Use FormField classes for better API and reduce redundant code

Right now a lot of field types have the same template, but only the type="text | date | email " is different.

If you want to change the layout of the fields, you need to override a lot of templates (for example if you want a .form-horizontal).

What about something like this:

$fields = new FieldList(
    new EmailField('email', 'Email'),
    new DropdownField('status', 'Status', ['yes', 'no']),
    new TextField('name', 'Name') // 'Name' optional, so it will be taken from 'name'
);

instead of

$fields = [
    [
        'type'  => 'email',
        'label' => 'Email',
        'name'  => 'email',
    ],
    [
        'type'  => 'select',
        'label' => 'Status',
        'name'  => 'status',
        'options' => ['yes', 'no']
    ],
    [
        'type'  => 'text',
        'label' => 'Name',
        'name'  => 'name',
    ]

];

For the EmailField you don’t need a seperate template and the API for the Dropdown Field is perfeclty clear without need to refer to documenation when you have something like this (quick boiler plating) :

class DropdownField extends FormField
{
    protected $options = [];

    protected $type = 'select';

    public function __construct($name, $label, $options)
    {
        $this->options = $options;

        parent::__construct($name, $label);
    }
}

class EmailField extends TextField
{
    protected $type = 'email';
}

class TextField extends FormField
{
    public function view()
    {
        return view('fields.' . $this->template, ['field' => $this]);
    }
}

abstract class FormField
{
    protected $name;

    protected $label;

    protected $attributes = [];

    protected $classes = [
        'holder' => ['form-group'],
        'label'  => ['control-label'],
        'field'  => ['form-control'],
    ];

    protected $template = 'text';

    protected $type = 'text';

    public function __construct($name, $label)
    {
        $this->name  = $name;
        $this->label = $label;
    }

    public function setAttribute($attr, $value)
    {
        $this->attributesp[$attr] = $value;
        return $this;
    }

    public function addClass($class, $target = 'field') // ? field and holder?
    {
        $this->classes[$target][] = $class;
        return $this;
    }

[tabacitu]

@axyr , you’ve got me thinking. Maybe the best way to write the CRUD code is the most familiar way. The Laravel way. So wouldn’t it make sense to make it as close as possible to the Schema builder?

Ideally, you should be able to copy-paste your schema and make a few changes. So that:

Schema::create('articles', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->increments('id');
    $table->integer('category_id')->unsigned();
    $table->string('title');
    $table->string('slug')->default('');
    $table->text('content');
    $table->string('image')->nullable();
    $table->enum('status', ['PUBLISHED', 'DRAFT'])->default('PUBLISHED');
    $table->date('date');
    $table->boolean('featured')->default(0);
    $table->timestamps();
    $table->softDeletes();
});

turns into:

$this->crud->setModel("App\Models\Article");
$this->crud->setRoute('admin/article');
$this->crud->setEntityNameStrings('article', 'articles');

$this->crud->addFields('create', function (CrudForm $form) {
    $form->increments('id');
    $form->select('category_id', 'App\Models\Category');
    $form->string('title');
    $form->string('slug');
    $form->text('content');
    $form->browse('image');
    $form->enum('status');
    $form->date('date');
    $form->boolean('featured');
});

What do you think?

@cristiantone @Ghitu - what do you guys think?

[tabacitu]

Yup, thank you. We’ll keep this in mind for v4 - the nearest term when we can consider a syntax change.