PHP Form Builder Class

Project Overview

The PFBC (PHP Form Builder Class) project is developed with the following goals in mind...

• Promote rapid development of forms through an object-oriented PHP structure.
• Eliminate the grunt/repetitive work of writing the html and validation when building forms.
• Reduce human error by using a consistent/tested utility.

This project was first release to the open source community on April, 24 2009 at PHPClass.org. It was moved to its current location at Google's Project Hosting service on November 16, 2009. Since the initial release, the project has gone through over 20 revisions and is still under active development.

Version 2.x represents the first major rewrite in the project's history and attempts to evolve PFBC into a code base that is more efficient, easier to manage, and extensible.

System Requirements

• PHP 5

What's New/Different in Version 2.x

PFBC version 2.x is a complete rewrite of the last 1.x version released - 1.1.4. This rewrite was done for several reasons...

• Organization - In version 1.x, most of the project's functionality was stuffed inside a single file - class.form.php, which made code's readability and management a real challenge. Version 2.x organizes the various pieces of the project into a logical directory structure.
• Extensibility - The new object-oriented model in version 2.x allows you extend the project's functionality more easily. Examples of extensibility include creating your own form elements, customizing the form's html/css structure, and/or creating new validation rules.
• Performance - In order to comply with xhtml strict rules, version 1.x used ajax to insert the form's required css/javascript into the document's head tag, negatively impacted performance. Version 2.x implements a new, simplified strategy where the form's required css is included before the form's html structure is sent to the browser (javascript is inserted after the form's html structure). This improves performance and reduces the occurance of unexpected shifts caused when the form's css is loaded and applied after the form's mark up is visible on the webpage.

PFBC version 2.x is not a direct replacement for the last 1.x version released - 1.1.4. In other words, migrating from 1.x to 2.x requires more than simply overwriting the project's directory on your web server. Below is a list of changes that you should be aware of when transitioning to using PFBC version 2.x.