Zebra_Form, a jQuery augmented PHP library for HTML form building and validation

A meeting room reservation form

try clicking on the submit button without filling the form and then, as you fill the form, to see the JavaScript validation in action
for each example, notice how the PHP code of the form remains basically unchanged, despite the template variations
disable JavaScript to see the server-side validation in action
although in all my examples I use HTML output, you can switch to XHTML output by using the doctye method
try the example in another browser and see that it works, out of the box. including IE6!

<?php

    // include the Zebra_Form class
    require 'path/to/Zebra_Form.php';

    // instantiate a Zebra_Form object
    $form = new Zebra_Form('form');

    // the label for the "name" element
    $form->add('label', 'label_name', 'name', 'Your name:');

    // add the "name" element
    $obj = $form->add('text', 'name');

    // set rules
    $obj->set_rule(array(

        // error messages will be sent to a variable called "error", usable in custom templates
        'required' => array('error', 'Name is required!')

    ));

    // "email"
    $form->add('label', 'label_email', 'email', 'Your email address:');
    $obj = $form->add('text', 'email');
    $obj->set_rule(array(
        'required'  =>  array('error', 'Email is required!'),
        'email'     =>  array('error', 'Email address seems to be invalid!'),
    ));

    // "department"
    $form->add('label', 'label_department', 'department', 'Department:');
    $obj = $form->add('select', 'department', '', array('other' => true));
    $obj->add_options(array(
        'Marketing',
        'Operations',
        'Customer Service',
        'Human Resources',
        'Sales Department',
        'Accounting Department',
        'Legal Department',
    ));
    $obj->set_rule(array(
        'required' => array('error', 'Department is required!')
    ));

    // "room"
    $form->add('label', 'label_room', 'room', 'Which room would you like to reserve:');
    $obj = $form->add('radios', 'room', array(
        'A' =>  'Room A',
        'B' =>  'Room B',
        'C' =>  'Room C',
    ));
    $obj->set_rule(array(
        'required' => array('error', 'Room selection is required!')
    ));

    // "extra"
    $form->add('label', 'label_extra', 'extra', 'Extra requirements:');
    $obj = $form->add('checkboxes', 'extra[]', array(
        'flipchard'     =>  'Flipchard and pens',
        'plasma'        =>  'Plasma TV screen',
        'beverages'     =>  'Coffee, tea and mineral water',
    ));

    // "date"
    $form->add('label', 'label_date', 'date', 'Reservation date');
    $date = $form->add('date', 'date');
    $date->set_rule(array(
        'required'      =>  array('error', 'Date is required!'),
        'date'          =>  array('error', 'Date is invalid!'),
    ));

    // date format
    // don't forget to use $date->get_date() if the form is valid to get the date in YYYY-MM-DD format ready to be used
    // in a database or with PHP's strtotime function!
    $date->format('M d, Y');

    // selectable dates are starting with the current day
    $date->direction(1);

    $form->add('note', 'note_date', 'date', 'Date format is M d, Y');

    // "time"
    $form->add('label', 'label_time', 'time', 'Reservation time :');
    $form->add('time', 'time', '', array(
        'hours'     =>  array(9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17),
        'minutes'   =>  array(0, 30),
    ));

    // "submit"
    $form->add('submit', 'btnsubmit', 'Submit');

    // if the form is valid
    if ($form->validate()) {

        // show results
        show_results();

    // otherwise
    } else

        // generate output using a custom template
        $form->render('*horizontal');

?>

In this example, the output is automatically generated by Zebra_Form's render method.

<!-- must be in strict mode! -->
<!doctype html>

<html>

    <head>

        <meta charset="utf-8">

        <title>Zebra_Form Example</title>

        <!-- load Zebra_Form's stylesheet file -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/zebra_form.css">

    </head>

    <body>

        <!--

            the content from the "PHP Source" tab goes here

        -->

        <!-- we're loading the JavaScript files at the bottom of the page so we don't delay page rendering -->

        <!-- try to load jQuery from CDN server and fallback to local source if not available -->
        <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
        <script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="path/to/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"><\/script>')</script>

        <!-- load Zebra_Form's JavaScript file -->
        <script src="path/to/zebra_form.js"></script>

    </body>

</html>