Zebra_Form, a jQuery augmented PHP library for HTML form building and validation

A login form

In this demo we're creating a custom template using only divs; this is suitable for creating "vertical" templates (when a control's label is above the control), but when we want some elements to be side-by-side. Don't forget to check the "Template source" tab to see how it's done.

try clicking on the submit button without filling the form and then, as you fill the form, to see the JavaScript validation in action
for each example, notice how the PHP code of the form remains basically unchanged, despite the template variations
disable JavaScript to see the server-side validation in action
although in all my examples I use HTML output, you can switch to XHTML output by using the doctye method
try the example in another browser and see that it works, out of the box. including IE6!

<?php

    // include the Zebra_Form class
    require 'path/to/Zebra_Form.php';

    // instantiate a Zebra_Form object
    $form = new Zebra_Form('form', 'post', '', array('autocomplete' => 'off'));

    // the label for the "email" element
    $form->add('label', 'label_email', 'email', 'Email');

    // add the "email" element
    $obj = $form->add('text', 'email');

    // set rules
    $obj->set_rule(array(

        // error messages will be sent to a variable called "error", usable in custom templates
        'required'  =>  array('error', 'Email is required!'),
        'email'     =>  array('error', 'Email address seems to be invalid!'),

    ));

    // "password"
    $form->add('label', 'label_password', 'password', 'Password');

    $obj = $form->add('password', 'password');

    $obj->set_rule(array(

        'required'  => array('error', 'Password is required!'),
        'length'    => array(6, 10, 'error', 'The password must have between 6 and 10 characters!'),

    ));

    // "remember me"
    $form->add('checkbox', 'remember_me', 'yes');

    $form->add('label', 'label_remember_me_yes', 'remember_me_yes', 'Remember me', array('style' => 'font-weight:normal'));

    // "submit"
    $form->add('submit', 'btnsubmit', 'Submit');
    
    // if the form is valid
    if ($form->validate()) {

        // show results
        show_results();

    // otherwise
    } else

        // generate output using a custom template
        $form->render('path/to/custom-template.php');

?>

<?php
    // don't forget about this for custom templates, or errors will not show for server-side validation
    // $zf_error is automatically created by the library and it holds messages about SPAM or CSRF errors
    // $error is the name of the variable used with the set_rule method
    echo (isset($zf_error) ? $zf_error : (isset($error) ? $error : ''));
?>

<!-- elements are grouped in "rows" -->
<div class="row">

    <!-- things that need to be side-by-side go in "cells" and will be floated to the left -->
    <div class="cell"><?php echo $label_email . $email?></div>
    <div class="cell"><?php echo $label_password . $password?></div>

    <div class="clear" style="margin-bottom:10px"></div>

    <!-- on the same row, but beneath the email and the password fields,
    we place the "remember me" checkbox and attached label -->
    <div class="cell"><?php echo $remember_me_yes?></div>
    <div class="cell"><?php echo $label_remember_me_yes?></div>

</div>

<!-- the submit button goes in the last row; notice the "even" class which
is used to highlight even rows differently from the odd rows; also, notice
the "last" class which removes the bottom border which is otherwise present
for any row -->
<div class="row even last"><?php echo $btnsubmit?></div>

<!-- must be in strict mode! -->
<!doctype html>

<html>

    <head>

        <meta charset="utf-8">

        <title>Zebra_Form Example</title>

        <!-- load Zebra_Form's stylesheet file -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/zebra_form.css">

    </head>

    <body>

        <!--

            the content from the "PHP Source" tab goes here

        -->

        <!-- we're loading the JavaScript files at the bottom of the page so we don't delay page rendering -->

        <!-- try to load jQuery from CDN server and fallback to local source if not available -->
        <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
        <script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="path/to/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"><\/script>')</script>

        <!-- load Zebra_Form's JavaScript file -->
        <script src="path/to/zebra_form.js"></script>

    </body>

</html>