HTML::Widget(3)

NAME
HTML::Widget - HTML Widget And Validation Framework

NOTE
HTML::Widget is no longer under active development and the current maintainers are instead pursuing an intended replacement (see the mailing-list for details).

Volunteer maintainers / developers for HTML::Widget, please contact the mailing-list.

SYNOPSIS
    use HTML::Widget;

    # Create a widget
    my $w = HTML::Widget->new('widget')->method('get')->action('/');

    # Add a fieldset to contain the elements
    my $fs = $w->element( 'Fieldset', 'user' )->legend('User Details');

    # Add some elements
    $fs->element( 'Textfield', 'age' )->label('Age')->size(3);
    $fs->element( 'Textfield', 'name' )->label('Name')->size(60);
    $fs->element( 'Submit', 'ok' )->value('OK');

    # Add some constraints
    $w->constraint( 'Integer', 'age' )->message('No integer.');
    $w->constraint( 'Not_Integer', 'name' )->message('Integer.');
    $w->constraint( 'All', 'age', 'name' )->message('Missing value.');

    # Add some filters
    $w->filter('Whitespace');

    # Process
    my $result = $w->process;
    my $result = $w->process($query);

    # Check validation results
    my @valid_fields   = $result->valid;
    my $is_valid       = $result->valid('foo');
    my @invalid_fields = $result->have_errors;
    my $is_invalid     = $result->has_errors('foo');;

    # CGI.pm-compatible! (read-only)
    my $value  = $result->param('foo');
    my @params = $result->param;

    # Catalyst::Request-compatible
    my $value = $result->params->{foo};
    my @params = keys %{ $result->params };

    # Merge widgets (constraints and elements will be appended)
    $widget->merge($other_widget);

    # Embed widgets (as fieldset)
    $widget->embed($other_widget);

    # Get list of elements
    my @elements = $widget->get_elements;

    # Get list of constraints
    my @constraints = $widget->get_constraints;

    # Get list of filters
    my @filters = $widget->get_filters;

    # Complete xml result
    [% result %]
    [% result.as_xml %]

    # Iterate over elements
    <form action="/foo" method="get">
    [% FOREACH element = result.elements %]
        [% element.field_xml %]
        [% element.error_xml %]
    [% END %]
    </form>

    # Iterate over validation errors
    [% FOREACH element = result.have_errors %]
        <p>
        [% element %]:<br/>
        <ul>
        [% FOREACH error = result.errors(element) %]
            <li>
                [% error.name %]: [% error.message %] ([% error.type %])
            </li>
        [% END %]
        </ul>
        </p>
    [% END %]

    <p><ul>
    [% FOREACH element = result.have_errors %]
        [% IF result.error( element, 'Integer' ) %]
            <li>[% element %] has to be an integer.</li>
        [% END %]
    [% END %]
    </ul></p>

    [% FOREACH error = result.errors %]
        <li>[% error.name %]: [% error.message %] ([% error.type %])</li>
    [% END %]

    # XML output looks like this (easy to theme with css)
    <form action="/foo/bar" id="widget" method="post">
        <fieldset>
            <label for="widget_age" id="widget_age_label"
              class="labels_with_errors">
                Age
                <span class="label_comments" id="widget_age_comment">
                    (Required)
                </span>
                <span class="fields_with_errors">
                    <input id="widget_age" name="age" size="3" type="text"
                      value="24" class="Textfield" />
                </span>
            </label>
            <span class="error_messages" id="widget_age_errors">
                <span class="Regex_errors" id="widget_age_error_Regex">
                    Contains digit characters.
                </span>
            </span>
            <label for="widget_name" id="widget_name_label">
                Name
                <input id="widget_name" name="name" size="60" type="text"
                  value="sri" class="Textfield" />
                <span class="error_messages" id="widget_name_errors"></span>
            </label>
            <input id="widget_ok" name="ok" type="submit" value="OK" />
        </fieldset>
    </form>

DESCRIPTION
Create easy to maintain HTML widgets!

Everything is optional, use validation only or just generate forms, you can embed and merge them later.

