By XMARTLABS.
XLForm is the most flexible and powerful iOS library to create dynamic table-view forms. The goal of the library is to get the same power of hand-made forms but spending 1/10 of the time.
XLForm provides a very powerful DSL used to create a form. It keeps track of this specification on runtime, updating the UI on the fly.
#####Let's see the iOS Calendar Event Form created using XLForm
- Loads a form based on a declarative form definition.
- Keeps track of definition changes on runtime to update the form interface accordingly. Further information on Dynamic Forms section of this readme.
- Supports multivalued sections allowing us to create, delete or reorder rows. For further details see Multivalued Sections section bellow.
- Supports custom rows definition.
- Supports custom selectors. For further details of how to define your own selectors check Custom selectors section out.
- Provides several inline selectors such as date picker and picker inline selectors and brings a way to create custom inline selectors.
- Form data validation based on form definition.
- Ability to easily navigate among rows, fully customizable.
- Ability to show inputAccessoryView if needed. By default a navigation input accessory view is shown.
- Read only mode for a particular row or the entire form.
- Rows can be hidden or shown depending on other rows values. This can be done declaratively using
NSPredicates
. (see Make a row or section invisible depending on other rows values)
To create a form we should declare it through a XLFormDescriptor
instance and assign it to a XLFormViewController
instance. As we said XLForm works based on a DSL that hides complex and boilerplate stuff without losing the power and flexibility of hand-made forms.
To define a form we use 3 classes:
XLFormDescriptor
XLFormSectionDescriptor
XLFormRowDescriptor
A form definition is a XLFormDescriptor
instance that contains one or more sections (XLFormSectionDescriptor
instances) and each section contains several rows (XLFormRowDescriptor
instance). As you may have noticed the DSL structure is analog to the structure of a UITableView
(Table -->> Sections -- >> Rows). The resulting table-view form's structure (sections and rows order) mirrors the definition's structure.
#####Let's see part of the iOS Calendar Event Form definition.
XLFormDescriptor * form;
XLFormSectionDescriptor * section;
XLFormRowDescriptor * row;
form = [XLFormDescriptor formDescriptorWithTitle:@"Add Event"];
// First section
section = [XLFormSectionDescriptor formSection];
[form addFormSection:section];
// Title
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:@"title" rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:@"Title" forKey:@"textField.placeholder"];
[section addFormRow:row];
// Location
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:@"location" rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:@"Location" forKey:@"textField.placeholder"];
[section addFormRow:row];
// Second Section
section = [XLFormSectionDescriptor formSection];
[form addFormSection:section];
// All-day
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:@"all-day" rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeBooleanSwitch title:@"All-day"];
[section addFormRow:row];
// Starts
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:@"starts" rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateTimeInline title:@"Starts"];
row.value = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:60*60*24];
[section addFormRow:row];
XLForm will load the table-view form from the previously explained definition. The most interesting part is that it will update the table-view form based on the form definition modifications.
That means that we are able to make changes on the table-view form adding or removing section definitions or row definitions to the form definition on runtime and you will never need to care again about NSIndexPath
, UITableViewDelegate
, UITableViewDataSource
or other complexities.
To see more complex form definitions take a look at the example application in the Examples folder of this repository. You can also run the examples on your own device if you wish. XLForm has no dependencies over other pods, anyway the examples project makes use of some cocoapods to show advanced XLForm features.
- Clone the repository
[email protected]:xmartlabs/XLForm.git
. Optionally you can fork the repository and clone it from your own github account, this approach would be better in case you want to contribute. - Move to either the Objective-c or Swift example folder.
- Install example project cocoapod dependencies. From inside Objective-c or Swift example folder run
pod install
. - Open XLForm or SwiftExample workspace using XCode and run the project. Enjoy!
####Input Rows
Input rows allows the user to enter text values. Basically they use UITextField
or UITextView
controls. The main differences among the input row types is the keyboardType
, autocorrectionType
and autocapitalizationType
configuration.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText = @"text";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeDefault
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeSentences
and UIKeyboardTypeDefault
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeName = @"name";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeWords
and UIKeyboardTypeDefault
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeURL = @"url";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone
and UIKeyboardTypeURL
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeEmail = @"email";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone
and UIKeyboardTypeEmailAddress
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypePassword = @"password";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone
and UIKeyboardTypeASCIICapable
.
