Forms overview

PrelineForm is Laravolt v7's form builder. It renders Preline UI + Tailwind CSS markup, preserves old input, shows validation errors, and integrates with Laravel FormRequest validation and Inputmask — all through one fluent API.

Why a form builder

Most real business UIs spend far too much code on forms: field containers, labels, errors, old input, accessibility attributes, model binding, CSRF tokens. Copying these patterns across a project leads to inconsistent UIs, accessibility regressions, and subtle validation bugs.

PrelineForm turns forms into a small, declarative API so every form in a Laravolt project looks, behaves, and fails the same way.

Raw Laravel Blade:

Blade

<form method="POST" action="{{ route('users.store') }}" class="space-y-6">
  @csrf
  <div>
    <label for="email" class="block text-sm">Email</label>
    <input id="email" name="email" type="email"
           value="{{ old('email') }}"
           class="mt-1 block w-full rounded-lg border-gray-200 @error('email') border-red-500 @enderror" />
    @error('email')<p class="mt-1 text-sm text-red-600">{{ $message }}</p>@enderror
  </div>
  <button type="submit" class="rounded-lg bg-blue-600 px-4 py-2 text-white">Save</button>
</form>

Same form with PrelineForm:

PHP

{!! PrelineForm::open('users.store')->post() !!}
    {!! PrelineForm::email('email')->label('Email')->required() !!}
    {!! PrelineForm::submit('Save')->primary() !!}
{!! PrelineForm::close() !!}

CSRF, old input, validation errors, accessible labels, dark mode styling, and Preline UI classes are all applied by the builder.

The API surface

Every form is built with three groups of methods.

1. Opening the form

PHP

PrelineForm::open('users.store');      // action="{{ route('users.store') }}" method=POST
PrelineForm::open()->get();            // method=GET
PrelineForm::open()->post();           // method=POST (default)
PrelineForm::open()->put();
PrelineForm::open()->patch();
PrelineForm::open()->delete();
// Short syntax
PrelineForm::post('users.store');
PrelineForm::put('users.update');
PrelineForm::delete('users.destroy');
// Action sources
PrelineForm::open()->action(url('/users'));
PrelineForm::open()->route('users.store', ['team' => $team]);
// File uploads
PrelineForm::open('users.store')->post()->multipart();
// Disable CSRF token (rare)
PrelineForm::post('search')->withoutToken();

A hidden _token is injected automatically for non-GET forms. put, patch, and delete add the _method hidden field expected by Laravel.

2. Adding fields

PHP

PrelineForm::text('name')->label('Full name')->required();
PrelineForm::email('email')->label('Email');
PrelineForm::password('password')->label('Password');
PrelineForm::number('age')->min(0)->max(120)->step(1);
PrelineForm::textarea('bio')->rows(5);
PrelineForm::date('birthday');
PrelineForm::time('start_at');
PrelineForm::color('theme');
PrelineForm::select('country', $countries)->placeholder('--Select--');
PrelineForm::selectMultiple('tags', $tags);
PrelineForm::checkbox('terms', 1)->label('I agree');
PrelineForm::checkboxGroup('fruits', ['apple' => 'Apple', 'banana' => 'Banana']);
PrelineForm::radio('plan', 'pro')->label('Pro plan');
PrelineForm::radioGroup('plan', ['free' => 'Free', 'pro' => 'Pro'], 'pro');
PrelineForm::file('avatar')->accept('image/*');
PrelineForm::hidden('team_id', $team->id);

Every field accepts a chainable modifier set:

PHP

PrelineForm::text('username')
    ->label('Username')
    ->placeholder('jane.doe')
    ->hint('Letters, numbers, dots, and dashes only.')
    ->required()
    ->id('username')
    ->addClass('font-mono')
    ->attributes(['maxlength' => 32])
    ->data('role', 'username-field');

See Validation and Input masking for server-driven client-side validation and Inputmask integration.

3. Actions and closing the form

PHP

PrelineForm::submit('Save')->primary();
PrelineForm::button('Cancel')->secondary();
PrelineForm::submit('Delete')->danger();
PrelineForm::submit('Confirm')->success();
PrelineForm::close();

Buttons share the same variant names across the platform so a UI convention can be taught once.

Model binding

Most admin forms are either "create" or "edit" against a model. Laravolt handles both with one API:

PHP

// Create
{!! PrelineForm::open('users.store')->post() !!}
    {!! PrelineForm::text('name')->label('Name') !!}
{!! PrelineForm::close() !!}
// Edit: pass the model to open()
{!! PrelineForm::open('users.update', $user)->put() !!}
    {!! PrelineForm::text('name')->label('Name') !!}
{!! PrelineForm::close() !!}
// Or bind explicitly
{!! PrelineForm::bind($user)->put(route('users.update', $user)) !!}
    {!! PrelineForm::text('name')->label('Name') !!}
{!! PrelineForm::close() !!}

Bound forms pre-fill each field by the field name, fall back to old() input when validation fails, and preserve unsaved values on re-render.

v7 compatibility with v6 syntax

PrelineForm keeps method signatures compatible with the earlier Form facade from v6 (laravolt/semantic-form). See Upgrade guide for the concrete migration steps.

A complete example

PHP

{!! PrelineForm::open('products.store', $product ?? null)
    ->post()
    ->multipart()
    ->validate(StoreProductRequest::class) !!}
    <div class="grid grid-cols-1 gap-6 lg:grid-cols-2">
        <div class="space-y-4">
            {!! PrelineForm::text('name')->label('Product name')->required() !!}
            {!! PrelineForm::textarea('description')->label('Description')->rows(4) !!}
            {!! PrelineForm::number('price')->label('Price')->mask('currency') !!}
        </div>
        <div class="space-y-4">
            {!! PrelineForm::select('category_id', $categories)
                ->label('Category')
                ->placeholder('Select a category')
                ->required() !!}
            {!! PrelineForm::file('images')
                ->label('Images')
                ->accept('image/*')
                ->multiple() !!}
            {!! PrelineForm::checkbox('is_featured', 1)->label('Featured product') !!}
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="mt-6 flex gap-3">
        {!! PrelineForm::submit('Save product')->primary() !!}
        {!! PrelineForm::link('Cancel', route('products.index'))->secondary() !!}
    </div>
{!! PrelineForm::close() !!}

This example combines model binding, server-side validation through StoreProductRequest, input masking for currency, multipart uploads, and a Preline UI-styled action bar. It compiles conceptually against Laravolt v7 APIs.

Reusable fields

Macros register reusable field types at service provider boot time:

PHP

// app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php
use Laravolt\PrelineForm\Facade as PrelineForm;
public function boot(): void
{
    PrelineForm::macro('phone', function (string $name, ?string $value = null) {
        return PrelineForm::text($name, $value)->mask('phone')->hint('Include area code');
    });
}