Atk4 form Columns - atk4

Question

I'm trying to use columns in a form.
I have the next code, that produces the
The code is this:
$col=$this->add('Columns');
$left=$col->add($f->addField('text','observaciones'));
$right=$col->add($f->addField('line','cantidad_de_bocas'));
the fields of the columns, are based on form fields. I whant to add more than one field to the columns (ex. 2 fields on left column and 4 fields on right columns).
I have seen some examples about this, like
$col=$page->add('Columns');
$left=$col->addColumn(2)->add('View_SlotMachine');
$right=$col->addColumn(2)->add('View_SlotMachine');
Why the fields are duplicated ?
What does the method addColumn(2) does ?
Very thanks

Answer 1

If you havent gone to far with development using atk 4.1, you could download 4.2 and look at the examples here. There is a lot of new functionality in 4.2 which you can take advantage of and the demos and examples are being updated to reflect these changes.
In 4.2, there is an example of styling with two columns like this
class StylingForm extends Form {
function init(){
parent::init();
$f=$this;
$f->addField('line','name')->validateNotNull()
->setFieldHint('Click "Register" to see error');
$f->addField('line','email')
->validateNotNull()
->validateField('filter_var($this->get(), FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)')
.. .. ..
}
functoin init() {
// Stacked class puts labels on top of fields
$form=$page->add('StylingForm');
$form->addClass('stacked atk-row');
$form->template->trySet('fieldset','span6');
$sep=$form->addSeparator('span6');
$form->add('Order')->move($sep,'before','age')->now();
}
In atk4.1, the form is a view so it has a template in atk4/templates/shared/view/form.html and some code in atk4/lib/View/form.php
In the example of the slot machine that you mention from here the addColumns(2) is being used to set the width of the views to 20% of the available screen width but in the example, each column will contain a view of the slot machine. If you wanted to forms on the same page, you could use the same functionality, but what you appear to want is a single form across two columns with a single submit button.
If you have to continue to use atk4.1, you need to look at the form.html. Romans may be able to suggest how you could create a two column form in that version. I can see there are some classes defined in the css such as atk-form-vertical-2col and atk-form-vertical-3col and there is a function setFormClass to set them but i cant see what tags you would set to put fields into the right hand side - by default, everything goes to the left.