This row type also set the secureTextEntry
to YES
in order to hide what the user types.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeNumber = @"number";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone
and UIKeyboardTypeNumbersAndPunctuation
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypePhone = @"phone";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UIKeyboardTypePhonePad
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeTwitter = @"twitter";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone
and UIKeyboardTypeTwitter
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeAccount = @"account";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone
and UIKeyboardTypeDefault
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeInteger = @"integer";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UIKeyboardTypeNumberPad
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDecimal = @"decimal";
Will be represented by a UITextField
with UIKeyboardTypeDecimalPad
.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeTextView = @"textView";
Will be represented by a UITextView
with UITextAutocorrectionTypeDefault
, UITextAutocapitalizationTypeSentences
and UIKeyboardTypeDefault
.
####Selector Rows
Selector rows allow us to select a value or values from a list. XLForm supports 8 types of selectors out of the box:
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPush = @"selectorPush";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorActionSheet = @"selectorActionSheet";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorAlertView = @"selectorAlertView";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorLeftRight = @"selectorLeftRight";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPickerView = @"selectorPickerView";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPickerViewInline = @"selectorPickerViewInline";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorSegmentedControl = @"selectorSegmentedControl";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeMultipleSelector = @"multipleSelector";
Normally we will have a collection of object to select (these objects should have a string to display them and a value in order to serialize them), XLForm has to be able to display these objects.
XLForm follows the following rules to display an object:
- If the value of the
XLFormRowDescriptor
object is nil, XLForm uses thenoValueDisplayText
row property as display text. - If the XLFormRowDescriptor instance has a
valueTransformer
property value. XLForm uses theNSValueTransformer
to convert the selected object to a NSString. - If the object is a
NSString
orNSNumber
it uses the objectdescription
property. - If the object conforms to protocol
XLFormOptionObject
, XLForm gets the display value fromformDisplayText
method. - Otherwise it return nil. That means you should conforms the protocol
:)
.
You may be interested in change the display text either by setting up noValueDisplayText
or valueTransformer
property or making the selector options objects to conform to XLFormOptionObject
protocol.
This is the protocol declaration:
@protocol XLFormOptionObject <NSObject>
@required
-(NSString *)formDisplayText;
-(id)formValue;
@end
####Date & Time Rows
XLForms supports 3 types of dates: Date
, DateTime
, Time
and Countdown Timer
and it's able to present the UIDatePicker
control in 2 different ways, inline and non-inline.
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateInline = @"dateInline";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateTimeInline = @"datetimeInline";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeTimeInline = @"timeInline";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimerInline = @"countDownTimerInline";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDate = @"date";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateTime = @"datetime";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeTime = @"time";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimer = @"countDownTimer";
Here is an example of how to define these row types:
Objective C
XLFormDescriptor * form;
XLFormSectionDescriptor * section;
XLFormRowDescriptor * row;
form = [XLFormDescriptor formDescriptorWithTitle:@"Dates"];
section = [XLFormSectionDescriptor formSectionWithTitle:@"Inline Dates"];
[form addFormSection:section];
// Date
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kDateInline rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateInline title:@"Date"];
row.value = [NSDate new];
[section addFormRow:row];
// Time
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kTimeInline rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeTimeInline title:@"Time"];
row.value = [NSDate new];
[section addFormRow:row];
// DateTime
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kDateTimeInline rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateTimeInline title:@"Date Time"];
row.value = [NSDate new];
[section addFormRow:row];
// CountDownTimer
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kCountDownTimerInline rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimerInline title:@"Countdown Timer"];
row.value = [NSDate new];
[section addFormRow:row];
Swift
static let dateTime = "dateTime"
static let date = "date"
static let time = "time"
var form : XLFormDescriptor
var section : XLFormSectionDescriptor
var row : XLFormRowDescriptor
form = XLFormDescriptor(title: "Dates") as XLFormDescriptor
section = XLFormSectionDescriptor.formSectionWithTitle("Inline Dates") as XLFormSectionDescriptor
form.addFormSection(section)
// Date
row = XLFormRowDescriptor(tag: tag.date, rowType: XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateInline, title:"Date")
row.value = NSDate()
section.addFormRow(row)
// Time
row = XLFormRowDescriptor(tag: tag.time, rowType: XLFormRowDescriptorTypeTimeInline, title: "Time")
row.value = NSDate()
section.addFormRow(row)
// DateTime
row = XLFormRowDescriptor(tag: tag.dateTime, rowType: XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDateTimeInline, title: "Date Time")
row.value = NSDate()
section.addFormRow(row)
self.form = form;
####Boolean Rows
XLForms supports 2 types of boolean controls:
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeBooleanCheck = @"booleanCheck";
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeBooleanSwitch = @"booleanSwitch";
We can also simulate other types of Boolean rows using any of the Selector Row Types introduced in the Selector Rows section.
