Hi,

I want to extend SS 2.4 form fields to be able to add html5 attributes and some other stuff.
I don't want to override every form field, so I tried to adapt the createTag method from the FormField class.

Trying the following did not work:
File: MyHTML5FormField.php

<?php

class MyHTML5FormField extends FormField {
  
  
  /**
   * Construct and return HTML tag.
   *
   * @todo Transform to static helper method.
   */
  public function createTag($tag, $attributes, $content = null) {
    
    // my custom stuff here
    
    $preparedAttributes = '';
    foreach($attributes as $k => $v) {
      // Note: as indicated by the $k == value item here; the decisions over what to include in the attributes can sometimes get finicky
      if (!empty($v) || $v === '0' || $k == 'value') $preparedAttributes .= " $k=\"" . Convert::raw2att($v) . "\"";
    }

    if ($content || !in_array($tag, array('input', 'img'))) {
      return "<$tag$preparedAttributes>$content</$tag>";
    } else {
      return "<$tag$preparedAttributes />";
    }
  }
  
}

  Object::useCustomClass('FormField', 'MyHTML5FormField');

Then I tried to use Extensions, which also did not work:
File: MyHTML5FormFieldExtensions.php

<?php

class MyHTML5FormFieldExtensions extends Extension {
  
  /**
   * Construct and return HTML tag.
   *
   * @todo Transform to static helper method.
   */
  public function createTag($tag, $attributes, $content = null) {
    
    // my custom stuff here
    
    $preparedAttributes = '';
    foreach($attributes as $k => $v) {
      // Note: as indicated by the $k == value item here; the decisions over what to include in the attributes can sometimes get finicky
      if (!empty($v) || $v === '0' || $k == 'value') $preparedAttributes .= " $k=\"" . Convert::raw2att($v) . "\"";
    }

    if ($content || !in_array($tag, array('input', 'img'))) {
      return "<$tag$preparedAttributes>$content</$tag>";
    } else {
      return "<$tag$preparedAttributes />";
    }
  }
  
  
}

  Object::add_extension('FormField', 'MyHTML5FormFieldExtensions');

So, is it possible to do it as I tried? Or do I have to extend FormField with my own class and "re-write" every single form field and inherit it from my custom class?

thanks for your help!

Manuel

I am having the same issue at the moment so I found this article online:
http://www.webbower.com/blog/the-power-of-the-silverstripe-extension-class/

The bad news is:
"you can ADD functionality in the form of new methods, but you can't overwrite existing methods on the class you're extending."