Where oh where is Form View settings?

[daneyul]

I keep getting "You are unauthorized to view this resource" when simply going to a detail view as a public web viewer.

I've opened every permission I can find--but keep seeing reference to giving public access to FORM view when this happens. I can do that for LIST view--but can't find anywhere a specific entry for Form view permissions. What am I missing?

Can someone please tell me step by step where and how to open ACL for the FORM view? (If I make a menu pointer to a LIST view it seems fine).

On the elements page, the access for Form add, edit, Details view, List view -- All set to PUBLIC for every entry, but no form view setting in sight (though the help text under the Details edit mentions possible restrictions based on the Form View Access level--but what is the Form View Access level? I've gone round and round, but nothing specific to "form" access anywhere--not on the form edit page, or anywhere.

Joomla 3.1, latest Fabrik downloaded from web yesterday, very vanilla test site on a local windows machine.

 

[cheesegrits]

List settings. Access tab. View records.

-- hugh

 

[daneyul]

Thanks very much for the reply. I really really really wish they wouldn't refer to View Form access, when meaning View Records---and burying it under Lists, instead of Forms.

I actually did discover earlier that by turning on View Records here it does enable me to see the Title of the Detail list and there's no more "you don't have access" message, but no data in the detail view shows at all--even though every element-----and every fabrik setting I can find anywhere, has Public access, including those here.)

Any idea what, in such a basic setup, would cause my data not to show now--and where to go to check? Thanks for replying--I'm pulling my hair out!

 

[troester]

Do you have the list's primary key element (usually id) published?

 

[cheesegrits]

Thanks very much for the reply. I really really really wish they wouldn't refer to View Form access, when meaning View Records---and burying it under Lists, instead of Forms.

It's one of those cases where it has to go somewhere, and the way Fabrik's permission system works, the ACL's are actually on the "list", not on the "form". All the code that handles form access, happens in the list model. I'm trying to think of an analogy ... I dunno, like a school getting a permission slip for a trip ... are they getting the permission from the child, or the parent? Even if the piece of paper is given to and received from the child, the permission is being decided by the parent. Same way with form access - it's the list which makes the decision, not the form. So we have our "permission slip" on the list, not the form.

This may not make sense to everyone, but changing it at this point would confuse everyone who already uses Fabrik.

As for your details not actually displaying, as Troester says, check that your PK element is published. If that's not it, fill out your My Sites and I'll take a look. I wouldn't usually get hands on in Community support, but it's a slow day in paid support, and I'm taking a quick break from coding.

-- hugh

 

[daneyul]

Thanks again for replying on a weekend. Primary key is definitely published--unfortunately, it's on a text windows local computer, so no way to put it out there.

I think I'll delete all the records and start again--somehow--god knows how--my "last name" fields are showing numbers instead of the actual names they had 10 minutes ago, without me doing anything but this endless circle of checking ICL options. Certainly never edited the fields, but there I am--if I view data in the form, the last name fields are all numbers, sequenced after the last ID number. No. Idea. Why. It's all becoming a blur... I just know I have gone through EVERY setting on my form/list/whatever and set access to Public everywhere, but still--I get a title only in details view. And now numbers in the last name fields that start sequencing after the last ID field. Wheee.

I have to say, it would be better if the GUI design philosophy weighted options in intuitive-for-the-USER places rather than intuitive-for-whoever-developed-the-module places. Having permissions spread in so many areas, for instance, and using such confusing terminology (still not sure what the difference is between a details view and a list view, or why both are necessary--or when a form is a record or a table or a view, or when I should click "view data" to get to the right settings...or view details...or maybe it's in elements? Or Access? Or Groups? Or List? Or Form? You certainly can't trust the actual name of the setting area to contain a given type of setting--at least not in a manner that's consistent and obvious. Such as my earlier issue with needing to change a Form (aka record?) VIEW access in the List area. Regardless of how it works behind the scenes--View Access for a Form should either be in the Form area, or in the Access area. Not hidden with a different name (records) under Lists. Else what's the point of having a Form tab?

