[cgiapp] Usefulness of the FillInForm plugin since the HTML::FillInForm 2.0 release?

[Mark Stosberg]

I'm wondering if it's time to quit recommending the FillInForm plugin. 
The way I see it, it has about 3 features, all now of questionable value:

1. It provides a more convenient syntax than HTML::FillInForm 1.x did. These
deficiences were fixed in HTML::FillInForm 2.0.

2. It defaults the data source to $self->query.
I don't find that exceptionally useful. It could even be considered an security
risk to be passing data unchecked from the query on to a new HTML page. Using a
trusted data source like a Data::FormValidator result or a database row is
usually a better option. 

3. It automatically ignores the 'rm' field for you, by taking it as the value
of mode_param(). That's a nice bit of integration, but it seems that
mode_param() can work several different ways, and it won't always return the
name of a query parameter that holds the name of the run mode call. This
feature also adds no value in the context of dispatching. 

What I'm finding is that now that HTML::FillInForm 2.x is out, I just use that
directly instead. The syntax is now clear and easy:   

 HTML::FillInForm->fill($html,$data);

That ease-of-use completes really well with what the plugin offers:

 $self->fill_form($html,$data);

By eliminating the plugin layer, there's less code, documentation and just
complexity involved in what's happening.

I'd like to hear from other users: Do use the FillInForm plugin, or do you use
HTML::FillInForm directly now?

    Mark


-- 
http://mark.stosberg.com/