####Other Rows
#####Stepper
XLForms supports counting using UIStepper control:
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeStepCounter = @"stepCounter";
#####Slider
XLForms supports counting using UISlider control:
static NSString *const XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSlider = @"slider";
You can adjust the slider for your own interests very easily:
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kSlider rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSlider title:@"Slider"];
row.value = @(30);
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:@(100) forKey:@"slider.maximumValue"];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:@(10) forKey:@"slider.minimumValue"];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:@(4) forKey:@"steps"];
Set steps
to @(0)
to disable the steps functionality.
#####Info
Sometimes our apps needs to show data that are not editable. XLForm provides us with XLFormRowDescriptorTypeInfo
row type to display not editable info. An example of usage would be showing the app version in the settings part of an app.
#####Button
Apart from data entry rows, not editable rows and selectors, XLForm has a button row XLFormRowDescriptorTypeButton
that allows us to do any action when selected. It can be configured using a block (clousure), a selector, a segue identifier, segue class or specifing a view controller to be presented. ViewController specification could be done by setting up the view controller class, the view controller storyboard Id or a nib name. Nib name must match view controller class name.
Any XLFormSectionDescriptor
object can be set up to support row insertion, deletion or reodering. It is possible to enable only one of these modes, a combination or all together.
A multivalued section is just a section that support either of these modes.
The most interesting part of multivalued XLFormSectionDescriptor
is that it supports all the types of rows that were shown on the Rows section as well as custom rows.
Creating a multivalued section is as simple as use one of the following convenience XLFormSectionDescriptor
initializer:
+(id)formSectionWithTitle:(NSString *)title
sectionOptions:(XLFormSectionOptions)sectionOptions;
+(id)formSectionWithTitle:(NSString *)title
sectionOptions:(XLFormSectionOptions)sectionOptions
sectionInsertMode:(XLFormSectionInsertMode)sectionInsertMode;
sectionOptions
is a bitwise enum parameter that should be used to choose the multivalued section type/s (insert, delete, reorder). Available options are XLFormSectionOptionCanInsert
, XLFormSectionOptionCanDelete
, XLFormSectionOptionCanReorder
. XLFormSectionOptionNone
is the value used by default.
sectionInsertMode
can be used to select how the insertion mode will look like. XLform
has 2 different insertion modes out of the box: XLFormSectionInsertModeLastRow
and XLFormSectionInsertModeButton
. XLFormSectionInsertModeLastRow
is the default value.
Let's see how to create a multivalued section
XLFormDescriptor * form;
XLFormSectionDescriptor * section;
XLFormRowDescriptor * row;
NSArray * nameList = @[@"family", @"male", @"female", @"client"];
form = [XLFormDescriptor formDescriptorWithTitle:@"Multivalued examples"];
// Enable Insertion, Deletion, Reordering
section = [XLFormSectionDescriptor formSectionWithTitle:@"MultiValued TextField"
sectionOptions:XLFormSectionOptionCanReorder | XLFormSectionOptionCanInsert | XLFormSectionOptionCanDelete];
section.multivaluedTag = @"textFieldRow";
[form addFormSection:section];
for (NSString * tag in nameList) {
// add a row to the section, each row will represent a name of the name list array.
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:nil rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText title:nil];
[[row cellConfig] setObject:@"Add a new tag" forKey:@"textField.placeholder"];
row.value = [tag copy];
[section addFormRow:row];
}
// add an empty row to the section.
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:nil rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText title:nil];
[[row cellConfig] setObject:@"Add a new tag" forKey:@"textField.placeholder"];
[section addFormRow:row];
You can get all form values invoking -(NSDictionary *)formValues;
either XLFormViewController
instance or XLFormDescriptor
instance.
The returned NSDictionary
is created following this rules:
XLForm
adds a value for each XLFormRowDescriptor
that belongs to a XLFormSectionDescriptor
doesn't have a multivaluedTag
value set up. The dictionary key is the value of XLFormRowDescriptor
tag
property.
