JForm::setField/s - Add field to fieldset

Question

So I'm trying to get my head around the creation of fields on the fly using JForm::setField. But as usual there is no documentation explaining how to use this method only the very minimal API description.

I want to add a number of fields to a fieldset in a form on the fly. I've figured out that $group is not the fieldset name so I don't understand what it is supposed to do...?

I've successfully added the field using the following:

$element = new SimpleXMLElement('<field name="onfly"
                                        type="text"
                                        label="onfly"
                                        description="onfly desc"
                                        class="inputbox"
                                        size="30"
                                        required="true" />');
$form->setField($element);

But I can't add it to the fieldset I want. I can add the <fieldset> tags to $element but that deletes any preexisting fields in that fieldset.

Also, since I will be using a loop to add multiple fields, should I be using JForm::setFields instead? In which case I haven't a clue how to use that method!

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks

Answer 1

I am not sure, but you can try load method:

$element = '
            <field name="onfly"
            type="text"
            label="onfly"
            description="onfly desc"
            class="inputbox"
            size="30"
            required="true" />
            ';
// Define your fieldset here
$xpath = '//fieldset[@name="yourfieldset"]';

JForm->load($element, false, $xpath);

Answer 2

The solution I used here was to forget about trying to add the field to a preexisting fieldset and add multiple fields to a group instead.

$newfields = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
$elements = array();
foreach ($newfields as $field) {
    $elements[] = new SimpleXMLElement('<field name="onfly_'.$field.'"
                                                type="text"
                                                label="onfly_'.$field.'"
                                                description="onfly desc"
                                                class="inputbox"
                                                size="30"
                                                required="true" />');
}
$form->setFields($elements, 'newGroup');

This allowed me to loop through each field in the group to render them all

foreach ($this->form->getGroup('newGroup') as $field) { 
    echo $field->renderField($options);
}

Answer 3

Seems you can not add any new field in any existing fieldset. You need to create a new fieldset in the following format

$element = new SimpleXMLElement('<fieldset name="any_name">
                                    <field name="onfly"
                                          type="text"
                                          label="onfly"
                                          description="onfly desc"
                                          class="inputbox"
                                          size="30"
                                          required="true" />
                                  </fieldset>');
$form->setField($element);

You can multiple field tag in the same fieldset tag.

Another alternate way could be (I am not sure) : You can read the xml file, find the fieldset and add children to it. After that, you can load the new xml string into same $form instance.