the tabs eg. 'Tab 1|Tab 2|Tab 3'
Help xml: statustext: of the tabs
Name xml: id: the names/ids of the eTemplates/grid's to fill the bodies of the tabs, if the name contains no '.', it will be prefixed with the name of the template the widget is in plus a '.'

Demo: There is a demo availible: load 'etemplate.tab_widget.test' into the eTemplate editor and run it with show.

NextMatch

<nextmatch options="notes.index.rows" id="nm"/>

yes

tab

shows a table with some selectboxes, a search-field and arrows to scroll the table
The nextmatch-widget is implemented as an extension.

Options xml: options: name of the template to display the rows
Name xml: id: index into the content-array, it need to be pre-set with some information for the nextmatch widget and it returns its content with it:

    $content[$id] = array(		// I = value set by the app, 0 = value on return / output
    	'get_rows'     =>	// I  method/callback to request the data for the rows eg. 'notes.bo.get_rows'
    	'filter_label' =>	// I  label for filter    (optional)
    	'filter_help'  =>	// I  help-msg for filter (optional)
    	'no_filter'    => True	// I  disable the 1. filter
    	'no_filter2'   => True	// I  disable the 2. filter (params are the same as for filter)
    	'no_cat'       => True	// I  disable the cat-selectbox
    	'template'     =>	// I  template to use for the rows, if not set via options
    	'header_left'  =>	// I  template to show left of the range-value, left-aligned (optional)
    	'header_right' =>	// I  template to show right of the range-value, right-aligned (optional)
    	'bottom_too'   => True	// I  show the nextmatch-line (arrows, filters, search, ...) again after the rows
    	'start'        =>	// IO position in list
    	'cat_id'       =>	// IO category, if not 'no_cat' => True
    	'search'       =>	// IO search pattern
    	'filter'       =>	// IO filter, if not 'no_filter' => True
    	'filter2'      =>	// IO filter2, if not 'no_filter2' => True
    	'rows'         =>	//  O content set by callback
    	'total'        =>	//  O the total number of entries
    );

    /*
     * example: the get_rows function from notes.bo.get_rows (has to be in public_functions !)
     */
    function get_rows($query,&$rows,&$readonlys)
    {
    	$rows = $this->read($query['start'],$query['search'],$query['filter'],$query['cat_id']);
    	if (!is_array($rows))
    	{
    		$rows = array( );
    	}
    	else
    	{
    		array_unshift($rows,0); each($rows);	// first entry is not used !!!
    	}
    	$readonlys = array( );	// set readonlys to enable/disable our edit/delete-buttons
    	while (list($n,$note) = each($rows))
    	{
    		if (!$this->check_perms($this->grants[$note['owner_id']],PHPGW_ACL_EDIT))
    		{
    			$readonlys["edit[$note[id]]"] = True;
    		}
    		if (!$this->check_perms($this->grants[$note['owner_id']],PHPGW_ACL_DELETE))
    		{
    			$readonlys["delete[$note[id]]"] = True;
    		}
    	}
    	return $this->total_records;
    }

    /*
     * Example how the nextmatch-widget is used in notes.ui.index:
     */
    function index($content = 0)
    {
    	if (!is_array($content))
    	{
    		$content = array('nm' => $this->session_data); // restore settings from the session
    	}
    	if (isset($content['nm']['rows']))		// one of the buttons in the rows is pressed
    	{
    		$this->session_data = $values['nm'];	// save the settings in the session
    		unset($this->session_data['rows']);	// we dont want to save the content of the rows
    		$this->save_sessiondata();

    		if (isset($values['nm']['rows']['edit']))
    		{
    			list($id) = each($values['nm']['rows']['edit']);
    			return $this->edit($id);
    		}
    		elseif (isset($values['nm']['rows']['delete']))
    		{
    			list($id) = each($values['nm']['rows']['delete']);
    			return $this->delete($id);
    		}
    	}
    	$values['nm']['options-filter'] = array (	// set up the data for our filter
    		'all'			=> 'Show all',
    		'public'		=> 'Only yours',
    		'private'	=> 'Private'
    	);
    	$values['nm']['get_rows'] = 'notes.bo.get_rows';
    	$values['nm']['no_filter2'] = True;		// disable the 2. filter

    	$this->tpl->read('notes.index');
    	$this->tpl->exec('notes.ui.index',$values);
    }

LinkWidgets

<link type="link-to" id="name"/>

<link type="link-list" id="name"/>

<link type="link-string" id="name"/>

no

link-to

link-list

link-string

These widget are the UI-part of the link-class ({bo|so}link) in InfoLog and maybe the API soon.

link-to
Widget to make a links to other entries of link-aware apps and to attach files.

link-list
Widget to shows the links to an entry and a Unlink Button for each link.

Note: Both Widgets can be used on the same template with the same name. They share the content of that variable, which contains just the id of the entry in the current app.

link-string
Comma-separated list of link-titles with a link to its view-method, value is like the return of bolink::get_links().

### One remark about cross-site-scripting

The following eTemplate Widgets are parsing its content before displaying through htmlentities() to correctly display the content and to gard against malecious data (like scripts etc.):

- Label
- Text, Textarea
- Integer, Float
- SelectBoxes (it's options-strings)
- LinkWidgets: link-to, link-list, link-string

This is done in most cases by the underlaying html-class and not direct in eTemplate.

# How to implement new widgets / extensions to the eTemplates?

The eTemplates have an interface to extend them with new widgets. These widgets are php-classes, can use eTemplates to define the UI of the new widget and are stored in the eTemplate's inc-dir or the inc-dir of a phpGroupWare application. The editor and the etemplate-class autoload the existing extensions.

I will made more documentation about the interface availible soon. For now have a look for the source of the existing extensions.

## please contact me if you have further questions or comments about the eTemplates