For each section that has a multivaluedTag
value, XLForm adds a dictionary item with a NSArray
as a value, each value of the array is the value of each row contained in the section, and the key is the multivaluedTag
.
For instance, if we have a section with the multivaluedTag
property equal to tags
and the following values on the contained rows: 'family', 'male', 'female', 'client', the generated value will be tags: ['family', 'male', 'female', 'client']
In same cases the form value we need may differ from the value of XLFormRowDescriptor
instance. This is usually the case of selectors row and when we need to send the form values to some endpoint, the selected value could be a core data object or any other object. In this cases XLForm
need to know how to get the value and the description of the selected object.
When using -(NSDictionary *)httpParameters
method, XLForm follows the following rules to get XLFormRowDescriptor
value:
- If the object is a
NSString
,NSNumber
orNSDate
, the value is the object itself. - If the object conforms to protocol
XLFormOptionObject
, XLForm gets the value fromformValue
method. - Otherwise it return nil.
multivaluedTag
works in the same way as in formValues
method.
To create a custom cell you need to create a UITableViewCell extending from XLFormBaseCell
. XLFormBaseCell
conforms to XLFormDescriptorCell
protocol.
You may be interested in implement XLFormDescriptorCell
methods to change the cell behaviour.
@protocol XLFormDescriptorCell <NSObject>
@required
@property (nonatomic, weak) XLFormRowDescriptor * rowDescriptor;
// initialise all objects such as Arrays, UIControls etc...
-(void)configure;
// update cell when it about to be presented
-(void)update;
@optional
// height of the cell
+(CGFloat)formDescriptorCellHeightForRowDescriptor:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)rowDescriptor;
// called to check if cell can became first responder
-(BOOL)formDescriptorCellCanBecomeFirstResponder;
// called to ask cell to assign first responder to relevant UIView.
-(BOOL)formDescriptorCellBecomeFirstResponder;
// called when cell is selected
-(void)formDescriptorCellDidSelectedWithFormController:(XLFormViewController *)controller;
// http parameter name used for network request
-(NSString *)formDescriptorHttpParameterName;
// is invoked when cell becomes firstResponder, could be used for change how the cell looks like when it's the forst responder.
-(void)highlight;
// is invoked when cell resign firstResponder
-(void)unhighlight;
@end
Once a custom cell has been created you need to let XLForm
know about this cell by adding the row definition to cellClassesForRowDescriptorTypes
dictionary.
[[XLFormViewController cellClassesForRowDescriptorTypes] setObject:[MYCustomCellClass class] forKey:kMyAppCustomCellType];
or, in case we have used nib file to define the XLBaseDescriptorCell
:
[[XLFormViewController cellClassesForRowDescriptorTypes] setObject:@"nibNameWithoutNibExtension" forKey:kMyAppCustomCellType];
Doing that, XLForm will instantiate the proper cell class when kMyAppCustomCellType row type is used.
Almost always the basic selector which allows the user to select one or multiple items from a pushed view controller is enough for our needs, but sometimes we need more flexibility to bring a better user experience to the user or do something not supported by default.
Let's say your app user needs to select a map coordinate or it needs to select a value fetched from a server endpoint. How do we do that easily?
Define the previous selector row is as simple as ...
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kSelectorMap rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPush title:@"Coordinate"];
// set up the selector controller class
row.action.viewControllerClass = [MapViewController class];
// or
//row.action.viewControllerStoryboardId = @"MapViewControllerStoryboardId";
// or
//row.action.viewControllerNibName = @"MapViewControllerNibName";
// Set up a NSValueTransformer to convert CLLocation to NSString, it's used to show the select value description (text).
row.valueTransformer = [CLLocationValueTrasformer class];
// Set up the default value
row.value = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:-33 longitude:-56];
action.viewControllerClass
controller class should conform to XLFormRowDescriptorViewController
protocol.
In the example above, MapViewController
conforms to XLFormRowDescriptorViewController
.
@protocol XLFormRowDescriptorViewController <NSObject>
@required
@property (nonatomic) XLFormRowDescriptor * rowDescriptor;
@end
XLForm sets up rowDescriptor
property using the XLFormRowDescriptor
instance that belongs to the selector row.
The developer is responsible for update its views with the rowDescriptor
value as well as set the selected value to rowDescriptor
from within the custom selector view controller.
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:kSelectorUser rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPush title:@"User"];
row.action.viewControllerClass = [UsersTableViewController class];
You can find the details of these examples within the example repository folder, Examples/Objective-C/Examples/Selectors/CustomSelectors/ and Examples/Objective-C/Examples/Selectors/DynamicSelector.
