» Agavi Tip: Automatic Output of Validation Errors

Agavi Tip: Automatic Output of Validation Errors

I decided today to stop printing my validation error messages manually in the template. I knew that Form Population Filter (one of Agavi’s many excellent features also referred to as FPF) could be used to inject error messages into the HTML form next to erroneous fields but I want my error messages above the form. Once again David was there to help me and with a few iterations of trial and error he offered a working solution for me. And the solution was so simple and nice that I just had to blog it.

Filter Configuration

global_filters.xml

<filter name="FormPopulationFilter" class="AgaviFormPopulationFilter">

  <ae:parameter name="methods">
    <ae:parameter>write</ae:parameter>
  </ae:parameter>
  
  <ae:parameter name="output_types">
    <ae:parameter>html</ae:parameter>
  </ae:parameter>

  <ae:parameter name="error_messages">
    <ae:parameter name="self::${htmlnsPrefix}form">
    <ae:parameter name="location">before</ae:parameter>
    <ae:parameter name="container"><![CDATA[<div class="errors">${errorMessages}</div>]]></ae:parameter>
    <ae:parameter name="markup"><![CDATA[<p class="error">${errorMessage}</p>]]></ae:parameter>
    </ae:parameter>
  </ae:parameter>
  
</filter>

And that’s it. FPF injects all error messages above your form. Each error message in its own paragraph and all paragraphs wrapped inside a <div>

Want More?

FPF can have different rules for different kinds of errors and with XPath you can inject them pretty much anywhere you want. See the Agavi’s sample application for more examples.