The API was designed similar to other popular modules like Data::FormValidator and FormValidator::Simple, HTML::FillInForm is also built in (and much faster).

This Module is very powerful, don't misuse it as a template system!

METHODS

  new
Arguments: $name, \%attributes

Return Value: $widget

Create a new HTML::Widget object. The name parameter will be used as the id of the form created by the to_xml method.

The "attributes" argument is equivalent to using the "attributes" method.

  action
Arguments: $uri

Return Value: $uri

Get/Set the action associated with the form. The default is no action, which causes most browsers to submit to the current URI.

  attributes

  attrs
Arguments: %attributes

Arguments: \%attributes

Return Value: $widget

Arguments: none

Return Value: \%attributes

Accepts either a list of key/value pairs, or a hash-ref.

    $w->attributes( $key => $value );
    $w->attributes( { $key => $value } );

Returns the $widget object, to allow method chaining.

As of v1.10, passing a hash-ref no longer deletes current attributes, instead the attributes are added to the current attributes hash.

This means the attributes hash-ref can no longer be emptied using "$w->attributes( { } );". Instead, you may use "%{ $w->attributes } = ();".

As a special case, if no arguments are passed, the return value is a hash-ref of attributes instead of the object reference. This provides backwards compatability to support:

    $w->attributes->{key} = $value;

"attrs" is an alias for "attributes".

  container
Arguments: $tag

Return Value: $tag

Get/Set the tag used to contain the XML output when as_xml is called on the HTML::Widget object. Defaults to "form".

  element_container_class
Arguments: $class_name

Return Value: $class_name

Get/Set the container_class override for all elements in this widget. If set to non-zero value, process will call $element->container_class($class_name) for each element. Defaults to not set.

See "container_class" in HTML::Widget::Element.

  elem

  element
Arguments: $type, $name, \%attributes

Return Value: $element

Add a new element to the Widget. Each element must be given at least a type. The name is used to generate an id attribute on the tag created for the element, and for form-specific elements is used as the name attribute. The returned element object can be used to set further attributes, please see the individual element classes for the methods specific to each one.

The "attributes" argument is equivalent to using the attributes method.

If the element starts with a name other than "HTML::Widget::Element::", you can fully qualify the name by using a unary plus:

    $self->element( "+Fully::Qualified::Name", $name );

The type can be one of the following:

HTML::Widget::Element::Block
        my $e = $widget->element('Block');

    Add a Block element, which by default will be rendered as a "DIV".

        my $e = $widget->element('Block');
        $e->type('img');

HTML::Widget::Element::Button
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Button', 'foo' );
        $e->value('bar');

    Add a button element.

        my $e = $widget->element( 'Button', 'foo' );
        $e->value('bar');
        $e->content('<b>arbitrary markup</b>');
        $e->type('submit');

    Add a button element which uses a "button" html tag rather than an "input" tag. The value of "content" is not html-escaped, so may contain html markup.

HTML::Widget::Element::Checkbox
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Checkbox', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->checked('checked');
        $e->value('bar');

    Add a standard checkbox element.

HTML::Widget::Element::Fieldset
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Fieldset', 'foo' );
        $e->legend('Personal details');
        $e->element('Textfield', 'name');
        $e->element('Textarea', 'address');

    Adds a nested fieldset element, which can contain further elements.

HTML::Widget::Element::Hidden
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Hidden', 'foo' );
        $e->value('bar');

    Add a hidden field. This field is mainly used for passing previously gathered data between multiple page forms.

HTML::Widget::Element::Password
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Password', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->fill(1);
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->size(23);
        $e->value('bar');

    Add a password field. This is a text field that will not show the user what they are typing, but show asterisks instead.

HTML::Widget::Element::Radio
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Radio', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->checked('checked');
        $e->value('bar');

    Add a radio button to a group. Radio buttons with the same name will work as a group. That is, only one item in the group will be "on" at a time.

HTML::Widget::Element::RadioGroup
        my $e = $widget->element( 'RadioGroup', 'name' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo'); # Label for whole radio group
        $e->value('bar'); # Currently selected value
        $e->labels([qw/Fu Bur Garch/]); # default to ucfirst of values

    This is a shortcut to add multiple radio buttons with the same name at the same time. See above.