Any change made on the XLFormDescriptor
will be reflected on the XLFormViewController
tableView. That means that when a section or a row is added or removed XLForm will animate the section or row accordingly.
We shouldn't have to deal with NSIndexPaths
or add, remove UITableViewCell
anymore. NSIndexPath
of a specific TableViewCell
changes along the time and this makes very hard to keep track of the NSIndexPath
of each UITableViewCell
.
Each XLForm XLFormRowDescriptor
row has a tag
property that is set up in its constructor. XLFormDescriptor
has, among other helpers, an specific one to get a XLFormRowDescriptor
from a tag
.
It's much easier to manage XLFormRowDescriptor
s using tags, the tag should be unique and it doesn't change on tableview additions modifications or deletions.
It's important to keep in mind that all the UITableView
form modifications have to be made using the descriptors and not making modifications directly on the UITableView
.
Usually you may want to change the form when some value change or some row or section is added or removed. For this you can set the disabled
and hidden
properties of the rows or sections. For more details see Make a row or section invisible depending on other rows values.
In order to stay in sync with the form descriptor modifications your XLFormViewController
subclass should override the XLFormDescriptorDelegate
methods of 'XLFormViewController'.
@protocol XLFormDescriptorDelegate <NSObject>
@required
-(void)formSectionHasBeenRemoved:(XLFormSectionDescriptor *)formSection atIndex:(NSUInteger)index;
-(void)formSectionHasBeenAdded:(XLFormSectionDescriptor *)formSection atIndex:(NSUInteger)index;
-(void)formRowHasBeenAdded:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)formRow atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath;
-(void)formRowHasBeenRemoved:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)formRow atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath;
-(void)formRowDescriptorValueHasChanged:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)formRow oldValue:(id)oldValue newValue:(id)newValue;
@end
For instance if we want to show or hide a row depending on the value of another row:
-(void)formRowDescriptorValueHasChanged:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)rowDescriptor oldValue:(id)oldValue newValue:(id)newValue
{
// super implmentation MUST be called
[super formRowDescriptorValueHasChanged:rowDescriptor oldValue:oldValue newValue:newValue];
if ([rowDescriptor.tag isEqualToString:@"alert"]){
if ([[rowDescriptor.value valueData] isEqualToNumber:@(0)] == NO && [[oldValue valueData] isEqualToNumber:@(0)]){
XLFormRowDescriptor * newRow = [rowDescriptor copy];
[newRow setTag:@"secondAlert"];
newRow.title = @"Second Alert";
[self.form addFormRow:newRow afterRow:rowDescriptor];
}
else if ([[oldValue valueData] isEqualToNumber:@(0)] == NO && [[newValue valueData] isEqualToNumber:@(0)]){
[self.form removeFormRowWithTag:@"secondAlert"];
}
}
###Summary
XLForm allows you to define dependencies between rows so that if the value of one row is changed, the behaviour of another one changes automatically. For example, you might have a form where you question the user if he/she has pets. If the answer is 'yes' you might want to ask how their names are. So you can make a row invisible and visible again based on the values of other rows. The same happens with sections. Take a look at the following example:
Of course, you could also do this manually by observing the value of some rows and deleting and adding rows accordingly, but that would be a lot of work which is already done.
###How it works
To make the appearance and disappearance of rows and sections automatic, there is a property in each descriptor:
@property id hidden;
This id object will normally be a NSPredicate or a NSNumber containing a BOOL. It can be set using any of them or eventually a NSString from which a NSPredicate will be created. In order for this to work the string has to be sintactically correct.
For example, you could set the following string to a row (second
) to make it disappear when a previous row (first
) contains the value "hide".
second.hidden = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"$%@ contains[c] 'hide'", first];
This will insert the tag of the first
after the '$', you can do that manually as well, of course. When the predicate is evaluated every tag variable gets substituted by the corresponding row descriptor.
When the argument is a NSString, a '.value' will be appended to every tag unless the tag is followed by '.isHidden' or '.isDisabled'. This means that a row (or section) might depend on the value
or the hidden
or disabled
properties of another row. When the property is set with a NSPredicate directly, its formatString will not be altered (so you have to append a '.value' after each variable if you want to refer to its value). Setting a NSString is the simplest way but some complex predicates might not work so for those you should directly set a NSPredicate.
