NAME

HTML::DOM::Element::Form - A Perl class for representing 'form' elements in an HTML DOM tree

VERSION

Version 0.058

SYNOPSIS

  use HTML::DOM;
  $doc = HTML::DOM->new;
  $elem = $doc->createElement('form');

  $elem->method('GET') # set attribute
  $elem->method;       # get attribute
  $elem->enctype;
  $elem->tagName;
  # etc

DESCRIPTION

This class implements 'form' elements in an HTML::DOM tree. It implements the HTMLFormElement DOM interface and inherits from HTML::DOM::Element (q.v.).

A form object can be used as a hash or an array, to access its input fields, so "$form->[0]" and "$form->{name}" are shorthand for "$form->elements->[0]" and "$form->elements->{name}", respectively.

This class also tries to mimic HTML::Form, but is not entirely compatible with its interface. See "WWW::Mechanize COMPATIBILITY", below.

DOM METHODS

In addition to those inherited from HTML::DOM::Element and HTML::DOM::Node, this class implements the following DOM methods:

elements: Returns a collection (HTML::DOM::Collection::Elements object) in scalar context, or a list in list context, of all the input fields this form contains. This differs slightly from the "inputs" method (part of the HTML::Form interface) in that it includes 'button' elements, whereas "inputs" does not (though it does include 'input' elements with 'button' for the type).
length: Same as "$form->elements->length".
name
acceptCharset
action
enctype
method
target: Each of these returns the corresponding HTML attribute ("acceptCharset" corresponds to the 'accept-charset' attribute). If you pass an argument, it will become the new value of the attribute, and the old value will be returned.
submit: This triggers the form's 'submit' event, calling the default event handler (see "EVENT HANDLING" in HTML::DOM). It is up to the default event handler to take any further action. The form's "make_request" method may come in handy.
This method is actually just short for $form->trigger_event('submit'). (See HTML::DOM::EventTarget.)
reset: This triggers the form's 'reset' event.
trigger_event: This class overrides the superclasses' method to trigger the default event handler for form submissions, when the submit event occurs, and reset the form when a reset event occurs.

WWW::Mechanize COMPATIBILITY

In order to work with WWW::Mechanize, this module mimics, and is partly compatible with the interface of, HTML::Form.

HTML::Form's class methods do not apply. If you call "HTML::DOM::Element::Form->parse", for instance, you'll just get an error, because it doesn't exist.

The "dump" and "try_others" methods do not exist either.

The "click" method behaves differently from HTML::Form's, in that it does not call "make_request", but triggers a 'click' event if there is a button to click, or a 'submit' event otherwise.