HTML::Widget::Element::Reset
        $e = $widget->element( 'Reset', 'foo' );
        $e->value('bar');

    Create a reset button. The text on the button will default to "Reset", unless you call the value() method. This button resets the form to its original values.

HTML::Widget::Element::Select
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Select', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->size(23);
        $e->options( foo => 'Foo', bar => 'Bar' );
        $e->selected(qw/foo bar/);

    Create a dropdown or multi-select list element with multiple options. Options are supplied in a key => value list, in which the keys are the actual selected IDs, and the values are the strings displayed in the dropdown.

HTML::Widget::Element::Span
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Span' );
        $e->content('bar');

    Create a simple span tag, containing the given content. Spans cannot be constrained as they are not entry fields.

    The content may be a string, an HTML::Element object, or an array-ref of HTML::Element objects.

HTML::Widget::Element::Submit
        $e = $widget->element( 'Submit', 'foo' );
        $e->value('bar');

    Create a submit button. The text on the button will default to "Submit", unless you call the value() method.

        $e = $widget->element( 'Submit', 'foo' );
        $e->value('bar');
        $e->src('image.png');
        $e->width(100);
        $e->height(35);

    Create an image submit button. The button will be displayed as an image, using the file at url "src".

HTML::Widget::Element::Textarea
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Textarea', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->cols(30);
        $e->rows(40);
        $e->value('bar');
        $e->wrap('wrap');

    Create a textarea field. This is a multi-line input field for text.

HTML::Widget::Element::Textfield
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Textfield', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->size(23);
        $e->maxlength(42);
        $e->value('bar');

    Create a single line text field.

HTML::Widget::Element::Upload
        my $e = $widget->element( 'Upload', 'foo' );
        $e->comment('(Required)');
        $e->label('Foo');
        $e->accept('text/html');
        $e->maxlength(1000);
        $e->size(23);

    Create a field for uploading files. This will probably be rendered as a textfield, with a button for choosing a file.

    Adding an Upload element automatically calls "$widget->enctype('multipart/form-data')" for you.

  id

  name
Arguments: $name

Return Value: $name

Get or set the widget id.

"name" is an alias for "id".

  get_elements
Arguments: %options

Return Value: @elements

    my @elements = $self->get_elements;

    my @elements = $self->get_elements( type => 'Textfield' );

    my @elements = $self->get_elements( name => 'username' );

Returns a list of all elements added to the widget.

If a 'type' argument is given, only returns the elements of that type.

If a 'name' argument is given, only returns the elements with that name.

  get_elements_ref
Arguments: %options

Return Value: \@elements

Accepts the same arguments as "get_elements", but returns an arrayref of results instead of a list.

  get_element
Arguments: %options

Return Value: $element

    my $element = $self->get_element;

    my $element = $self->get_element( type => 'Textfield' );

    my $element = $self->get_element( name => 'username' );

Similar to get_elements(), but only returns the first element in the list.

Accepts the same arguments as get_elements().

  find_elements
Arguments: %options

Return Value: @elements

Similar to "get_elements", and accepts the same arguments, but performs a recursive search through block-level elements.

  const

  constraint
Arguments: $type, @field_names

Return Value: $constraint

Set up a constraint on one or more elements. When process() is called on the Widget object, with a $query object, the parameters of the query are checked against the specified constraints. The HTML::Widget::Constraint object is returned to allow setting of further attributes to be set. The string 'Not_' can be prepended to each type name to negate the effects. Thus checking for a non-integer becomes 'Not_Integer'.

If the constraint package name starts with something other than "HTML::Widget::Constraint::", you can fully qualify the name by using a unary plus:

    $self->constraint( "+Fully::Qualified::Name", @names );

Constraint checking is done after all HTML::Widget::Filter have been applied.

