what forms could look like in halo

an_example.md

example: http://halform.herokuapp.com/

description.txt

# Form Properties
title
description
target
method
headers
fields
fielsets ??
 
# Shared Field Properties
type
validators
title
help
 
# Field Types
Text
Number
Password
TextArea
Checkbox
Checkboxes
Hidden
Select
Radio
Date
DateTime
List
Object
 
# Field Validators
required
email
url
match
regexp

example.halo.json

{
  "_links": { "self": { "href": "/users" } },
  "_forms": {
    "create-user": {
      "title": "Create a new widget",
      "description": "Enter your widget info and submit to create a new widget",
      "target": "/widgets/{id}",
      "method": "PUT",
      "headers": {
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
      },
      "fields": {
        "name": { "type": "Text", "validators": [ "required" ] },
        "email": { "type": "Text", "validators": [ "required", "email" ] },
        "age": { "type": "Number" },
        "homepage": { "type": "Text", "dataType": "url", "validators": [ "url" ] },
        "password": { "type": "Password" },
        "likes": { "type": "Checkboxes", "options": [ "Computers", "Combat", "Cats" ] },
        "ninja": { "type": "Hidden", "value": "This is a hidden field" },
        "size": { "type": "Select", "options": [ "large", "small" ] },
        "has_answer": { "type": "Radio", "options": [ "yes", "no", "wtf" ] },
        "dob": { "type": "Date" },
        "favourite_datetime": { "type": "DateTime" },
        "things_to_do_before_death": { "type": "List" }
      }
    }
  }
}

I understand that maybe @mikekelly wants to transparently load this JSON from a client-side JavaScript client and represent elements on screen, so that's why he set Checkbox at the form representation. I like that, but I agree that Checkbox does not reflects the object on the api.

Maybe we can have a separated option for "interface suggestions"?

"likes": {
  "type": "array<string>",
  "options": [ "cats", "dogs", "apples", "oranges" ],
  "multiple": true,
  "interface": "input[type=checkbox]"
},
"countries": {
  "type": "array<string>",
  "options": [ "United States of America", "Brazil", "Italy" ],
  "multiple": true,
  "interface": "select"
},
"under_age_13": {
  "type": "boolean",
  "default": true,
  "interface": "select"
}

This can be entirely optional and simply ignored on backend integration (let's say an API to API integration), but is really relevant when you want to dynamically load a resource and represent it on screen.

Not sure if "interface" is the best name -- maybe "suggested_representation"?

@mikekelly Presume you are aware of this: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6861. I think it would be useful to consider accommodating this so that one could actually externally define the form and thus look it up as you are working on controls for HALO. Given there is a spec and per my earlier comment on keeping things DRY, this would be a nice option to be able to use as well as whatever the full convention ends up being.