Feature: zope.formlib: associate widget errors with widgets

[Dieter Maurer]

"zope.formlib" widgets have an "error" method to provide widget related error information. That's good.

A widget sets its error indication when it detects a problem itself. However, widget related errors can also be detected at a more global level. Example use case: a form supports multiple actions and the set of mandatory fields is different for the various actions. In such a case, an action validator will detect widget related errors. At the moment (current "zope.formlib" trunk), the widgets do not support setting widget related error information from the outside. I suggest to add a 'setInputWidgetError' method to the respective widget interface and provide a corresponding method definition in the widget base class. This would allow higher level code to associate widget errors with the respective widget.

In addition, I suggest to add an additional method "associate_errors_with_widgets" to "zope.formlib.form.Action" and call it in "Action.failure" if no explicit failure handler is defined. "associate_errors_with_widgets" would try to associate the errors from form validation with the corresponding widgets to facilitate highlighting of widgets with problems and provide error information directly at the widget.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The zope.formlib project on Launchpad has been archived at the request of the Zope developers (see https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/683589 and https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/685285). If this bug is still relevant, please refile it at https://github.com/zopefoundation/zope.formlib.