@names should contain a list of element names that the constraint applies to. The type of constraint can be one of:

HTML::Widget::Constraint::All
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'All', 'foo', 'bar' );

    The fields passed to the "All" constraint are those which are required fields in the form.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::AllOrNone
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'AllOrNone', 'foo', 'bar' );

    If any of the fields passed to the "AllOrNone" constraint are filled in, then they all must be filled in.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Any
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Any', 'foo', 'bar' );

    At least one or more of the fields passed to this constraint must be filled.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::ASCII
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'ASCII', 'foo' );

    The fields passed to this constraint will be checked to make sure their contents contain ASCII characters.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Bool
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Bool', 'foo' );

    The fields passed to this constraint will be checked to make sure their contents contain a 1 or 0.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Callback
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Callback', 'foo' )->callback(sub {
            my $value=shift;
            return 1;
        });

    This constraint allows you to provide your own callback sub for validation. The callback sub is called once for each submitted value of each named field.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::CallbackOnce
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'CallbackOnce', 'foo' )->callback(sub {
            my $value=shift;
            return 1;
        });

    This constraint allows you to provide your own callback sub for validation. The callback sub is called once per call of "process".

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Date
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Date', 'year', 'month', 'day' );

    This constraint ensures that the three fields passed in are a valid date.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::DateTime
        my $c =
          $widget->constraint( 'DateTime', 'year', 'month', 'day', 'hour',
            'minute', 'second' );

    This constraint ensures that the six fields passed in are a valid date and time.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::DependOn
        my $c =
          $widget->constraint( 'DependOn', 'foo', 'bar' );

    If the first field listed is filled in, all of the others are required.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Email
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Email', 'foo' );

    Check that the field given contains a valid email address, according to RFC 2822, using the Email::Valid module.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Equal
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Equal', 'foo', 'bar' );
        $c->render_errors( 'foo' );

    The fields passed to this constraint must contain the same information, or be empty.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::HTTP
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'HTTP', 'foo' );

    This constraint checks that the field(s) passed in are valid URLs. The regex used to test this can be set manually using the ->regex method.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::In
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'In', 'foo' );
        $c->in( 'possible', 'values' );

    Check that a value is one of a specified set.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Integer
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Integer', 'foo' );

    Check that the field contents are an integer.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Length
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Length', 'foo' );
        $c->min(23);
        $c->max(50);

    Ensure that the contents of the field are at least $min long, and no longer than $max.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Number
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Number', 'foo' );

    Ensure that the content of the field is a number.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Printable
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Printable', 'foo' );

    The contents of the given field must only be printable characters. The regex used to test this can be set manually using the ->regex method.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Range
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Range', 'foo' );
        $c->min(23);
        $c->max(30);

    The contents of the field must be numerically within the given range.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Regex
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Regex', 'foo' );
        $c->regex(qr/^\w+$/);

    Tests the contents of the given field(s) against a user supplied regex.

HTML::Widget::Constraint::String
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'String', 'foo' );

    The field must only contain characters in \w. i.e. [a-zaZ0-9_]

HTML::Widget::Constraint::Time
        my $c = $widget->constraint( 'Time', 'hour', 'minute', 'second' );

    The three fields passed to this constraint must constitute a valid time.

  constraint_all

  constrain_all
Arguments: @constraint_types

Return Value: @constraints

    $w->element( Textfield => 'name' );
    $w->element( Textfield => 'password' );
    $w->constraint_all( 'All' );

For each named type, add a constraint to all elements currently defined.

Does not add a constraint for elements which return false for "allow_constraint" in HTML::Widget::Element; this includes HTML::Widget::Element::Span and any element that inherits from HTML::Widget::Element::Block.

  get_constraints
Arguments: %options

Return Value: @constraints

    my @constraints = $self->get_constraints;

    my @constraints = $self->get_constraints( type => 'Integer' );

Returns a list of all constraints added to the widget.

If a 'type' argument is given, only returns the constraints of that type.

  get_constraints_ref
Arguments: %options

Return Value: \@constraints

Accepts the same arguments as "get_constraints", but returns an arrayref of results instead of a list.

  get_constraint
Arguments: %options

Return Value: $constraint

    my $constraint = $self->get_constraint;

    my $constraint = $self->get_constraint( type => 'Integer' );

Similar to "get_constraints", but only returns the first constraint in the list.

