Extension talk:Page Forms

Modify Templates
Hi, is there any way to edit Templates in a "user friendly" way? I mean: when I create a new Template, I go to Special:CreateTemplate, and I fill a form. If I want to modify this template, could I go againg to special:CreateTemplate and modify the form instead of editing directly the template? Thanks! --Xtv 13:30, 1 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, no. There's an extension in the works that's intended to take care of this, and related, problems - Page Schemas. It's still in the works, though. Yaron Koren 14:45, 1 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok! Thanks anyway! --Xtv 15:24, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Creating an input form for more than 1 template
Hey all, hope you can help.

I'm developing a Knowledgebase using MediaWiki and SemanticMediaWiki/Semantic Forms - the KB is to store fixes for IT Support problems. As a result, each entry should follow a standard format of having 3 sections called "Symptoms", "Cause" and "Fix". Each of these are defined in 3 separate templates (named fixes, fixes2 and fixes3) and are basically just those 3 words in the Heading 2 style.

I'm trying to create a page whereby a user is presented with 3 textboxes (1 for each template) and saving the page adds whatever text is entered into these textboxes into the appropriate template. For example, the first textbox would be for symptoms - so when the user enters information and the page is saved, it appears within the 'fixes' template/under the heading of Symptoms in the created page.

I think I'm halfway there - I have managed to create the form editing page with the 3 textboxes, however whichever text is entered in the first textbox appears in the area before all templates, the first and second template. So if I enter "HELLO WORLD" into the Symptoms area, "HELLO WORLD2" into the Cause area and "HELLO WORLD3" into the Fix area and save the page, "HELLO WORLD2" appears before the heading "Symptoms", in the Symptoms area and the Cause area, whilst Fix area is left empty.

Here is my code for the page (also, cannot get the 'categories' tag to work - not exactly sure of the function but I'd like the user to be able to choose which category the article belongs to out of the pre-existing ones - I have CategoryTree installed and working).



Fix

 * Hi - it seems like you still have some confusion about forms, and form-definition syntax. There should only be one "free text" input in a form, and it should be outside of any template. The inputs within a "for template" call need to be template fields. Similarly, the "categories" input should be a template field. You need to make use throughout of the " " tag. Yaron Koren 06:52, 5 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply. So something like " "? Because that doesn't seem to work - it only provides a single-row text entry box whereas I want something more in the style of the freetext area. Also, the information entered doesn't seem to be passed anywhere? I'm reading through the whole documentation now in the hope of understanding it a little better, so sorry if I'm being exceptionally stupid at the moment. Csf90 12:03, 5 August 2011 (UTC+1)


 * You're very close - you just need "input type=textarea", instead of "input type=page". Yaron Koren 14:37, 5 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Excellent, managed to get the right type of input boxes, but no information is being passed to the newly created article from the data entered into them. The new article just had the headings (as defined by the templates). Any ideas? Csf90 09:20, 8 August 2011 (UTC+1)


 * The templates also need to contain, and display, those same fields. Yaron Koren 08:37, 8 August 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, I've been trying to fiddle around but without much luck. This is the code for the first template:

This is the template for Fixes, which adds a table of contents and the first heading of "Symptoms" to each article.


 * This gives funky results when creating an article. Is it tougher because I have three templates that I wish to use in each article? Is there a way to have just 1 and achieve what I want? I've tried looking at example code from Referata Scratchpad but that only seemed to confuse me more. Do I need a Template:Add article (which I don't have) or just the three I do have (Template:Fixes, Template:Fixes2, Template:Fixes3)?


 * For reference, here is a snippet of the (working) Form:Add article code



Symptoms

 * Thanks again, and sorry for the hounding. User:Csf90 11:18, 8 August 2011 (UTC+1)

You're still confusing between forms and templates - templates should not contain form syntax. The page Special:CreateTemplate is the easiest way to make a new template. Yaron Koren 04:21, 9 August 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, I realised I was clearly on the wrong track and start again using the Special Pages (should've done that in the first place). Anyway, I've managed to set it up exactly how I wanted. Thank you for the extension and your help on this page. I do have just two simple questions - is there a way to incorporate WikiEditor 0.2.0 on the Form pages? And if you know, what is the editor that appears at the bottom of this page (that can add tags with the click of a button)? Thanks again! Csf90 15:32, 10 August 2011 (UTC+1)


 * Unfortunately, neither of those can be added to a form - it would be nice if they could, though. Yaron Koren 15:48, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Wrong display of the datatype "date" with "datetime" input type in tables??
First I created a property called "date", and stated it as a "date" data type (Has type::Date). Afterwards I specified the input type as "datetime" in the corresponding field in the form. Everything works perfect till now.

