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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/>
<title>Alpaca - Easy Forms for jQuery - Tutorials</title>
<meta name="keywords"
content="jquery forms,JSON forms"/>
<meta name="description"
content="Alpaca is a client-side, cross-platform, JSON based forms engine for rendering elegant forms. It comes with comprehensive control library and support for validation, wizard, layout, templating, preview, i18n etc. Built upon jQuery library, jQuery UI and jQuery Mobile, it can be easily extended for additional form controls."/>
<meta name="author" content="Gitana Software Inc."/>
<link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="favicon.ico"/>
<!-- jQuery -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="./lib/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./lib/jquery.tmpl.js"></script>
<!-- Alpaca -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="./components/alpaca/alpaca.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" href="./components/alpaca/alpaca.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<!-- jQuery UI Theme -->
<link type="text/css" href="./examples/lib/jquery-ui-latest/jquery-ui-latest.custom.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<!-- Additional CSS -->
<link type="text/css" href="./examples/css/960.fluid.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<!-- Web Site -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="./examples/lib/google-code-prettify/prettify.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./examples/js/themeswitchertool.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./examples/js/example.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./examples/js/footer.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" href="./examples/css/site.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<link type="text/css" href="./examples/lib/google-code-prettify/prettify.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./examples/lib/tweet/jquery.tweet.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" href="./examples/lib/tweet/jquery.tweet.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://use.typekit.com/fnm3kpm.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){}</script>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<div class='container_12'>
<div class='actual-body'>
<div class='grid_12'>
<h1><img src="examples/img/alpaca.png"><span>Easy Forms for jQuery</span></h1>
<div class="resource-bar">
<a href="index.html">Home</a>
<a href="resources.html">Downloads</a>
<a href="examples/components/fields/text-field.html">Documentation</a>
<a href="examples/forms/customer-profile/edit-form.html">Forms</a>
<a href="resources.html#mobile">Mobile</a>
<a href="tutorials.html" class="current">Tutorials</a>
<a href="consulting.html">Consulting</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</header>
<div class='container_12'>
<div class="actual-body">
<div class='grid_12'>
<div class="widget">
<div class="widget-title">
<h2>Alpaca Form Walkthrough Example</h2>
</div>
<div class="widget-body">
<div class="step">
<img src="examples/img/step-1.png"/>
<p>
Use your favorite text editor to create an empty html file and then include latest jQuery library,
Alpaca JavaScript library and Alpaca stylesheet in its head section.
</p>
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.alpacajs.org/js/alpaca.min.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" href="http://www.alpacajs.org/css/alpaca.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
</pre>
</div>
<div class="step">
<img src="examples/img/step-2.png"/>
<p>
Add a div to the body section of your html file and we are now ready to use Alpaca to render a feedback
form within the div. Let us first try to use only a schema parameter which is a JSON schema document
that describes the data structure of a "User Feedback" object with three properties, name, feedback and ranking.
</p>
<p>
As illustrated in
the following example, Alpaca is able to render a basic feedback form based on the provided schema.
It maps object property to form field based on it data type and format. For example, a string type
object property
will be mapped to a text field. However if we specify a list of allowed values for the
property with an enum attribute, Alpaca will instead render a
radio button group (or a drop-down select if the number of enum options is more than three) with all
values listed in the enum attribute. Since it is not a required field, Alpaca will automatically append
a None option to the radio button group which maps to empty value.
</p>
<p>
The feedback form we have at this point is very basic because the schema parameter only describes the data
structure and format. As for the options of the rendered form fields, Alpaca makes a lot of assumptions,
e.g. the size of text field is set as 40 as default.
