Creating Form Macros

Form::macro() allows you to extend the Form facade with your own methods.

First you register a macro, then later you can access the macro as you would any of the Form methods.

Let's say you add the following code to your app/start/global.php file.

Form::macro('sumthin', function()
{
    return '<input type="sumthin" value="default">';
});

Then later, in a Blade template, you can access it.

{{ Form::sumthin() }}

This would output the following.

<input type="sumthin" value="default">

Add macros that take arguments

Let's update the sumthin macro to take three arguments. First the implementation.

Form::macro('sumthin', function($value, $count = 10, $start = 1)
{
    $build = array();
    while ($count > 0)
    {
        $build[] = sprintf('<input type="sumthun" value="%s" index="%s">',
          $value, $start);
        $start += 1;
        $count -= 1;
    }
    return join("\n", $build);
});

Now Form::sumthin() has one required argument and two optional ones. If you don't pass the required argument, Laravel will generate an error.

Use it in a template.

{{ Form::sumthin('test', 5) }}

The output would be.

<input type="sumthin" value="test" index="1">
<input type="sumthin" value="test" index="2">
<input type="sumthin" value="test" index="3">
<input type="sumthin" value="test" index="4">
<input type="sumthin" value="test" index="5">

If you look at FormBuilder.php in your vendor/laravel/src/Illuminate\Html directory you can see several undocumented public methods of the Form facade that you can use in your macros.

Your macro code doesn't have access to $this, but you can call any of the following handy methods:

• Form::token() - See Generating a Hidden Field With the CSRF Token.
• Form::getIdAttribute() - See Getting the ID Attribute For a Field Name.
• Form::getValueAttribute() - See Getting the Value Attribute a Field Should Use.
• Form::old() - See Getting a Value From the Session's Old Input.
• Form::oldInputIsEmpty() - See Determining if the Old Input is Empty.
• Form::getSelectOption() - See Getting the Select Option for a Value.
• Form::setSessionStore() - See Setting the Session Store Implementation.

Or you can call the standard methods:

• Form::open() - See Opening a New HTML Form.
• Form::model() - See Creating a New Model Based Form.
• Form::close() - See Closing the Current Form.
• Form::label() - See Creating a Form Label Element.
• Form::input() - See Creating a Form Input Field.
• Form::text() - See Creating a Text Input Field.
• Form::password() - See Creating a Password Input Field.
• Form::hidden() - See Creating a Hidden Input Field.
• Form::email() - See Creating an Email Input Field.
• Form::url() - See Creating a URL Input Field.
• Form::file() - See Creating a File Input Field.
• Form::textarea() - See Creating a Textarea Input Field.
• Form::select() - See Creating a Select Box Field.
• Form::selectRange() - See Creating a Select Range Field.
• Form::selectYear() - See Creating a Select Year Field.
• Form::selectMonth() - See Creating a Month Selection Field.
• Form::checkbox() - See Creating a Checkbox Input Field.
• Form::radio() - See Creating a Radio Button Input Field.
• Form::reset() - See Creating a Reset Input Field.
• Form::image() - See Creating an Image Input Element.
• Form::submit() - See Creating a Submit Button.
• Form::button() - See Creating a Button Element.
• Form::getSessionStore() - See Getting the Session Store.

You even can call other macros from your macro.