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ProcessingDescription

Important note: the contents of this wiki-page are not authorized by Pm and can be inaccurate.

Description

This page contains sketch of the algorithm used when rendering and processing a form. It can help you understand various options and debug problems.

Step one: rendering the form

• A (:pmform target:) markup is found.
• The target description is retrieved from: (via PmFormConfig())

• The form-template is retrieved from a page specified in form= option of the target. This can be any section on any page. If no page is specified, {$SiteGroup}.LocalTemplates and {$SiteGroup}.PmFormTemplates are searched for the section (set via $PmFormTemplatesFmt).
• Options marked XXX below:
  • (:pmform XXX:)
  • $PmForm['...']='XXX';
  • form-template -> (:template default XXX:)

• The form-template is placed where (:pmform:) was, and markup processing is done (via PRR() function)
• The (:input pmform target:) directive is processed using PmWiki core's InputActionForm() function, which is apparently used nowhere else. What does this function do?

Step two: filling the form

• User fills the form fields and presses the submit button.

Step three: post-processing the form

• The target is retrieved from the form data.
• The target description is retrieved as in Step one.
• The fmt-template is retrieved (similarly as the form-template was). (into $msgtmpl )
• Two groups of options are collected:
  • safe options - from target description + from fmt-template,
  • full options - as above + data from the form.
• The form is validated (the (:template require ...:) directives are executed).

• The value of the saveto option is retrieved from safe options and becomes the destination page.
• If there's a (:pmform:) in the destination page with the same target as the currently processed one, options from the directive are merged with safe options. Important: Under exactly such a condition (apparently) the destination page can be modified even if user has no editing permission!
  If you use a different page for saving data, via saveto=, then you may need to add a (:pmform target:) into your second page in order to write the data without a password. Enclose this directive in an (:if false:) block to suppress the form itself.
• The fmt-template is filled using full options (double-dollar markup - {$$name}).
• The fmt-template is pasted into destination page based on the where option (safe options can have a wildcard specification for where), which defaults to new (which means: "If the page doesn't exist, create it and fill with the template").
• If savevars were set in full options, PageTextVariables from the list are updated in the destination page.
• If no errors found, the fmt-template is mailed. (This point needs more detail.) (function PmFormMail())
• If no errors found and successpage was set in full options, browsing is redirected to page specified; if successpage is not set, current page is loaded with "?pmform=success" appended to the URL.