If you have ever developed with Rails you probably now form_for for people thaht don"t now here is an example of a form linked with a model:

<%= form_for @article |f| %>
  <%= f.text_field :title %>
  <%= f.text_area :body %>
  <%= f.submit "Create" %>
<% end %>

BaseKitFormMapping let you create simple form linked with a model easily.

Here's a screenshot of the form that we're going to create:

Installation

First step install BaseKit. To do that the easiest way is by using Cocoapods. You just need to add this line to your podfile

dependency 'BaseKit/FormMapping', '~> 0.2.3'

After that then run

pod install

If you don't want Cocoapods just copy Code/Core, Code/UIView, Code/FormField, Code/FormMapping, Vendor/ActionSheetPicker, and Vendor/BWLongTextViewController. Last bu not least ActionSheetPicker is not ARC friendly, so you need to add -fno-objc-arc flag on each file.

Model creation

To store form informations we need to create a model. Create a new Objective-C class called Movie.

Movie.h

@interface Movie : NSObject

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString *title;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSDate   *createdAt;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSNumber *suitAllAges;

@end

Movie.m

@implementation Movie

@synthesize title, createdAt, suitAllAges;

@end

FormTableViewController

Add a new Objective-C class called FormTableViewController

FormTableViewController.h

@class BKFormModel;
@class Movie;

@interface FormTableViewController : UITableViewController

@property (nonatomic, strong) BKFormModel *formModel;
@property (nonatomic, strong) Movie *movie;

@end

FormTableViewController.h

@implementation FormTableViewController

@synthesize formModel, movie;

- (id)init {
  self = [super initWithStyle:UITableViewStyleGrouped];
  if (self) {
  }
  return self;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
  [super viewDidLoad];

  self.formModel = [BKFormModel formTableModelForTableView:self.tableView];

  self.movie = [[Movie alloc] init];
  self.movie.title = @"Movie title";
  self.movie.suitAllAges = [NSNumber numberWithBool:NO];

  [BKFormMapping mappingForClass:[Movie class] block:^(BKFormMapping *formMapping) {
    [formMapping sectiontTitle:@"Information section" identifier:@"info"];
    [formMapping mapAttribute:@"title" title:@"Title" type:BKFormAttributeMappingTypeText];
    [formMapping mapAttribute:@"createdAt" title:@"ReleaseDate" type:BKFormAttributeMappingTypeDatePicker dateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"]];
    [formMapping mapAttribute:@"suitAllAges" title:@"All ages" type:BKFormAttributeMappingTypeBoolean];

    [self.formModel registerMapping:formMapping];
  }];

  [self.formModel loadFieldsWithObject:self.movie];
}

- (void)viewDidUnload {
  [super viewDidUnload];

  self.formModel = nil;
  self.movie = nil;
}

Small explanation

self.formModel = [BKFormModel formTableModelForTableView:self.tableView];

Register the table view

[BKFormMapping mappingForClass:[Movie class] block:^(BKFormMapping *formMapping)

Create a form mapping for Movie class**

[formMapping sectiontTitle:@"Information section" identifier:@"info"];

Create a section with title: "Information section", identifier doesn't matter

[formMapping mapAttribute:@"title" title:@"Title" type:BKFormAttributeMappingTypeText];

Here we map movie.title property and say that cell must be of text type

[formMapping mapAttribute:@"createdAt" title:@"ReleaseDate" type:BKFormAttributeMappingTypeDatePicker dateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"]];

Show a data picker on touch. DateFormat is used on date displaying

[self.formModel loadFieldsWithObject:self.movie];

This step load the form

BaseKit

Download example project