You can also set this properties with a bool object which means the value of the property will not change unless manually set.
To get the evaluated boolean value the isHidden
method should be called. It will not re-evaluate the predicate each time it gets called but just when the value (or hidden/disabled status) of the rows it depends on changes. When this happens and the return value changes, it will automagically reflect that change on the form so that no other method must be called.
Here is another example, this time a bit more complex:
Rows can be disabled so that the user can not change them. By default disabled rows have a gray text color. To disable a row the only thing that has to be done is setting its disabled property:
@property id disabled;
This property expects a NSNumber containing a BOOL, a NSString or a NSPredicate. A bool will statically disable (or enable the row). The other two work just like the hidden property explained in the section above. This means a row can be disabled and enabled depending on the values of other rows. When a NSString is set, a NSPredicate will be generated taking the string as format string so that it has to be consistent for that purpose.
A difference to the hidden property is that checking the disabled status of a row does not automatically reflect that value on the form. Tharefore, the XLFormViewController's updateFormRow method should be called.
We can validate the form data using XLForm validation support.
Each XLFormRowDescriptor
instance contains a list of validators. We can add validators, remove validators and validate a particular row using these methods:
-(void)addValidator:(id<XLFormValidatorProtocol>)validator;
-(void)removeValidator:(id<XLFormValidatorProtocol>)validator;
-(XLFormValidationStatus *)doValidation;
We can define our own custom validators just defining a object that conforms to XLFormValidatorProtocol
.
@protocol XLFormValidatorProtocol <NSObject>
@required
-(XLFormValidationStatus *)isValid:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)row;
@end
XLFormRegexValidator is an example of a validator we can create.
A very common validation is ensuring that a value is not empty or nil. XLFom exposes required
XLFormRowDescriptor property to specify required rows.
To get all rows validation errors we can invoke the following XLFormViewController
method:
-(NSArray *)formValidationErrors;
XLFormRowDescriptor
allow us to configure generic aspects of a UITableViewCell
, for example: the rowType
, the label
, the value
(default value), if the cell is required
, hidden
or disabled
, and so on.
You may want to set up another properties of the UITableViewCell
. To set up another properties XLForm
makes use of Key-Value Coding allowing the developer to set the cell properties by keyPath.
You just have to add the properties to cellConfig
or cellConfigAtConfigure
dictionary property of XLFormRowDescriptor
.
The main difference between cellConfig
and cellConfigAtConfigure
is the time when the property is set up. cellConfig
properties are set up each time a cell is about to be displayed. cellConfigAtConfigure
, on the other hand, set up the property just after the init method of the cell is called and only one time.
For instance if you want to set up the placeholder you can do the following:
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:@"title" rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:@"Title" forKey:@"textField.placeholder"];
[section addFormRow:row];
Let's see how to change the color of the cell label:
Objective C
row = [XLFormRowDescriptor formRowDescriptorWithTag:@"title" rowType:XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:[UIColor red] forKey:@"textLabel.textColor"];
[section addFormRow:row];
Swift
row = XLFormRowDescriptor(tag: "title", rowType: XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText, title: "title")
row.cellConfig.setObject(UIColor.blackColor(), forKey: "backgroundColor")
row.cellConfig.setObject(UIColor.whiteColor(), forKey: "textLabel.textColor")
section.addFormRow(row)
Assign the first responder when the form is shown is as simple as setting the property assignFirstResponderOnShow
to YES
. By default the value of the property is NO
.
@property (nonatomic) BOOL assignFirstResponderOnShow;
You should set the value
property of XLFormRowDescriptor
relevant instance.
@property (nonatomic) id value;
You may notice that the value
property type is id
and you are the responsable to set a value with the proper type. For instance, you should set a NSString
value to a XLFormRowDescriptor
instance of XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText
.
You may have to update the cell to see the UI changes if the row is already presented.
-(void)reloadFormRow:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)formRow
method is provided by XLFormViewController
to do so.
You should do the same as How to set a value to a row.
XLForm has several types of selectors rows. Almost all of them need to know which are the values to be selected. For a particular XLFormRowDescriptor
instance you specify these values setting a NSArray
instance to selectorOptions
property.
@property NSArray * selectorOptions;
If you want to get the raw form values you should call formValues
method of XLFormDescriptor
. Doing that you will get a dictionary containing all the form values.
tag
property value of each row is used as dictionary key. Only XLFormROwDescriptor
values for non nil tag
values are added to the dictionary.
