Introduction
The GF_Field_Textarea class extends the GF_Field class, also known as the Field Object. This class is responsible for determining how the Paragraph Text (textarea) field is rendered when the form is displayed and how its value is handled during and after form submission.
Settings and Properties
Settings control what options are available to the admin user when configuring the field in the form editor. Gravity Forms includes many built-in settings such as Field Label, Field Description, Choices, Conditional Logic, etc. In addition to built-in settings, custom settings can also be developed. For more information on how to develop custom settings and how to associate settings to a field, visit the GF_Field page.
Properties contain the values specified by the settings and generally are part of the Field Object.
The properties may be retrieved by accessing the Field Object as follows:
//get the field $field = GFFormsModel::get_field( $form, 1 ); //get the admin label $admin_label = $field->adminLabel;
Settings
The following settings are available for the field:
Setting | Description |
---|---|
admin_label_setting | Controls whether the “Admin Field Label” setting appears. |
conditional_logic_field_setting | Controls whether the “Enable Conditional Logic” setting appears. |
css_class_setting | Controls whether the “Custom CSS Class” setting displays. This allows a custom css to be used for the field. |
default_value_textarea_setting | Controls whether the “Default Value” setting displays. This allows default text to be shown in the textarea. If this text is not changed, it will be submitted with the form. |
description_setting | Controls whether the “Description” setting appears. This allows a description for the field to be displayed. |
duplicate_setting | Controls whether the “No Duplicates” setting displays within the “Rules” section. This controls whether the same value may exist more than once in the database. The “Rules” setting must be active for this to display. |
error_message_setting | Controls whether the “Custom Validation Message” setting which allows a custom message to be used appears. |
label_setting | Controls whether the “Field Label” setting which allows the label to be changed appears. |
maxlen_setting | Controls whether the “Maximum Characters” setting displays. This controls how many characters are allowed to be entered into the field. This is currently used by the text, textarea, post content, and post excerpt fields. |
placeholder_textarea_setting | Controls whether the “Placeholder” setting displays. This allows a hint to be provided as to what should be entered into the field. This text is not submitted with the form. If the Rich Text Editor is being used, this setting cannot be used. |
prepopulate_field_setting | Controls whether the “Allow field to be populated dynamically” setting appears. |
rich_text_editor_setting | Controls whether the “Use the Rich Text Editor” setting displays. If checked, the rich text editor provides an interface which allows advanced editing/formatting capabilities to the field. |
rules_setting | Controls whether the “Rules” settings section displays. The “Required” option shows when this is active. |
size_setting | Controls whether the “Field Size” setting displays. This controls the size of the input field for fields to which it applies. The sizes are “small”, “medium”, and “large”. |
visibility_setting | Controls whether the “Visibility” setting displays. The controls whether the option of visibility being for “Everyone” or “Admin Only” can be set. |
Properties
Below is a listing of the properties inherited from the parent class and ones specific to the Textarea field.
Property | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
adminLabel | string | The label to be used on admin pages instead of the label, useful for fields with long labels. |
adminOnly | boolean | Determines whether the field is visible to the user submitting the form, or only visible in the admin. |
allowsPrepopulate | boolean | Determines if the field values can be dynamically populated. Default is false. |
conditionalLogic | array | An associative array containing the conditional logic rules. See the Conditional Logic Object for more details. |
cssClass | string | The custom CSS class or classes to be added to the input tag for the field. |
description | string | The field description. |
descriptionPlacement | string | The placement of the field description. The description may be placed “above” or “below” the field inputs. If the placement is not specified, then the description placement setting for the Form Layout is used. |
errorMessage | string | The custom error message to be displayed if the field fails validation. |
formId | integer | The form ID. |
id | integer | The field ID. |
inputName | string | The parameter name used when dynamically populating the field. |
isRequired | boolean | Marking the field as required will prevent the form from being submitted if the user does not enter a value. Default is false. |
label | string | The field label that will be displayed on the form and on the admin pages. |
labelPlacement | string | The placement of the main field label “Time”. The choices are top-aligned (top_label), left-aligned (left_label), right-aligned (right_label). To control the sub-label placement of the fields within the time group, use the “subLabelPlacement” property. |
maxLength | string | The number of characters that the textarea is allowed to contain. |
noDuplicates | boolean | Determines if the value entered by the user may already exist in the database. |
size | string | Controls the width of the input field. The choices are “small”, “medium”, and “large”. |
type | string | The field type, which in this case is textarea. |
useRichTextEditor | boolean | Indicates whether the field uses the rich text editor interface. |
Source Code
The source code is located in includes/fields/class-gf-field-textarea.php in the Gravity Forms folder of your sites plugins directory.