</p>
<div class="container_12">
<div class='grid_6'>
<div id="form1" class="tutorial-example"></div>
</div>
<div class='grid_6'>
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">
<div id="form1">
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$("#form1").alpaca({
"schema": {
"title":"User Feedback",
"description":"What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type":"object",
"properties": {
"name": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Name"
},
"feedback": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Feedback"
},
"ranking": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Ranking",
"enum":['excellent','ok','so so']
}
}
}
});
});
</script>
</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="step">
<img src="examples/img/step-3.png"/>
<p>
To render a better feedback form, let us add an options parameter in addition to the schema parameter. The
options parameter is another JSON document that specifies type and options for the rendered form fields. It now
sets the size of name field as 20, maps the feedback object property to a textarea field and uses drop-down
select for the ranking object property with custom option labels.
</p>
<p>
The options parameter can also be used to provide additional field labels and help messages or overwrite the
ones that came from the schema parameter. In general, we can couple the same schema parameter with
different options parameters to render the form in various formats.
</p>
<div class="container_12">
<div class='grid_6'>
<div id="form2" class="tutorial-example"></div>
</div>
<div class='grid_6'>
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">
<div id="form1">
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$("#form1").alpaca({
"schema": {
"title":"User Feedback",
"description":"What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type":"object",
"properties": {
"name": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Name"
},
"feedback": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Feedback"
},
"ranking": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Ranking",
"enum":['excellent','ok','so so']
}
}
},
"options": {
"helper": "Tell us what you think about Alpaca!",
"fields": {
"name": {
"size": 20,
"helper": "Please enter your name.",
"placeholder": "Enter your name"
},
"feedback" : {
"type": "textarea",
"rows": 5,
"cols": 40,
"helper": "Please enter your feedback."
},
"ranking": {
"type": "select",
"helper": "Select your ranking.",
"optionLabels": ["Awesome!",
"It's Ok",
"Hmm..."]
}
}
}
});
});
</script>
</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="step">
<img src="examples/img/step-4.png"/>
<p>
The ultimate reason for using Alpaca forms service is to provide end users with a friendly interface for
collecting their inputs. Those collected information normally needs to be submitted to and stored in a backend
system such as database, CMS etc.
</p>
<p>
With the schema parameter and the optional options parameter, Alpaca has rendered a decent feedback form with
normal HTML form tags. To make it interact with backend services, we have a few options
</p>
<p>
1. Render the form inside a FORM tag instead of the div tag. The FORM tag can come with all required attributes
such as action, method etc. A submit button can also be added to the FORM tag. Clicking on the
submit button will result in form submission just like any other HTML form.
</p>
<p>
2. Or we can ask Alpaca to render the FORM tag for us by providing form related options in the options
parameter. As
shown in the following example, Alpaca now renders the FORM tag with the specified method and endpoint as well
as a SUBMIT button. Try to click the SUBMIT button and see what happens!
</p>
<p>
Alpaca sets the name attribute of a rendered field based on its schema property name in case we didn't
specify it
through the options parameter. For the following example, we will have "name" for the name field and
"your_feedback" for the feedback field.
</p>
<p>
We have also provide Alpaca with a new data parameter which is a JSON document used by Alpaca as the initial
data for
populating the form. We have also make both name and ranking field as required field. Now if you leave the name
field empty, Alpaca will automatically invalidate the field and display an error message.
</p>
<p>
You may also notice this rendered form has different styles than the previous example. That is because we set
Alpaca with a view parameter which makes Alpaca to pick a different set of templates for form rendition.
</p>
<div class="container_12">
<div class='grid_6'>
<div id="form3" class="tutorial-example"></div>
</div>
<div class='grid_6'>
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">
<div id="form1">
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$("#form1").alpaca({
"data": {
"name": "Britney Spears",
"feedback": "Alpaca is very cute.",
"ranking": "excellent"
},
"schema": {
"title":"User Feedback",
"description":"What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type":"object",
"properties": {
"name": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Name",
"required":true
},
"feedback": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Feedback"
},
"ranking": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Ranking",
"enum":['excellent','ok','so so'],
"required":true
}
}
},
"options": {
"renderForm":true,
"form":{
"attributes":{
"action":"examples/endpoints/save.php",
"method":"post"
},
"buttons":{
"submit":{}
}
},
"helper": "Tell us what you think about Alpaca!",
"fields": {
"name": {
"size": 20,
"helper": "Please enter your name."