Then I tried to create a table which inludes a query and one row is the property date. There I have now the following problem. The date is displayed but in front of the day is a number (see example). If I choose listform instead of table then the strange number disappears and the date is displayed correctly.

example: 2455793.520 August 2011 00:00:00 2455761.519 July 2011 00:00:00 2455760.518 July 2011 00:00:00 2455754.512 July 2011 00:00:00 2455753.511 July 2011 00:00:00

I`m sorry for this poor explanation ... but i`m no informatician ;) Thanks very much for your help!


 * Hi - actually, this sounds like a Semantic MediaWiki issue. I would recommend writing to the semediawiki-user mailing list about it. Please mention your versions of MediaWiki, SMW and SF when you do. Yaron Koren 10:32, 5 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The strange number in the beginning was a bug of a special skin called "fratman_enhanced"; after changing it back to default the problem was solved! Greets Sebastian

Problem with date conversions SMW 1.6 with MW1.17
Switching from MW 1.15 with SMW 1.4.3 to 1.17 and 1.6 if one fills a property has type::Date with only a year this functioned correctly interpreting the value as a year but switching to new versions the single value is now interpreted as a unix timestamp leading to all year values to be displayed as seconds offset of Jan 1 1970. Is there a parameter I should set to get back to the correct default behaviour ? Ben Polman


 * Hi - just like with the question above, this sounds like a Semantic MediaWiki issue, rather than a Semantic Forms issue. Yaron Koren 08:08, 8 August 2011 (UTC)


 * You`ll find a hint for the solution of your problem under the following link: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30395 Greets Sebastian

CREATING A DROPDOWN BOX
I apologize if this has been answered, but I didn't find it. So, I copied my forms from an older MW and put them in the new one. My question is this: You will notice that I have a couple of entries like the Stories and Bathrooms, etc. that I would like to be able to have a dropdown selector to display 1, 2, 3, 4. I don't know what kind of code to enter. (E.g.; Bathrooms --- this is a guess but I don't know if it's right. Thanx for your time. --Coffeehound 02:07, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The best approach is to add a semantic property to each such field, and create the property at Special:CreateProperty - there you should specify the set of "allowed values" for it. Yaron Koren 04:37, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * So, I am having some trouble here. I created a property for the Stories portion of the form.  It is located http://offgridops.org/foreclosurepedia/index.php/Property:Stories here].  You will note that I added the values in the bottom 1, 2, 3.  I then added input type=combobox as seen in this.  The end result, though, is that the form still only has a blank line to manually enter text.  Perhaps you could simply tell me what I need to define or show me an example somewhere.  Thank you.--Coffeehound 03:35, 13 August 2011 (UTC)


 * You need to add the property to the field in the template. Yaron Koren 05:38, 14 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I am still in the dark. Is there someone I could hire to simply change the line for me?  I figure one line = $25USD.  Perhaps y'all have a list of folks I can go to?  I know it is probably simple, but I don't want to waste more of your time as obviously I am not going to catch on here.  Thank you for your patience and consideration, by the way! ;)--Coffeehound 13:21, 14 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I'd suggest going to the mailing list or IRC channel. Yaron Koren 14:35, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I never could find anyone; however, I figured it out. Probably not the most efficient way I did it, but it worked. In hindsight, I do thank you as you motivated me to learn! ;)--Coffeehound 04:04, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Unsupported Type Property Errors
On this page I get an error and when I link to it it goes to a special page. I copied my forms from an old wiki. All I really want it to do is create a page, but regardless I don't really know if I just create a property named after the page title or what. Any help would be appreciated.--Coffeehound 02:09, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * You're using the property "Has type" for everything. You should instead have a separate property for each field, like "Has client ID", "Has address", etc. And you definitely shouldn't use "Has type" - it's a special, pre-defined property. Yaron Koren 04:30, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * That solved it! I really appreciate your quick response and instructions as well!--Coffeehound 02:37, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Disable certain forms from appearing in Special:FormStart options
Hello again. I was wondering if it's possible to disable certain forms from showing up in the dropdown list on the Special:FormStart page? Thanks. --Blicarea 03:23, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * No. The better approach might be to create your own "form start" page - a normal wiki page with a #forminput for each form you want. Yaron Koren 04:26, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Good idea. Thanks for that.  --Blicarea 11:22, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Request: Friendlier Edit with Forms
First of all, amazing extension. My request/question is would it be possible to create a more user friendly way to edit text in a form already in existence. For instance maybe graphical boxes whereby one could type in the Form to edit with and then type in the file to edit. The box would make potential suggestions as you typed. The reason for the request is that the non-tech people may be resistant to edit the url. Thank you so very much you are doing important work.

