Using the PHP Form Builder Class (PFBC) within your own Joomla Component.

Last updated Jun 14, 2020 at 11:36AM | Published on Mar 13, 2018 | Joomla Tips, Web Hosting Tips

Why?

I was in the need of professional forms for a Joomla component I’m currently writing. With “professional” I mean the forms have to look professional and also need to be validated in a professional manner. I first went through a lot of Javascript/CSS solutions. However, in the back of my mind I thought I still have to validate all input on the Server level (Within the Joomla component itself) Finally I found an actively maintained Forms Library that after some testing worked great within any Joomla Component.

Here are some basic notes on how I accomplished this:

I’m using a file called loader.php located in the library path in my component Directory. I call it from my main controller file like this:

require_once(JPATH_ROOT.DS.'components'.DS.'com_component'.DS.'library'.DS.'loader.php');

in my loader PHP I have this line:

JLoader::register('Form', JPATH_COMPONENT.'/3rdparty/PFBC/Form.php');

As you can see I just copied the PFBC folder into a folder called 3rdparty within my Joomla component folder. Now you can use PFBC anywhere in your component by creating the object like this and add a field for example:

$form = new Form("testing", 300) ;
$form->addElement(new Element_Textbox("My Textbox:", "MyTextbox"));
$form->addElement(new Element_Button);

Assign it to the View as usual:

$this->assignRef('myform', $form);

And render it in the tmpl file:

echo $this->myform->render();