Data Modelling

A key design decision when creating formify was the mixing of the UI with the data model. This allows for advanced functionality like autosave/autoload out of the box. However, it comes at the cost of flexibility. This section covers how data can be modeled using formify.

Nested Values

This example shows a nested Form containing basic contact_info. The nested form can be placed inside a parent form and its data is placed into a sub-dict with the variable name given to the child form.

If you were to remove the variable_name of the contact_info Form, no sub-dict would be created.

CodeDataScreenshot

import json
from formify import *

contact_info = Form(Col(
    ControlText("Phone Number", variable_name="phone"),
    ControlText("Email Address", variable_name="email"),
), variable_name="contact_info")


main_from = Form(Col(
    Row(
        ControlText("First Name", variable_name="first_name"),
        ControlText("Surname", variable_name="surname"),
    ),
    ControlInt("Age", variable_name="age"),
    contact_info,
    ControlButton(
        "Print Value", 
        on_click=lambda: print(json.dumps(main_from.value, indent=2))
    ),
))

MainWindow(main_from, margin=9, title="Nested Values")

main_form.value gives:

{
  "first_name": "Nicola",
  "surname": "Hailee",
  "age": 32,
  "contact_info": {
    "phone": "+1 544 554 335",
    "email": "n.hailee@domain.xyz"
  }
}

Flatten Nested Values

__flatten__ is a special variable name, that includes the fields in a form into the parent form. If we were to replace the variable_name in the contact form....

contact_info = Form(Col(
    ControlText("Phone Number", variable_name="phone"),
    ControlText("Email Address", variable_name="email"),
), variable_name="__flatten__")

... the resulting data model would look like this:

{
  "first_name": "Nicola",
  "surname": "Hailee",
  "age": 32,
  "phone": "+1 544 554 335",
  "email": "n.hailee@domain.xyz"
}

Lists

A ListForm can be used to model fields that can have multiple entries. Building from the example above, we can add an arbitrary number of contact information sets.