forms.md

description	Admin form chrome — fieldsets, tables, floating save, tips, and required markers.

Forms

Admin forms share a small set of conventions on top of the common form helpers. This page covers the chrome; the helpers themselves live in nails/common.

Fieldsets

A <fieldset> with a <legend> is the card around a group of fields. DefaultController edit screens put each model fieldset in its own tab; Helper::tabs() wraps loose tab content in a legend-less fieldset so it still gets card chrome.

To let the user fold a secondary group away, opt in with data-collapse.

Floating save bar

Helper::floatingControls() renders the sticky save bar at the bottom of an edit form. DefaultController already does this. In a custom view:

echo \Nails\Admin\Helper::floatingControls([
    'save' => [
        'text' => 'Save Changes',
    ],
    'unsaved_changes' => true,
    'notes' => [
        'enabled'  => true,
        'model'    => 'Book',
        'provider' => 'app',
    ],
    'html' => [
        'left'   => '',
        'center' => '',
        'right'  => '',
    ],
]);

unsaved_changes opts the enclosing form into the Unsaved Changes plugin (a chip beside Save, plus beforeunload while dirty). You can also put data-unsaved-changes on the <form> yourself. DefaultController edit screens enable this by default.

A screen-tab panel with screen-tabs__panel--no-save hides the bar while that workspace is active.

Tables

Admin tables are borderless by default. Do not add .table-bordered — that class still draws a grid if you use it, but vendor views have dropped it.

Typical classes:

Class	Role
table table-striped table-hover table-responsive	Standard index / form table
table-rounded	Opt-in radius on the corner cells. Fieldset cards already have a radius, so flush fieldset tables ignore this class.
table-sticky	Sticky header under the admin topbar

A table that ends a fieldset sits flush with the card. The card's border keeps the table's bottom margin inside the card, so that margin is removed.

Cells are vertically centred. tfoot is white so dynamic-table add-row buttons sit on a clean row. Put “+ Add Item” in <tfoot>, not under the table.

Tips and required

Short guidance belongs in tip (question-mark beside the label). Longer copy, HTML, and alerts belong in info. See Form fields.

required => true paints an asterisk with an accessible name via Field::requiredMarker(). It does not set HTML5 required, so draft saves are not blocked by the browser.

Readonly fields show a padlock on the control, not on the helper text.