30 Seconds on the Drupal Form API

It's pretty easy to forget all the details of the Drupal Forms API, so we'll stop for a minute for a very short review.

(This one is at ahah_demo/simple_form.)

You add a form to your page like this:

<?php
$output .= drupal_get_form('ahah_demo_simplest_form');
?>

Often that's done right from the hook_menu implementation.

The layout of a form is as below:

<?php
/**
 * A Hello-world for Forms API (FAPI)
 */
function ajax_demo_simplest_form($form, &$form_state) {

  $form['explanation'] = array(
    '#type' => 'markup',
    '#value' => '<div>' . t('This is a basic form with just a bit of information') . '</div>',
  );

  $form['experience'] = array(
    '#type' => 'select',
    '#title' => t('What is your experience level in Drupal?'),
    '#options' => array(
      'expert' => t('Expert'),
      'journeyman' => t('Journeyman'),
      'beginner' => t('Beginner')),
  );
  $form['more'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t("Say more about yourself"),
    '#description' => t('Surely one word can\'t describe you.'),
  );
  $form['submit'] = array(
    '#type' => 'submit',
    '#value' => t('Click Me'),
  );

  return $form;
}


function ajax_demo_simplest_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {
  drupal_set_message(t('You have claimed to be %experience: %more',
    array(
      '%experience'=>$form_state['values']['experience'],
      '%more' => $form_state['values']['more'],
    )
  ));
}
?>

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1 Comment

Just the info I needed!

Submitted by Christopher Stevens on

Drupal 7 forms in plain English! This is just the quick start I needed. It clicked. Life is good now.

Thanks a ton!

Best regards,

Chris