standardize fieldnames

[timgatzky]

Hi,
field names should be standardized on save by default to avoid spaces or any letter that might cause trouble later on.

[discordier]

I have no idea what you mean. Can you post a real world code example?

[ADoebeling]

Maybe @timgatzky was talking about "file names", uploaded by the file manager?

[timgatzky]

regular field names. Example might be over the top. But I always get requests why forms won't send and at the end it's special characters. all contao does is replacing spaces with underscore.
I would suggest we run a standardize(...) in the save_callback. Just like generating alias for acticles etc.

[timgatzky]

I give a +1 to file names also!

[ADoebeling]

Ahh, you're talking about the form generator. Yes, that seems to be a bug, even if I didn't tried to reproduce.

[Aybee]

👍 fieldnames and filenames
But I think we should accept the underscore.

[fritzmg]

See also #8400

[timgatzky]

jup. refers to the same problem. standardize field names on save and all be fine :)

[leofeyer]

I guess we also need [] for array fields, so I think it should be:

A-Za-z0-9[]_-

@contao/developers Which characters should we allow?

[aschempp]

do we really support manually creating array of fields? Does that currently work?

[Toflar]

Just for the record: Full ASCII (so spaces too) are perfectly valid in a "name" attribute. Here's an excerpt of the HTML specification:

The "get" method restricts form data set values to ASCII characters. Only the "post" method (with enctype="multipart/form-data") is specified to cover the entire [ISO10646] character set.

But I'm fine with restricting it to alphanumerics plus _ and -.

[leofeyer]

@aschempp Yes, and AFAIR you have added this feature. 😄

[leofeyer]

I am referring to this: https://github.com/contao/core/blob/master/system/modules/core/library/Contao/Widget.php#L831-L832

[leofeyer]

@Toflar You are right, but some browsers replace special characters such as dot or white space with _ and +.

[timgatzky]

Problems might not occur in the name attribute of the html element but in the POST/GET variables.
Since the field name will be the key selector for e.g. the POST variable ($_POST[...myfieldname...]) we should avoid any unregular chars including white spaces and brackets (maybe except multiple values in GET parameters).

[leofeyer]

As discussed in Mumble on July 21st, we want to add a new method Validator::isFieldName(), which allows A-Za-z0-9[]_-. Also, Widget::validator() needs to be extended with 'rgxp' => 'fieldname'.

[timgatzky]

[] should not be valid!

Incase you have 2 form fields:
In addition: Field names should be unique inside the form!

Frontend:

The second one will overwrite the value of the first one.

prints in $_POST

In POST variables the brackets will be ignored anyways. So leave that out. Brackets can only be valid for multiple GET parameters.

[ausi]

In POST variables the brackets will be ignored anyways. So leave that out. Brackets can only be valid for multiple GET parameters.

I don’t think that is true. I just tested it with this sample page:

<pre><?php var_export($_POST); ?></pre>
<form action="" method="post">
    <input name="foo[]" value="bar">
    <input name="foo[]" value="baz">
    <button type="submit">submit</button>
</form>

[timgatzky]

Sorry, wrong screenshot of the backend. Run your test with fields name like:

1. myField[]
2. myField

Anyways. Just run a standardize over the field name value in a save_callback for that field and all is good. I don't even see a need for a validation.

[leofeyer]

Sorry, wrong screenshot of the backend. Run your test with a fields name like:

1. myField[]
2. myField

That's a configuration error IMHO.

[timgatzky]

From Contaos point that is valid. See this as an example. I think field names should not contain brackets and should be tested unique against other field names in the same form.

[leofeyer]

-1

Because the following is a valid configuration:

1. myField[0]
2. myField[1]

And there is no reason not to support this.

[timgatzky]

myField[0]
myField[1]

Yes. that will work. It kinda scares me to see array keys like this. But true, that is a configuration thing

[discordier]

We must keep the brackets, otherwise we will break every wizard field.

[aschempp]

@discordier you're confusing general input support with the input field in the Contao form manager.

[aschempp]

I also like the idea of duplicate validation, l've seen that mistake and confusion before.

[Toflar]

Imho [] should be allowed but stripped on duplicate validation which means the myField and myField[] mistake cannot happen :)

[discordier]

Should be fine for me, will have to wait for the final implementation, maybe I have other concerns then but currently it looks like it should work out fine.

[leofeyer]

Fixed in 3222512.

[havutcuoglu]

I think it's better to change the name of the form field
from:
Please enter only the following characters: A-Z0-9[]_-
to:
Please enter only the following characters: A-Z0-9[]_- Not allowed are Ö,ö,Ü,ü,Ä,ä,ß and spaces

The user doesn't understand the meaning of A-Z because in german you have between A-Z also the Ä,Ö,Ü etc. or we need to but standardize and change all character from 'ä' to 'ae' like space with '_'

[ausi]

The user doesn't understand the meaning of A-Z because in german you have between A-Z also the Ä,Ö,Ü etc.

I don’t think that the Umlauts are between A and Z in the german alphabet: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Alphabet

[havutcuoglu]

You are very funny. But you must understand that not all people are smart like you and me. 😃
However, I think different.

[Toflar]

However, I think different.

If you do so, feel free to adjust the language files. I'm with @ausi: no change required here.

[Aybee]

@ausi LOL that was what I liked to answer.

I think we should use
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789[]_-
No, not seriously 😉 😆 😊

[havutcuoglu]

Hey guys, ok forget the (Umlaut) letters but here existing a other problem.

If you duplicate a form field add Contao automatically the (Kopie) on field name, but it's only A-Z0-9[]_- allowed.
I think here is something wrong.
Testet on Contao v3.5.31

And also in Contao v4.4.7 by duplicating a form field stay the field name unchanged but here add Contao as label the (Kopie) with parentheses. More than one textfield with the same name attribute is strange.

Contao v3.5.31

Contao v4.4.7