I've just used Fabrik for a day, and I'm sure I'll get used to it...but God.... so many context sensitive settings that seem arbitrary---it just feels like endless clicking and searching for that last option you just know you saw five minutes ago but can't find now. (Want to change Access permissions for Grouping?--Easy--No, no, no.... don't go to the GROUPS tab--What? No, not Access tab either, silly--go to LIST, obviously--then data (no, not THAT data, the data TAB of course), then, along the top, change the Group by Access. So obvious. Now find it again in five minutes. If your head hasn't exploded from searching in every nook and cranny for so many other buried things.) The tools are there--and seem great--but organization is scattershot and prone to missing things because settings are so spread out and easy to miss under the various sub-headings. Creating isn't so bad--but modifying--or if something goes wrong--it's torture checking and re-checking so many things in area after area, never sure if you've missed some buried menu.

Sorry. Frustration has set in--I do appreciate the replies--like I say, I'll just start again and hope it works as expected.

 

[daneyul]

OK, I create a new list--with a brand new table (staff). I add one element to Form (First Name). Everything's at default--careful not to change anything from default settings. List is published. ID, datetime and "First Name" are published and viewable in list. View List is public, View Records is public.

I add a record. "Bob" in the First Name field.

I make a menu pointing to Detail view, and when accessed, it only shows the title and label. "First Name". Nothing else.

I'm obviously missing something very basic--the above is about as simple as it gets, though, and I didn't change a thing. But I'm getting the same as I did above (I had labels turned off then so it appeared I only got the title).

What happened to Bob? Is there some super secret access setting that needs to be changed from the default even when creating a new list in order for data to be seen in detail view?

 

[daneyul]

Decided to reinstall Fabrik--figuring there must be some corruption, no way it can be this hard to create a freaking detail view-- So--I run Joomla's uninstall on the Fabrik Component after disabling it. Big mistake to think it would uninstall properly, but I'm delirious.

And...of course... it killed my test site with:

Warning: require_once(F:\xampp\htdocs\joomla/components/com_fabrik/helpers/file.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in F:\xampp\htdocs\joomla\plugins\system\fabrik\fabrik.php on line 77
Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'F:\xampp\htdocs\joomla/components/com_fabrik/helpers/file.php' (include_path='.;F:\xampp\php\PEAR') in F:\xampp\htdocs\joomla\plugins\system\fabrik\fabrik.php on line 77


Going to bed now. Hope I don't have nightmares about this module, but I probably will.

 

[daneyul]

Couldn't sleep--removed all traces of Fabrik, reinstalled it. Did the same as above--created single field in a list (first name) added some entries and left it at default access.. and nothing. Details view shows only the labels, not the data. Made a list view too, and it does the same thing--the Add, Delete buttons, but no data. Why is none of my data making it into the view? I'm running out of places to look.

 

[troester]

No idea what is going on at your server.
I would suggest to do a new clean installation of Joomla and Fabrik.

 

[daneyul]

Thanks--yeah. Probably right. I was a bit premature in saying the List view didn't show data--it does. Just not the Details view. I did a full remove and reinstall of Fabrik with no change. Guess a full site take down is next--it's odd, though, for just this one issue to happen--no data in details view. I feel like somewhere there's something I'm not finding.

 

[troester]

How do you access the details view.
If you don't provide a valid record id it will open an empty one.

 

[cheesegrits]

What site template are you using? That's about the only thing I can think of which would hide element values, assuming no other complications, if a non Bootstrap 2 template was somehow messing with the CSS.

We understand that Fabrik can be confusing at first, and we badly need some new tutorials and examples of use. This morning I was kicking around some ideas for a simple "Getting Started" tutorial, and here's a quick series of six screencasts I recorded, setting up a basic application. It's a "Trip Pics" app, for uploading images, giving them a name, and showing where they were taken.

As you are using Windows, and all of my current tests were Linux based, I set up a XAMPP site for this, just in case there was something going on with the server stack on Windows.

The entire process, from kicking off the XAMPP download, to finishing the last screencast, took 43 minutes, including installing Joomla and Fabrik. So yes - while there are many valid criticisms of Fabrik's "bells and whistles" (I call it Feeping Creaturism) and the sometimes non-obvious UI, it is still an incredibly powerful tool for very rapidly putting together relatively complex applications.