},
"feedback" : {
"type": "textarea",
"name": "your_feedback",
"rows": 5,
"cols": 40,
"helper": "Please enter your feedback."
},
"ranking": {
"type": "select",
"helper": "Select your ranking.",
"optionLabels": ["Awesome!",
"It's Ok",
"Hmm..."]
}
}
},
"view" : "VIEW_WEB_EDIT_LIST"
});
});
</script>
</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="step">
<img src="examples/img/step-5.png"/>
<p>
Alpaca is capable of not only rendering a form based on JSON schema but also reassembling form inputs into a
JSON document according to the data structure described by the same JSON schema.
</p>
<p>
This brings us a better option for interacting Alpaca with backend services. As shown in the following example,
by introducing a "postRender"
callback function which gets invoked once the form rendition is finished, we are able to get hold of the
reassembled JSON document, validate it and post it to a backend service.
</p>
<p>
For developers, this will be the place to do any required post-processing since Alpaca will feed the callback
function with the top-most form control that it constructs. We can easily gain access to any other Alpaca form
control by using API such as <i>renderedForm.children</i>, <i>renderedForm.childrenByPropertyId</i>, <i>renderForm.getControlByPath</i>
etc. From any Alpaca form control, we can get the DOM element of its mapped form field by making a simple API
call, <i>myControl.field</i>.
</p>
<div class="container_12">
<div class='grid_6'>
<div id="form4" class="tutorial-example"></div>
<div class="tutorial-example"><input type="button" id="form4-button" value="Save"/></div>
</div>
<div class='grid_6'>
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">
<div id="form1"></div>
<div>
<input type="button" id="form1-button" value="Save">
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$("#form1").alpaca({
"data": {
"name": "Britney Spears",
"feedback": "Alpaca is very cute.",
"ranking": "excellent"
},
"schema": {
"title":"User Feedback",
"description":"What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type":"object",
"properties": {
"name": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Name",
"required":true
},
"feedback": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Feedback"
},
"ranking": {
"type":"string",
"title":"Ranking",
"enum":['excellent','ok','so so'],
"required":true
}
}
},
"options": {
"helper": "Tell us what you think about Alpaca!",
"fields": {
"name": {
"size": 20,
"helper": "Please enter your name."
},
"feedback" : {
"type": "textarea",
"name": "your_feedback",
"rows": 5,
"cols": 40,
"helper": "Please enter your feedback."
},
"ranking": {
"type": "select",
"helper": "Select your ranking.",
"optionLabels": ["Awesome!",
"It's Ok",
"Hmm..."]
}
}
},
"view" : "VIEW_WEB_EDIT_LIST",
"postRender": function(renderedForm) {
$('#form4-button').click(function() {
if (renderedForm.isValid(true)) {
var val = renderedForm.getValue();
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "examples/endpoints/save2.php",
data: {json:JSON.stringify(val)},
success: function(msg) {
alert("Request received: " + msg);
}
});
}
});
}
});
});
</script>
</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="step">
<img src="examples/img/step-6.png"/>
<p>
Alpaca is a client-side forms engine which means form rendition and data processing all happen on client
side <i>e.g.</i> client browser. This provides a great foundation for high performance and scalability since
JSON is the native data format that all browsers understand and it is the easiest format for data manipulation.
Once the jQuery and Alpaca library are downloaded and cached on client side, there will be no other overhead.
</p>
<p>
Plugging Alpaca into your existing application should be fairly straightforward. All you need to do is to
provide an endpoint for serving Alpaca with data in JSON and another endpoint for taking re-assembled JSON
document with user inputs from Alpaca for data persistence. Most modern day backend systems may already
have those two endpoints.
</p>
<p>
As illustrated by the above examples, using Alpaca is mainly through configuration rather than coding. Since
schema and options parameters are also JSON documents, they can be stored in and served by your back
systems as well. If you can plugin an adapter that converts XML document to JSON document, you can use Alpaca for your
XML data as well.