Accepts the same arguments as "get_constraints".

  embed
Arguments: @widgets

Arguments: $element, @widgets

Insert the contents of another widget object into this one. Each embedded object will be represented as another set of fields (surrounded by a fieldset tag), inside the created form. No copy is made of the widgets to embed, thus calling as_xml on the resulting object will change data in the widget objects.

With an element argument, the widgets are embedded into the provided element. No checks are made on whether the provided element belongs to $self.

Note that without an element argument, embed embeds into the top level of the widget, and NOT into any subcontainer (whether created by you or implicitly created). If this is not what you need, you can choose one of:

    # while building $self:
    $in_here = $self->element('Fieldset', 'my_fieldset');
    # later:
    $self->embed($in_here, @widgets);

    # these are equivalent:
    $self->embed(($self->find_elements)[0], @widgets);
    $self->embed_into_first(@widgets); # but this is faster!

If you are just building a widget and do not need to import constraints and filters from another widget, do not use embed at all, simply assemble using the methods provided by HTML::Widget::Element::Fieldset.

  embed_into_first
Arguments: @widgets

As for "embed", but embed into the first subcontainer (fieldset) rather than into the top level form.

  empty_errors
Arguments: $bool

Return Value: $bool

After validation, if errors are found, a span tag is created with the id "fields_with_errors". Set this value to cause the span tag to always be generated.

  enctype
Arguments: $enctype

Return Value: $enctype

Set/Get the encoding type of the form. This can be either "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" which is the default, or "multipart/form-data". See <http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/interact/forms.html#h-17.13.4>.

If the widget contains an Upload element, the enctype is automatically set to 'multipart/form-data'.

  explicit_ids
Argument: $bool

Return Value: $bool

When true; elements, fieldsets and blocks will not be given DOM id's, unless explicitly set with attributes.

    $w->element( 'Textfield', 'foo', {id => 'my_id'} )

The form itself will always be given an "id", which is "widget" by default.

  filter
Arguments: $type, @field_names

Return Value: $filter

Add a filter. Like constraints, filters can be applied to one or more elements. These are applied to actually change the contents of the fields, supplied by the user before checking the constraints. It only makes sense to apply filters to fields that can contain text - Password, Textfield, Textarea, Upload.

If the filter starts with a name other than "HTML::Widget::Filter::", you can fully qualify the name by using a unary plus:

    $self->filter( "+Fully::Qualified::Name", @names );

There are currently two types of filter:

HTML::Widget::Filter::Callback
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'Callback', 'foo' );
        $f->callback( \&my_callback );

    Filter given field(s) using a user-defined subroutine.

HTML::Widget::Filter::HTMLEscape
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'HTMLEscape', 'foo' );

    Escapes HTML entities in the given field(s).

HTML::Widget::Filter::HTMLStrip
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'HTMLStrip', 'foo' );

    Strips HTML tags from the given field(s).

        my $f = $widget->filter( 'HTMLStrip', 'foo' );
        $f->allow( 'p', 'br' );

    Specify a list of HTML tags which shouldn't be stripped.

HTML::Widget::Filter::LowerCase
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'LowerCase', 'foo' );

    Make given field(s) all lowercase.

HTML::Widget::Filter::TrimEdges
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'TrimEdges', 'foo' );

    Removes whitespace from the beginning and end of the given field(s).

HTML::Widget::Filter::UpperCase
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'UpperCase', 'foo' );

    Make given field(s) all uppercase.

HTML::Widget::Filter::Whitespace
        my $f = $widget->filter( 'Whitespace', 'foo' );

    Removes all whitespace from the given field(s).

  filter_all
Arguments: @filter_types

Return Value: @filters

    $w->element( Textfield => 'name' );
    $w->element( Textfield => 'age' );
    $w->filter_all( 'Whitespace' );

For each named type, add a filter to all elements currently defined.

Does not add a filter for elements which return false for "HTML::Widget::Element/allow_filter"; this includes HTML::Widget::Element::Span and any element that inherits from HTML::Widget::Element::Block.

  get_filters
Arguments: %options

Return Value: @filters

    my @filters = $self->get_filters;

    my @filters = $self->get_filters( type => 'Integer' );

Returns a list of all filters added to the widget.