-Brad


 * It's great that you like it. Users shouldn't ever be editing the URL, though - there should be links to forms in the sidebar, and/or form links or #forminput calls in the main page, category pages, etc. Yaron Koren 05:43, 14 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Your quick response was amazing and very appreciated. Let me be clearer. Let's say somebody uses a form to write an article. However, later on somebody else wants to edit the same article in the same form layout. How can somebody open the article and the form at the same time and edit the content inside the form? Also is there a way to edit a form that is already in existence in a "semantic" way rather than using the wikiscript? Thank you so much. Your extensions have dramatically changed my wiki, I apologize for my general lack of computer programming knowledge. -Brad


 * That's great to hear, again. This might be helpful, for what you're asking about. Yaron Koren 23:03, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Arraymap
Hi, I'm working with the Arraymap parser function.

Currently on SporeWiki, we use the following:

For our infobox code. However, our Navbox code uses things like:


 * groupA1 =
 * contentA1 =

So, can #arraymap possibly be used for:

At all?--Technobliterator 20:21, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * OMG. I have absolutely no idea, but #arraymaptemplate might work better, for your purposes. Yaron Koren 21:33, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Hahaha, sorry about the mindblowing :P What'd be the syntax for #arraymaptemplate?--Technobliterator 21:36, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * It's described in the extension page - just search for "arraymaptemplate". Yaron Koren 21:43, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I think I get it. Can two of these parser functions overlap?--Technobliterator 22:09, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah - you can embed parser functions in one another. Yaron Koren 11:38, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

WYSIWYG Extension
Hi,

is there a plan to integrate the CKeditor via the WYSIWYG extension? This would be really great since the WYSIWYG extension works much better in newer browsers than the FCKeditor extension.

Thanks and greetings --Filburt 11:42, 18 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Please have a look at ...WYSIWYG Extension, Yaron gave some input on the status of cooperation with the WYSIWYG extension. --MWJames 14:33, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

values=
The heading is the example of the concept. It would be great to have parsing attached to values=. Obviously there are limitations, as there are with the parsing related to default=. In particular, I've got properties on several pages, and I want to create a checkbox input that lists the various properties. For that case, I'd do something like

Select Your Top 3 Co-Anchors:

For those of you who don't want to wait for something more official, the change is easy enough: Index: ~/extensions/SemanticForms/includes/SF_FormPrinter.php

=
====================================================== --- ~/extensions/SemanticForms/includes/SF_FormPrinter.php	(revision 218) +++ ~/extensions/SemanticForms/includes/SF_FormPrinter.php	(revision 219) @@ -735,7 +735,8 @@				$field_args['remote autocompletion'] = true; } elseif ( $sub_components[0] == 'values' ) { // remove whitespaces, and un-escape characters -				$possible_values = array_map( 'trim', explode( ',', $sub_components[1] ) ); +				// Make values= use the parser so that arrays can be used +				$possible_values = array_map( 'trim', explode( ',', $wgParser->recursiveTagParse( $sub_components[1] ) ) ); Keep in mind that my version may be different from yours with respect to line numbers and possibly the source itself. Incidentally, if there's already a better way to set values like this, please let me know. Thanks. --Skew 07:27, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Autogrow bug
As previously reported on the mailing list, there seems to be a bug with the autogrow option on text fields. The text fields appear twice as long as necessary in Firefox, and only one line high in Opera. rotsee 12:54, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
 * (I don't know if the Opera bug has to do with this.) rotsee 13:01, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Prevent regular editing using action=edit
Hello. I am trying to prevent regular editing by means of action=edit while still enabling editing using action=formedit. Is this a possibility? Thanks. --67.171.96.146 00:58, 24 August 2011 (UTC)


 * No - though you can hide the "action=edit" tab - see here. Yaron Koren 03:31, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Feature request for partial forms
Using partial forms one can add multiple instances of the same template, which is extremely useful if you need to compile lists and store property values with Semantic Internal Objects. There’s a remove button for every template added, but only one add button right at the bottom. Would it be somehow possible to add an add button – for example under the remove button – so that templates can also be inserted at the appropriate position? I think that would be a very useful feature. Cavila MW 1.17, MySQL 5.1.57, Php 5.2.17 09:06, 25 August 2011 (UTC)