You may be interested in the form values to use it as enpoint parameter. In this case httpParameters
would be useful.
If you need something different, you can iterate over each row...
Objective C
NSMutableDictionary * result = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
for (XLFormSectionDescriptor * section in self.form.formSections) {
if (!section.isMultivaluedSection){
for (XLFormRowDescriptor * row in section.formRows) {
if (row.tag && ![row.tag isEqualToString:@""]){
[result setObject:(row.value ?: [NSNull null]) forKey:row.tag];
}
}
}
else{
NSMutableArray * multiValuedValuesArray = [NSMutableArray new];
for (XLFormRowDescriptor * row in section.formRows) {
if (row.value){
[multiValuedValuesArray addObject:row.value];
}
}
[result setObject:multiValuedValuesArray forKey:section.multivaluedTag];
}
}
return result;
Swift
var results = [String:String]()
if let fullName = form.formRowWithTag(tag.fullName).value as? String {
results[tag.fullName] = fullName
}
You can change the font or any other table view cell property using the cellConfig
dictionary property. XLForm will set up cellConfig
dictionary values when the table view cell is about to be displayed.
Objective C
[row.cellConfig setObject:[UIColor greenColor] forKey:@"textLabel.textColor"];
[row.cellConfig setObject:[UIFont fontWithName:FONT_LATO_REGULAR size:12.0] forKey:@"textLabel.font"];
[row.cellConfig setObject:[UIFont fontWithName:FONT_LATO_REGULAR size:12.0] forKey:@"detailTextLabel.font"];
Swift
row.cellConfig.setObject(UIColor.whiteColor(), forKey: "self.tintColor")
row.cellConfig.setObject(UIFont(name: "AppleSDGothicNeo-Regular", size: 17)!, forKey: "textLabel.font")
row.cellConfig.setObject(UIColor.whiteColor(), forKey: "textField.textColor")
row.cellConfig.setObject(UIFont(name: "AppleSDGothicNeo-Regular", size: 17)!, forKey: "textField.font")
For further details, please take a look at UICustomizationFormViewController.m example.
####How to set min/max for date cells?
Each XLFormDateCell has a minimumDate
and a maximumDate
property. To set a datetime row to be a value in the next three days you would do as follows:
Objective C
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:[NSDate new] forKey:@"minimumDate"];
[row.cellConfigAtConfigure setObject:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:(60*60*24*3)] forKey:@"maximumDate"];
Swift
row.cellConfig.setObject(NSDate(), forKey: "maximumDate")
####How to disable the entire form (read only mode).
disable
XLFormDescriptor property can be used to disable the entire form. In order to make the displayed cell to take effect we should reload the visible cells ( [self.tableView reloadData] ).
Any other row added after form disable
property is set to YES
will reflect the disable mode automatically (no need to reload table view).
####How to hide a row or section when another rows value changes.
To hide a row or section you should set its hidden property. The easiest way of doing this is by setting a NSString to it. Let's say you want a section to hide if a previous row, which is a boolean switch, is set to 1 (or YES). Then you would do something like this:
section.hidden = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"$%@ == 1", previousRow];
That is all!
####What do I have to do to migrate from version 2.2.0 to 3.0.0?
The only thing that is not compatible with older versions is that the disabled
property of the XLFormRowDescriptor
is an id
now. So you just have to add @
before the values you set to it like this:
row.disabled = @YES; // before: row.disabled = YES;
The easiest way to use XLForm in your app is via CocoaPods.
- Add the following line in the project's Podfile file:
pod 'XLForm', '~> 3.0.0'
. - Run the command
pod install
from the Podfile folder directory.
XLForm has no dependencies over other pods.
Often master branch contains most recent features and latest fixes. On the other hand this features was not fully tested and changes on master may occur at any time. For the previous reasons I stongly recommend to fork the repository and manage the updates from master on your own making the proper pull on demand.
To use xmartlabs master branch.....
pod 'XLForm', :git => 'https://github.com/xmartlabs/XLForm.git'
You can replace the repository URL for your forked version url if you wish.
Install XLForm using cocoapods and add #import <XLForm/XLForm.h>
to your bridging header file.
For further details on how to create and configure the bridging header file visit Importing Objective-C into Swift.
