What are the rules on form field names? Eg. Can they have spaces?

At Structure of a form definition in the DataForms topic, there is a note listed under "Field Name Name Notes":

/System/DataForms"> Field Name Notes:

  • Field names have to be unique.
  • A very few field names are reserved. If you try to use one of these names, Foswiki will automatically append an underscore to the name when the form is used.
  • You can space out the title of the field, and it will still find the topic e.g. Aeroplane Manufacturers is equivalent to AeroplaneManufacturers.
  • If a label field has no name, it will not be shown when the form is viewed, only when it is edited.
  • Field names can in theory include any text, but you should stick to alphanumeric characters. If you want to use a non-wikiname for a select, checkbox or radio field, and want to get the values from another topic, you can use [[...]] links. This notation can also be used when referencing another topic to obtain field values, but a name other than the topic name is required as the name of the field.
  • Leading and trailing spaces are not significant.

If you would like to customise the field name only visually (while keeping the FieldName constant), this is not possible with a default Foswiki. The recommended alternative is to make use of FlexFormPlugin and an auto view-template.

Support.FAQForm edit

TopicClassification FrequentlyAskedQuestion
Subject Data forms
Topic Summary Highlighting documentation in the DataForms topic regarding field naming rules/possibilities
Extension
Interested Parties
Related Topics DataForms
Topic revision: r3 - 27 Dec 2011, ArthurClemens
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