If a 'type' argument is given, only returns the filters of that type.

  get_filters_ref
Arguments: %options

Return Value: \@filters

Accepts the same arguments as "get_filters", but returns an arrayref of results instead of a list.

  get_filter
Arguments: %options

Return Value: $filter

    my @filters = $self->get_filter;

    my @filters = $self->get_filter( type => 'Integer' );

Similar to "get_filters", but only returns the first filter in the list.

Accepts the same arguments as "get_filters".

  indi

  indicator
Arguments: $field_name

Return Value: $field_name

Set/Get a boolean field. This is a convenience method for the user, so they can keep track of which of many Widget objects were submitted. It is also used by Catalyst::Plugin::HTML::Widget

  legend
Arguments: $legend

Return Value: $legend

Set/Get a legend for this widget. This tag is used to label the fieldset.

  merge
Arguments: @widgets

Arguments: $element, @widgets

Merge elements, constraints and filters from other widgets, into this one. The elements will be added to the end of the list of elements that have been set already.

Without an element argument, and with standard widgets, the contents of the first top-level element of each widget will be merged into the first top-level element of this widget. This emulates the previous behaviour.

With an element argument, the widgets are merged into the named element. No checks are made on whether the provided element belongs to $self.

  method
Arguments: $method

Return Value: $method

Set/Get the method used to submit the form. Can be set to either "post" or "get". The default is "post".

  result

  process
Arguments: $query, \@uploads

Return Value: $result

After finishing setting up the widget and all its elements, call to create an HTML::Widget::Result. If passed a $query it will run filters and validation on the parameters. The Result object can then be used to produce the HTML.

"result" is an alias for "process".

  query
Arguments: $query

Return Value: $query

Set/Get the query object to use for validation input. The query object can also be passed to the process method directly.

  strict
Arguments: $bool

Return Value: $bool

Only consider parameters that pass at least one constraint valid.

  subcontainer
Arguments: $tag

Return Value: $tag

Set/Get the subcontainer tag to use. Defaults to "fieldset".

  uploads
Arguments: \@uploads

Return Value: \@uploads

Contains an arrayref of Apache2::Upload compatible objects.

  xhtml_strict
Arguments: $bool

Return Value: $bool

When "true", it is an error to have any element at the top-level of the widget which is not derived from HTML::Widget::Element::Block. Currently, the only valid element supplied is the HTML::Widget::Element::Fieldset.

When "true", the top-level widget may not have a L/legend>.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  How do I add an onSubmit handler to my form?
    $widget->attributes( onsubmit => $javascript );

See "attributes" in HTML::Widget.

  How do I add an onChange handler to my form field?
    $element->attributes( onchange => $javascript );

See "attributes" in HTML::Widget::Element.

  Element X does not have an accessor for Y!
You can add any arbitrary attributes with "attributes" in HTML::Widget::Element.

  How can I add a tag which isn't included?
You can either create your own element module files, and use them as you would a standard element, or alternatively...

You can call type on a HTML::Widget::Element::Block element to change the rendered tag.

    $w->element('Block')->type('br');
    # will render as
    <br />

  How can I render some elements in a HTML list?
    my $ul = $w->element('Block')->type('ul');
    $ul->element('Block')->type('li')
        ->element( Textfield => foo' );
    $ul->element('Block')->type('li')
        ->element( Textfield => 'bar' );

    # will render as
    <ul>
    <li>
    <input class="textfield" id="widget_foo" name="foo" type="text" />
    </li>
    <li>
    <input class="textfield" id="widget_bar" name="bar" type="text" />
    </li>
    </ul>

SUPPORT
Mailing list:

<http://lists.rawmode.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/html-widget>

SUBVERSION REPOSITORY
The publicly viewable subversion code repository is at <http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/Catalyst/trunk/HTML-Widget/>.

SEE ALSO
Catalyst Catalyst::Plugin::HTML::Widget HTML::Element

AUTHOR
Sebastian Riedel, "sri@oook.de"

LICENSE
This library is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.