GF_Field_Textarea

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.