Form

Moodle User Interface Guidelines > Form

Note: This article is a work in progress. Please use the page comments or an appropriate moodle.org forum for any recommendations/suggestions for improvement.

Status: INCOMPLETE
This is a guideline template for a Moodle Interface Guideline. Comments: developer forum thread

Problem

You want to allow users to enter information into the application.

Forces: factors that affect selection

• There may not be much space. Forms elements are typically verbose and forms require at least a submit button.

Solution

Moodle uses progressive disclosure to hide form items that are suspected to be needed a minority of users.

On simple forms, (less than one page / four elements or less) autofocus the first field of the form on body onload

• IF none of the fields have any changed content in them (i.e. if the user is not returning to the page from browser history, see: [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-825 MDL-825])

Date selection: use javascript selector (how about time?)

• Show the more important settings at the top
• Each entry should have a label, and if necessary, a help file
• If there are more than 10 options, split them into required and optional/extra/advanced parameters

Common mistakes

Autofocusing a field by default is an accessibility issue, see MDL-20410

Related guidelines

• Radio button
• Checkbox
• Dropdown lists (incomplete)

Related issues in the tracker

• TODO: Configuration defaults http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=124533
• TODO: Inconsistency with buttons in each module configuration: save and return to course / save and display / cancel. Are there really use cases to support having this choice each time?

Further information / Sources

• http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=122545#p554845