Creating the list and elements ...
http://screencast.com/t/PvTaSDZu

Creating a menu item, and adding & viewing the first record
http://screencast.com/t/m9XWdzlO3HlY

Tweaking element settings, setting edit and view record access to Registered
http://screencast.com/t/QkHKhvqv

More element tweaks, testing access controls
http://screencast.com/t/2s7RlyrnfGG

Enabling Mediabox, creating a map viz
http://screencast.com/t/AH8d3rcDoQs

Tweaking the map viz
http://screencast.com/t/kvpUB35g

Please excuse the erratic and slow mouse movement - I have a cat on my lap / laptop. Oh, and I forgot I don't actually have my recent Europe trip pics on this laptop, so you got a pic of my recent lumbar fusion surgery and a Thesaurus Rex instead.


-- hugh

 

[daneyul]

Wow--I can see how those could be useful--quick demos that show things without a lot of fussing around.

I feel a bit guilty now, as I reinstalled Joomla from scratch, added Fabrik, and the problem that was making me crazy went away--data finally started showing up in the Detail view. I'm thinking something got hosed in my db, even though I kept creating different records with every test. Maybe some plugin or other module was doing something. It was definitely odd--and sorry for the crabbiness--I was definitely at my wits end. Working more with it today, I do see the power, and am getting the hang of it--mainly a matter of learning where things are I guess.

My problem of the last hour or two at least, is Form labels not showing in the Add / Edit view. They seem to be getting a "Display: hidden" span wrapped around them, though I've definitely set them to show in the Form Layout Settings. One of those little things that makes you crazy and stops you in your tracks.

 

[cheesegrits]

What site template are you using?

-- hugh

 

[daneyul]

For forms, I'm using a overridden version of Bootstrap--it's selected in the Forms Front end, and definitely in use. The site template itself--well, you'd think that would be easy, but I'm using a custom one someone gave me "they made in themeler". Not sure what it's based on. So--this sounds template related?

 

[cheesegrits]

Vanilla Fabrik relies on Bootstrap v2, as shipped with J!, so try switching Protostar, see if the problem fixes itself.

We recently created a set of overrides, for Bootstrap v3 templates, for which we use Joomlart's Purity III as the reference, which can be found here:

https://github.com/Fabrik/bootstrap3-jlayouts

But if your site template isn't Bootstrap'ed, or uses a non-standard BS lib, then yes ... it could cause problems.

-- hugh

 

[cheesegrits]

Also, for your first experiments with Fabrik, I would strongly recommend going with out of box templates for your forms and lists, until you have a good handle on the basics. Custom templates are very useful and powerful, but With Great Power Comes Great Risk Of Cockups.

-- hugh

 

[daneyul]

Thanks again for the reply. I switched the site to prototstar, and put the form to default, and while it did change the layout, still not seeing those form labels on the 20 or so elements in the form, which is a mixture of fields, dropdowns, text areas. Most odd. Some have validations, most don't. But all show in the source html with those blasted "span display:hidden" tags on Every Single Label. Argh! The forms settings have Labels set to left, but above makes no difference.

Here's a sample row's html--played around with trying to css them back to visible, but I don't think it's possible with that generic span's position to do anything css, various hopeful combinations targeting classes before or after it certainly haven't gotten results. What is putting this in there?




<div class="row-fluid">

<div class="control-group fabrikElementContainer plg-dropdown fb_el_bios___Position span12">

<span style="display: none;"> <-------------------- WHY ARE YOU HAUNTING ME EVIL SPAN????????????????????

<label for="bios___Position" class="fabrikLabel control-label">Position</label>
</span>
<span class=""/>

<div class="fabrikElement">

<select name="bios___Position[]" id="bios___Position" class="fabrikinput inputbox input input-medium">
<option value="Associate">Associate</option>
<option value="Shareholder" selected="selected">Shareholder</option>
<option value="Co-managing Shareholder">Co-managing Shareholder</option>
<option value="Retired Shareholder">Retired Shareholder</option>
</select>
</div>
<div class="fabrikErrorMessage"/>

</div>

</div>

 

[cheesegrits]

Without being able to get at your page to look, I have no clue. All I can say is I'm about 99.999847% certain it isn't us. I just checked all our standard bootstrap form template files, and we definitely do not insert that span. Also that self closing span with an empty style right after the label isn't us.

So as it isn't the template - I'm assuming you aren't using a custom form template - then it's being done either by some 3rd party JS on page load, or by a 3rd party system plugin during page rendering on the server side.

-- hugh