Enum Class FormControlType

java.lang.Object

java.lang.Enum<FormControlType>

FormControlType

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable, Comparable<FormControlType>, Constable

public enum FormControlType
extends Enum<FormControlType>

Represents the control type of a FormControl.

Use the FormControl.getFormControlType() method to determine the type of a form control.

The following table shows the relationship between the HTML 4.01 specification control type descriptions, their associated Element names and attributes, and the FormControlType constants defined in this class:

Description	Element Name	Distinguishing Attribute	FormControlType
buttons - submit button	BUTTON	type="submit"	BUTTON
	INPUT	type="submit"	SUBMIT
		type="image"	IMAGE
buttons - reset button	BUTTON, INPUT	type="reset"	-
buttons - push button	BUTTON, INPUT	type="button"	-
checkboxes	INPUT	type="checkbox"	CHECKBOX
radio buttons	INPUT	type="radio"	RADIO
menus	SELECT	multiple	SELECT_MULTIPLE
		absence of multiple	SELECT_SINGLE
text input	INPUT	type="text"	TEXT
		type="password"	PASSWORD
	TEXTAREA	-	TEXTAREA
file select	INPUT	type="file"	FILE
hidden controls	INPUT	type="hidden"	HIDDEN
object controls	OBJECT	-	-

Reset buttons and push buttons have no associated FormControlType because they do not contribute to the form data set of a submitted form, and so have no relevance to the methods provided in the FormControl and associated classes. If required they can be found and manipulated as normal elements.

Object controls have no associated FormControlType because any data they might contribute to the form data set is entirely dependent on the class of object, the interpretation of which is is beyond the scope of this library.

This library does not consider the OPTION elements found within SELECT elements to be controls themselves, despite them being referred to as such in some parts of the HTML 4.01 specification. Hence the absence of an OPTION control type.

See Also:

• FormControl
• FormField

Nested Class Summary

Nested classes/interfaces inherited from class Enum

Enum.EnumDesc<E>

Enum Constant Summary

Enum Constants

Enum Constant	Description
BUTTON	The form control type given to a submit button control implemented using a BUTTON element.
CHECKBOX	The form control type given to a checkbox control.
FILE	The form control type given to a file select control.
HIDDEN	The form control type given to a hidden control.
IMAGE	The form control type given to a submit button control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="image".
PASSWORD	The form control type given to a text input control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="password".
RADIO	The form control type given to a radio button control.
SELECT_MULTIPLE	The form control type given to a menu control implemented using a SELECT element containing the attribute "multiple".
SELECT_SINGLE	The form control type given to a menu control implemented using a SELECT element that does not contain the attribute "multiple".
SUBMIT	The form control type given to a submit button control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="submit".
TEXT	The form control type given to a text input control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="text".
TEXTAREA	The form control type given to a text input control implemented using a TEXTAREA element.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
String	getElementName()	Returns the name of the Element that constitues this form control type.
boolean	hasPredefinedValue()	Indicates whether any value submitted by this type of control is predefined in the HTML and typically not modified by the user or server/client scripts.
boolean	isSubmit()	Indicates whether this control type causes the form to be submitted.
static FormControlType	valueOf(String name)	Returns the enum constant of this class with the specified name.
static FormControlType[]	values()	Returns an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared.

Methods inherited from class Enum

clone, compareTo, describeConstable, equals, finalize, getDeclaringClass, hashCode, name, ordinal, toString, valueOf

Methods inherited from class Object

getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Enum Constant Details

BUTTON

public static final FormControlType BUTTON

The form control type given to a submit button control implemented using a BUTTON element.

Example:

<button type="submit" name="FieldName" value="PredefinedValue">Send</button>

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.BUTTON
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = true

CHECKBOX

public static final FormControlType CHECKBOX

The form control type given to a checkbox control.

Example:

<input type="checkbox" name="FieldName" value="PredefinedValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = false

FILE

public static final FormControlType FILE

The form control type given to a file select control.

This library considers the submission value of this type of control to be consist of only the selected file name, regardless of whether the file content would normally be included in the form data set.

To determine manually whether the file content is included in the form data set, the enctype attribute of the control's associated FORM element can be examined. Although the exact behaviour is not defined in the HTML 4.01 specification, the convention is that the content is not included unless an enctype value of "multipart/form-data" is specified.

For more information see the HTML 4.01 specification section 17.13.4 - Form content types.

Example:

<input type="file" name="FieldName" value="DefaultFileName" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = false
isSubmit() = false

HIDDEN

public static final FormControlType HIDDEN

The form control type given to a hidden control.

Example:

<input type="hidden" name="FieldName" value="DefaultValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = false
isSubmit() = false

Note that hasPredefinedValue() returns false for this control type because the value of hidden fields is usually set via server or client side scripting.

IMAGE

public static final FormControlType IMAGE

The form control type given to a submit button control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="image".