 * There's a request in Bugzilla about this. I'm not planning to add it in currently, because I fear that all those buttons would overwhelm the interface somewhat, and because the majority of wikis don't need it. Still, if someone were to create a patch for it (with a setting so that admins could get rid of the buttons), I would add it in to the code. Yaron Koren 19:43, 25 August 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, thanks for your answer. I agree that it should be an optional element. I'll see if anything comes up. Cavila MW 1.17, MySQL 5.1.57, Php 5.2.17 07:12, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

calling a pop-up form from within another form
Is it possible to use a pop-up form link from within another form? From what I can tell, it doesn't seem as though it's allowed. Would that be a sensible feature? My thinking is that it would be used to add new pages that are related to what is currently being edited or it could be used in lieu of multiple instance templates (when appropriate). Such an approach may be a way to control adding subpages and doing so from the parent page's edit form may be logical place for that to happen.


 * No, it's not possible; and no, I don't think it would be a sensible feature. A popup from a popup, in any context, sounds to me like a bad idea. Instead, you could have the page, once it was created, contain some form links to make additional pages. Yaron Koren 22:45, 29 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I didn't think of a pop-up from another pop-up. That would be hideous.  So if I have form links (using #formlink parser function) from form page, how can I force that to open in new window?  I guess at the very least, that is what I'm going after.


 * Oh, sorry - I don't know why I thought you were talking about a popup from another popup. In any case, I think the solution is to have popup forms from within the page itself - which you can accomplish by adding calls to "#formlink|popup|..." to the relevant template. Yaron Koren 13:29, 30 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that was the route I decided to take. Thanks for your input!  Always appreciated.

I am having a bit of trouble
exactly how do i use the '' tag and get it to work. I am using MW ver 1.16 and SMW Forms version 2.21 The documentation is a little unclear as to what the tag should look like and where it should go Can you help???


 * What is the name of the field you want to include in the page title, and what's the name of the template it belongs to? Yaron Koren 23:00, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

FieldName = Oragnizations TemplateName = Production:Requirements

thanks for your quick response


 * In that case, your "page name=" value should include "  ". (Hopefully a colon in the template name works, by the way - I've never seen that before, so I don't know for sure if it'll work.) Yaron Koren 15:53, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

i will let you know

what i am trying to do is have the Article get in the correct Category when the user creates a new one, eliminating one source of data entry error

Making multiple pages with one form
OK what I am trying to do is make a form that creates some page, but also creates a few sub pages and add a template to those

example: I can make this page without trouble from within a form  Creature:  But I also want to make Creature: \stats and  Creature: \info  and maybe more.

So basically I create Creature: and the other will automatically appear.

I have read about every page on the web, but I can not find anything about this. Is this possible?


 * You can sort of do that, by having the main, newly-created page point to its subpages with semantic properties - and then add a "Creates pages with form" to those properties. That way, the system will generate the subpages automatically. Yaron Koren 16:19, 1 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Interesting, will give that a go, thanx

getting started moved to example subpage
I found the getting started section no help at all. with no conrete examples, it was not very much help as the section below. so i moved it to the example sub page. Bigbull 02:21, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Delimiters with commas and spaces
I previously forgot to mention that the latest version of SF appears to have a stricter approach to delimiters for lists of values. While in earlier versions a comma and a space were also accepted as input values, SF now accepts commas only (so the list would look like "1,2,3,4,5" rather than "1, 2, 3, 4, 5", unless a different output is specified using #arraymap). Oddly enough this limitation does not apply to alternative delimiters which may have been chosen in the template (#arraymap...) and in the form (delimiter=..</tt>). I may have overlooked things, but is this intended behaviour? Cavila MW 1.17, MySQL 5.1.57, Php 5.2.17 17:47, 4 September 2011 (UTC)


 * No, that's not intended behavior. Would it be possible for you to demonstrate this problem on a public wiki, like http://scratchpad.referata.com ? Yaron Koren 18:00, 4 September 2011 (UTC)


 * See http://scratchpad.referata.com/wiki/Special:FormEdit/Multiplevalues/Multiplevalues. I wasn't able to reproduce the error straightaway, but only when the associated property is given as one of type "Number". The following error message occurs after trying to save the page: "There were errors with your form input; see below." ==> [field] "must be a valid number". Cavila MW 1.17, MySQL 5.1.57, Php 5.2.17 19:08, 4 September 2011 (UTC) I also left a note on the main page. Cavila MW 1.17, MySQL 5.1.57, Php 5.2.17 10:46, 5 September 2011 (UTC)