</p>
<p>
If you are interested in learning more about Alpaca or planning to use Alpaca for your project, please check out
Alpaca <a href="resources.html" title="Alpaca Resources">resources</a> page
for download links, documentation, samples <i>etc.</i>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clear clearfix"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<div class="container_12">
<div class="grid_12 copyright">
Copyright © 2013 Gitana Software, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
</div>
</div>
</footer>
<script>
$('#form1').alpaca({
"schema" : {
"title" : "User Feedback",
"description" : "What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type" : "object",
"properties" : {
"name" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Name"
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Feedback"
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Ranking",
"enum" : ['excellent','ok','so so']
}
}
}
});
$('#form2').alpaca({
"schema" : {
"title" : "User Feedback",
"description" : "What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type" : "object",
"properties" : {
"name" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Name"
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Feedback"
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Ranking",
"enum" : ['excellent','ok','so so']
}
}
},
"options" : {
"helper" : "Tell us what you think about Alpaca!",
"fields" : {
"name" : {
"size" : 20,
"helper" : "Please enter your name.",
"placeholder": "Enter your name"
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "textarea",
"rows" : 5,
"cols" : 40,
"helper" : "Please enter your feedback."
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "select",
"helper" : "Select your ranking.",
"optionLabels" : ["Awesome!","It's Ok","Hmm..."]
}
}
}
});
$('#form3').alpaca({
"data" : {
"name" : "Britney Spears",
"feedback" : "Alpaca is very cute.",
"ranking" : "excellent"
},
"schema" : {
"title" : "User Feedback",
"description" : "What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type" : "object",
"properties" : {
"name" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Name",
"required" : true
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Feedback"
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Ranking",
"enum" : ['excellent','ok','so so'],
"required" : true
}
}
},
"options" : {
"renderForm":true,
"form":{
"attributes":{
"action":"examples/endpoints/save.php",
"method":"post"
},
"buttons":{
"submit":{}
}
},
"fields" : {
"helper" : "Tell us what you think about Alpaca!",
"name" : {
"size" : 20,
"helper" : "Please enter your name."
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "textarea",
"name" : "your_feedback",
"rows" : 5,
"cols" : 30,
"helper" : "Please enter your feedback."
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "select",
"helper" : "Select your ranking.",
"optionLabels" : ["Awesome!","It's Ok","Hmm..."]
}
}
},
"view" : "VIEW_WEB_EDIT_LIST"
});
$('#form4').alpaca({
"data" : {
"name" : "Britney Spears",
"feedback" : "Alpaca is very cute.",
"ranking" : "excellent"
},
"schema" : {
"title" : "User Feedback",
"description" : "What do you think about Alpaca?",
"type" : "object",
"properties" : {
"name" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Name",
"required" : true
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Feedback"
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "string",
"title" : "Ranking",
"enum" : ['excellent','ok','so so'],
"required" : true
}
}
},
"options" : {
"fields" : {
"helper" : "Tell us what you think about Alpaca!",
"name" : {
"size" : 20,
"helper" : "Please enter your name."
},
"feedback" : {
"type" : "textarea",
"name" : "your_feedback",
"rows" : 5,
"cols" : 30,
"helper" : "Please enter your feedback."
},
"ranking" : {
"type" : "select",
"helper" : "Select your ranking.",
"optionLabels" : ["Awesome!","It's Ok","Hmm..."]
}
}
},
"view" : "VIEW_WEB_EDIT_LIST",
"postRender": function(renderedForm) {
$('#form4-button').click(function() {
if (renderedForm.isValid(true)) {
var val = renderedForm.getValue();
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "examples/endpoints/save2.php",
data: {json:JSON.stringify(val)},
success: function(msg) {
alert("Request received: " + msg);
}
});
}
});
}
});
</script>
<script>
window.prettyPrint && prettyPrint();
</script>
</body>
</html>