With out current implementation of MultiSite Manager (MSM), most of the authors are creating form pages from the blue print so it
can be rolled our to live copy pages.
There is a growing need to only display certain form components for certain regions or counties.
For illustration, we have global node as the blue print and then the country nodes as livecopies.
Scenario:
From blueprint (source), create a page with the following form components:
formstart
text1
text2
checkbox1
radiobox1
checkbox2
dropdown1
dropdown2
formend
This page is rolled out to the live copy pages and depending on the user's cookie country code, the form fields
should be displayed according to the rules set.
Example Rule:
formstart
text1
if country = "us" or "ca" {
text2
checkbox1
}
radiobox1
checkbox2
if country = mx {
dropdown1
}
dropdown2
formend
To resolve this requirement:
1st Option:
We created a regional or country container component where you can set a property for the list of countries that will see it.
Inside this country container is an included parsys so authors can drag the form components for that particular countries.
New layout on blue print source page would be:
formstart
text1
country container component : countrycode = us,ca
**text2
**checkbox1
radiobox1
checkbox2
country container component : countrycode = mx
**dropdown1
dropdown2
formend
Complications started when you set the form field components inside the country container as required fields
(have constraint values). Even though the text2 and checkbox1 components are not displayed for Germany (based from the rule),
you can't submit the form because it is flagging it as requred field even though it is hidden.
2nd Option:
We created customized form field components ( derived from the OOTB form component) that has the property to display for selected countries.
Also, for that customized component, we added the servervalidation.jsp to do some validation for that field component.
The problem with this option is that for the countries where the component should be hidden, it is displaying unnecessary spaces because it is displaying empty "divs" for the component that was called but was hidden. It appears that when you add a form field component on a page, it automatically creates a "div" with class of the component name and the class=section (default classes added by parsys component).
What is the best way to customize form components by regions, ensure all form constraints are met and how it relates to the MSM structure (rolling out to the different live copies)?
