mform-output

MForm Output Helpers

The MFormOutputHelper class (namespace FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Utils) normalises all link and repeater values for use in frontend templates.

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createLinkData() / normalizeLinkData()

Unified entry point that accepts any link format and returns a consistent array.

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Utils\MFormOutputHelper;

$data = MFormOutputHelper::createLinkData('REX_VALUE[1]');

Input formats accepted

Input	Example
Internal article (redaxo:// prefix)	redaxo://12
Internal article (plain numeric ID)	14
Media filename	image.jpg
External URL	https://example.com
E-mail	mailto:user@example.com
Telephone	tel:+49123456789
Already-prepared array with customlink_url	passed through as-is
Repeater array with id / name keys	['id' => 'redaxo://12', 'name' => 'Artikel [12]']

Return value keys

[
    'customlink_url'    => 'https://example.com',     // resolved URL ready for href=
    'customlink_text'   => 'Example',                 // display text (article name / media title / URL)
    'customlink_target' => ' target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"', // for external links
    'customlink_class'  => 'external',                // 'internal' | 'external' | 'media' | 'mail' | 'tel'
    'type'              => 'external',                // 'internal' | 'external' | 'media' | 'email' | 'telephone'
    'article_id'        => null,                      // int if internal link
    'clang_id'          => null,                      // int if internal link
    'filename'          => null,                      // string if media
    'extension'         => null,                      // file extension if media
    'protocol'          => 'https',                   // scheme for external
    'domain'            => 'example.com',
    'metadata'          => [],                        // article / media metadata
]

Options

$data = MFormOutputHelper::createLinkData('REX_VALUE[1]', [
    'extern_blank' => false,  // default true – don't add target="_blank" for external
    'mode'         => 'raw',  // 'frontend' (default) | 'raw' | 'strict'
]);

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Rendering a link in a module OUTPUT

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Utils\MFormOutputHelper;

$data = MFormOutputHelper::createLinkData('REX_VALUE[1]');

if ('' !== $data['customlink_url']) {
    echo '<a href="' . rex_escape($data['customlink_url']) . '"'
        . $data['customlink_target'] . '>'
        . rex_escape($data['customlink_text'])
        . '</a>';
}

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getCustomLinkUrl() – URL only

When you just need the resolved URL without metadata:

$url = MFormOutputHelper::getCustomLinkUrl('REX_VALUE[1]');
// or from an already-prepared array:
$url = MFormOutputHelper::getCustomLinkUrl($linkData);

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Repeater rows

Use MFormRepeaterHelper::decode() – it handles JSON decoding, HTML entity decoding, and filters disabled rows (online/offline toggle) in one call.

See the mform-flex-repeater skill for the full Repeater API including filterByField(), sortByField(), groupByField(), and limitItems().

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Repeater\MFormRepeaterHelper;

$rows = MFormRepeaterHelper::decode('REX_VALUE[1]');

// Alternative (v8-kompatibel / already-decoded array):
// $raw  = json_decode(html_entity_decode('REX_VALUE[1]', ENT_QUOTES | ENT_HTML5, 'UTF-8'), true) ?? [];
// $rows = MFormRepeaterHelper::prepareItemsForOutput($raw);

Normalising link fields in repeater rows

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Utils\MFormOutputHelper;

// Adds <field>_normalized key alongside the original
$items = MFormOutputHelper::normalizeRepeaterItems($items, ['link', 'cta']);

foreach ($items as $item) {
    $link = $item['link_normalized'];
    echo '<a href="' . rex_escape($link['customlink_url']) . '">'
        . rex_escape($link['customlink_text']) . '</a>';
}

// Replace original field (no _normalized suffix)
$items = MFormOutputHelper::normalizeRepeaterItems($items, ['link'], ['replace' => true]);

Complete repeater module OUTPUT example

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Repeater\MFormRepeaterHelper;
use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Utils\MFormOutputHelper;

$rows = MFormRepeaterHelper::decode('REX_VALUE[1]');
$rows = MFormOutputHelper::normalizeRepeaterItems($rows, ['cta_link']);

foreach ($rows as $row) {
    $title    = rex_escape($row['title'] ?? '');
    $text     = $row['text'] ?? '';            // may contain HTML from TinyMCE
    $filename = $row['image'] ?? '';
    $link     = $row['cta_link_normalized'];

    echo '<div class="card">';
    if ($filename) {
        echo '<img src="' . rex_url::media($filename) . '" alt="">';
    }
    echo '<h3>' . $title . '</h3>';
    echo '<div>' . $text . '</div>';
    if ($link['customlink_url']) {
        echo '<a href="' . rex_escape($link['customlink_url']) . '"'
            . $link['customlink_target'] . '>'
            . rex_escape($link['customlink_text']) . '</a>';
    }
    echo '</div>';
}

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Media metadata via createLinkData

When a media filename is passed, the returned array includes:

$data = MFormOutputHelper::createLinkData('hero.jpg');
// $data['type']              → 'media'
// $data['customlink_url']    → '/media/hero.jpg'
// $data['filename']          → 'hero.jpg'
// $data['extension']         → 'jpg'
// $data['metadata']['title'] → media title from mediapool
// $data['metadata']['width'] → image width
// $data['metadata']['height']→ image height

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isFirstSlice() helper

Check if the current slice is the first slice of an article:

if (MFormOutputHelper::isFirstSlice(REX_SLICE_ID)) {
    // render differently for first module instance
}

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Common pitfalls

• Always use createLinkData() or normalizeLinkData() instead of manually parsing redaxo:// – the helper resolves article names, media URLs and external link targets in one call.
• customlink_target is already a ready-to-embed attribute string ( target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer") or empty string – just echo it directly, no need to check it.
• customlink_class is a plain string ('internal', 'external', etc.), not an HTML class attribute string.
• normalizeRepeaterItems() does not mutate the original array – assign the return value.
• mode = 'raw' keeps backend helper labels (article name with [ID] suffix) in the name key. Use for debugging only.
• Always decode repeater values with MFormRepeaterHelper::decode('REX_VALUE[n]') – it handles JSON decoding, HTML entity decoding, empty-string values on fresh modules, and filtering of disabled rows in one call. Only fall back to json_decode(html_entity_decode($raw, ENT_QUOTES | ENT_HTML5, 'UTF-8'), true) ?? [] when you have a v8-era already-decoded array (then post-process with MFormRepeaterHelper::prepareItemsForOutput()).