[Haskell-beginners] Options for creating a multiple select form via Yesod

[Michael Litchard]

I was a bit hasty. I can render a multi-select field easily enough.
However, I'm having difficulty following how selectField makes a value
from the select field accessible from the handler code calling
selectField. Once I figure that out, I can modify multiSelectField
accordingly.

The goal here being to modify selectField so that a list of field
values can be bound .

Here's what I have so far:
multiSelectField is thus far identical in every way to selectField
save for the following change in the Hamlet part.

<select multiple="#{theId}" id="#{theId}" name="#{name}">

My thinking was that the value bound to multiple was arbitary, and I'd
use theId until I figured out something that made more sense.

Here's where I am focusing my efforts next

http://hpaste.org/47774

Specifically
(x', _):_ ->
                            case lookup x' pairs' of
                                Nothing -> FormFailure ["Invalid entry"]
                                Just (y, _) -> FormSuccess y
I'm thinking this is where selectField binds a value from the select
field form. I'm confused by the (x',_):_. At first I thought it meant
that just the first pair in a list of pairs is pattern matched
against, and the rest discarded. But then I ask myself where the list
is coming from. In a select field there would only be one pair, not a
list of them. Here's where I get confused. Because if this is not
where the values of the select field get bound, I don't know where
it's happening.

Is my confusion clear enough such that I could get some clarifying
feedback? If not, what is unclear?

On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Michael Snoyman <michael at snoyman.com> wrote:
> The best way for code contributions in general is to submit a pull
> request on Github. If that's a problem, sending a patch via email
> works as well (either directly to me or to web-devel).
>
> Michael
>
> On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 1:14 AM, Michael Litchard <michael at schmong.org> wrote:
>> Hey! I just added multiSelectField to the Forms library. I'm only
>> getting the first value selected, but I think that's because of how
>> I'm using multiSelecrField. I'm going to try to change the client code
>> to fix this. I'll let you know how it goes. when I get a
>> maybeMultiSelectField added I'll show you what I have. What would be
>> the best way to submit this?
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 10:05 PM, Michael Snoyman <michael at snoyman.com> wrote:
>>> Hi Michael,
>>>
>>> There's nothing jQuery or Javascript specific about a multi-select
>>> field: it's just a normal select field with a "multiple" attribute. I
>>> would recommend taking the selectField code from yesod-form and
>>> modifying it to be multi-select. I'll likely do this myself
>>> eventually, but it could be a good learning experience in Yesod (and a
>>> great introduction to contributing to the framework if you're so
>>> inclined).
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Michael Litchard <michael at schmong.org> wrote:
>>>> I'm trying to create a multiple select form, as illustrated on the following:
>>>> http://api.jquery.com/selected-selector/
>>>>
>>>> Here's the options I see possible:
>>>>
>>>> (1) Write a jQuery widget.
>>>> (2) Use plain javascript via Julius
>>>> (3) Use the low-level functions in Yesod.Form to write a widget
>>>> (4) Use a pre-existing function that does what I need, but am not
>>>> aware of this functionality
>>>>
>>>> (1) has appeal as it looks like something small I can contribute to
>>>> the project. It will take me some extra time to figure out the
>>>> details. But, I had a look at the other jQuery widgets and they seem
>>>> to provide an approachable model to follow.
>>>>
>>>> (2) This looks like the most straight-forward approach. I'm just
>>>> learning javascript so would have to figure out how to capture values
>>>> in Haskell from the form.
>>>>
>>>> (3) This looks like the most difficult way. I don't think I know
>>>> enough about the low-level functions in Yesod.Form to be able to
>>>> accomplish this in a timely manner.
>>>>
>>>> (4) This is the best scenario. There's already a way to do this right
>>>> now, and I just haven't identified it. If this is the case, I would
>>>> appreciate being pointed in the right direction.
>>>>
>>>> Until informed otherwise, I'm evaluating options 1 and 2. All feedback
>>>> welcomed. Thanks to all who made Yesod possible.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Beginners at haskell.org
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>>>>
>>>
>>
>