- ARC
- iOS 7.0 and above
Version 3.0.0 (master)
-
hidden
,disable
properties added toXLFormRowDescriptor
.@YES
@NO
or aNSPredicate
can be used to hide, disable de row. -
hidden
property added toXLFormSectionDescriptor
.@YES
@NO
or aNSPredicate
can be used to hide the section. -
Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimerInline
andXLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimer
row type with an example. -
Deleted
dateFormatter
property and added support to use theNSValueTransformer
to convert the selected object to a NSString in the XLFormDateCell class. -
Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimerInline
andXLFormRowDescriptorTypeCountDownTimer
row type with an example. -
Deleted
dateFormatter
property and added support to use theNSValueTransformer
to convert the selected object to a NSString in the XLFormDateCell class.
Version 2.2.0
- Fixed "(null)" caption when
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorLeftRight
row required error message is shown. - Refresh the cell content instead of recreating one, when the form get back from a selection.
- Added XLFormRowDescriptor to validations error to easily show an error mask.
- Use row tag in validation error message if row does not have a title. It is also possible to set up a custom message if needed
- Added a convenience method to add a XLFormRowDescriptor instance before another one.
- Allow nil values in cellConfig and cellConfigAtConfigure.
- Fix constraints for textFieldCell when it is configured to be right aligned.
- Add asterisk to required segmentedCells if needed.
- Fail validation for empty strings and NSNull on required rows.
- Segue support added to buttons and selectors.
- Ability to configure a storyboardId or a viewController nibName to by used by button and selector rows as presented view controller.
- Fix scrolling to top when status bar is tapped.
- Fix wrong type of XLFormRowDescriptorTypeDecimal row. Now it's converted to NSNumber.
- Fix issue: XLFormRegexValidator only checks regex validation for NSStrings, not working for number.
- Callconfigure method from awakeFromNib on XLFormBaseCell.
- Assign form.delegate from inside setForm: method.
- Added custom cell, validation, reordering, can insert, can delete examples.
- Added support for inputAccessoryView. Default input accessory view allows to navigate among rows. Fully optionally and customizable.
- Added suport for row navigation. Fully optionally and customizable.
- beginEditing: endEditing: methods added. These method are called each time a row gains / loses firstResponder. They bring the ability to do UI changes.
- Read Only mode added.
disable
property added to XLFormDescriptor class. - Rename
label
XLFormTextViewCell property astextLabel
. - fix position of multivalued section accessory view.
- Can delete, can delete, can reorder section mode added. it's possible to enable some of them, don't need to enable all modes.
Version 2.1.0
- Change
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeText
,XLFormRowDescriptorTypeName
andXLFormRowDescriptorTypeTextView
keyboard type toUIKeyboardTypeDefault
. - Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeInfo
row type and example. - Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPopover
row type and example. - CI added. Created Test project into Tests folder and set up Travis.
- Documented how to customize UI. Added an example.
- Now XLFormViewController extends from UIViewController instead of UITableViewController.
- Added tableView property as a XLFormViewController IBOutlet.
- Added support for storyboard reuse identifier and nib file.
- Button selection can be handled using a selector or block.
- Added addAsteriskToRequiredRowsTitle property to XLFormDescriptor. NO is used as value by default.
- Image cell has been removed because it depends on AFNetworking and now needs to be implemented as a custom cell. You can find the image custom cell in Examples/Others/CustomCells.
Version 2.0.0 (cocoaPod)
- Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeMultipleSelector
row type and example. - Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPickerView
row type and example. - Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorPickerViewInline
row type and example. - Added generic way to create inline selector rows.
- Ability to customize row animations.
(NSDictionary *)formValues;
XLFormViewController method added in order to get raw form data.- Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeSelectorSegmentedControl
row type and example. - AFNetworking dependency removed.
- Added
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeStepCounter
row type and related example.
Version 1.0.1 (cocoaPod)
- Added storyboard example.
- Added button
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeButton
example. - Documented how to add a custom row.
- Fixed issues: #2, #3, #27, #38.
- Fixed crash caused by inline date rows. #6
- Fixed ipad issue invalid cell layout. #10
- New convenience methods to insert sections dinamically. #13
- Change default label style to
UIFontTextStyleBody
. #18 - Added step counter row,
XLFormRowDescriptorTypeStepCounter
. - Added
initWithCoder
initializer toXLFormViewController
. #32. - Added a convenience method to deselect a
XLFormRowDescriptor
.-(void)deselectFormRow:(XLFormRowDescriptor *)row;
. #33.
Version 1.0.0 (cocoaPod)
- Initial release
Any suggestion or question? Please create a Github issue or reach us out.