See the description under the heading "image" in the HTML 4.01 specification section 17.4.1 - Form control types created with INPUT.

When a form control of type IMAGE is present in the form used to construct a FormFields instance, three separate FormField objects are created for the one control. One has the name specified in the name attribute of the INPUT element, and the other two have this name with the suffixes ".x" and ".y" appended to them to represent the additional click coordinates submitted by this control when activated using a pointing device.

This type of control is also mentioned in the HTML 4.01 specification section 13.6.2 - Server-side image maps.

Example:

<input type="image" name="FieldName" src="ImageURL" value="PredefinedValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = true

PASSWORD

public static final FormControlType PASSWORD

The form control type given to a text input control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="password".

Example:

<input type="password" name="FieldName" value="DefaultValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = false
isSubmit() = false

RADIO

public static final FormControlType RADIO

The form control type given to a radio button control.

Example:

<input type="radio" name="FieldName" value="PredefinedValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = false

SELECT_MULTIPLE

public static final FormControlType SELECT_MULTIPLE

The form control type given to a menu control implemented using a SELECT element containing the attribute "multiple".

SELECT elements that do not contain the attribute "multiple" are represented by the SELECT_SINGLE form control type.

This is the only control type that can have multiple submission values within the one control. Contrast this with CHECKBOX controls, which require multiple separate controls with the same name in order to contribute multiple submission values.

The individual OPTION elements contained within a form control of this type can be obtained using the FormControl.getOptionElementIterator() method.

The most efficient way to test whether a form control type is either SELECT_MULTIPLE or SELECT_SINGLE is to test for getElementName()==HTMLElementName.SELECT.

Example:

<select name="FieldName" multiple>
<option value="PredefinedValue1" selected>Display Text1</option>
<option value="PredefinedValue2">Display Text2</option>
</select>

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.SELECT
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = false

SELECT_SINGLE

public static final FormControlType SELECT_SINGLE

The form control type given to a menu control implemented using a SELECT element that does not contain the attribute "multiple".

SELECT elements that do contain the attribute "multiple" are represented by the SELECT_MULTIPLE form control type.

The individual OPTION elements contained within a form control of this type can be obtained using the FormControl.getOptionElementIterator() method.

The most efficient way to test whether a form control type is either SELECT_MULTIPLE or SELECT_SINGLE is to test for getElementName()==HTMLElementName.SELECT.

Example:

<select name="FieldName">
<option value="PredefinedValue1" selected>Display Text1</option>
<option value="PredefinedValue2">Display Text2</option>
</select>

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.SELECT
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = false

SUBMIT

public static final FormControlType SUBMIT

The form control type given to a submit button control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="submit".

Example:

<input type="submit" name="FieldName" value="PredefinedValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = true
isSubmit() = true

TEXT

public static final FormControlType TEXT

The form control type given to a text input control implemented using an INPUT element with attribute type="text".

Example:

<input type="text" name="FieldName" value="DefaultValue" />

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.INPUT
hasPredefinedValue() = false
isSubmit() = false

TEXTAREA

public static final FormControlType TEXTAREA

The form control type given to a text input control implemented using a TEXTAREA element.

Example:

<textarea name="FieldName">Default Value</textarea>

Properties:

getElementName() = HTMLElementName.TEXTAREA
hasPredefinedValue() = false
isSubmit() = false

Method Details

values

public static FormControlType[] values()

Returns an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared.

Returns:

an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared

valueOf

public static FormControlType valueOf(String name)

Returns the enum constant of this class with the specified name. The string must match exactly an identifier used to declare an enum constant in this class. (Extraneous whitespace characters are not permitted.)

Parameters:

name - the name of the enum constant to be returned.

Returns:

the enum constant with the specified name

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if this enum class has no constant with the specified name

NullPointerException - if the argument is null

getElementName

public String getElementName()

Returns the name of the Element that constitues this form control type.

Returns:

the name of the Element that constitues this form control type.

hasPredefinedValue

public boolean hasPredefinedValue()

Indicates whether any value submitted by this type of control is predefined in the HTML and typically not modified by the user or server/client scripts.

The word "typically" is used because the use of client side scripts can cause control types which normally have predefined values to be set by the user, which is a condition which is beyond the scope of this library to test for.

The predefined value is defined by the control's initial value.

A return value of true signifies that a form control of this type is a predefined value control.

A return value of false signifies that a form control of this type is a user value control.

Note that the HIDDEN type returns false for this method because the value of hidden fields is usually set via server or client side scripting.

Returns:

true if any value submitted by this type of control is predefined in the HTML and typically not modified by the user or server/client scripts, otherwise false.

isSubmit

public boolean isSubmit()

Indicates whether this control type causes the form to be submitted.

Returns true only for the SUBMIT, BUTTON, and IMAGE instances.

Returns:

true if this control type causes the form to be submitted, otherwise false.