mform-flex-repeater

MForm Flex Repeater

The Flex Repeater lets editors add, remove and reorder an arbitrary number of rows without Alpine.js. Data is stored as JSON in a single REX_VALUE[n] slot.

Basic repeater

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm;

$mform = MForm::factory();

$mform->addFlexRepeaterElement(1,
    MForm::factory()
        ->addTextField('title',     ['label' => 'Titel'])
        ->addTextAreaField('text',  ['label' => 'Text'])
        ->addMediaField('image',    ['label' => 'Bild', 'preview' => 1])
    ,
    [
        'btn_text'           => 'Eintrag hinzufügen',
        'btn_class'          => 'btn-default',
        'open'               => true,    // rows expanded by default
        'confirm_delete'     => true,
        'min'                => 0,
        'default_count'      => 1,       // pre-fill 1 empty row on first render
    ]
);

echo $mform->show();

Alias: addRepeaterElement() calls addFlexRepeaterElement() internally. Both are equivalent.

ID conventions inside a repeater

The outer repeater itself uses an integer slot ID (1, 2, … = REX_VALUE[1]). The fields inside the sub-form use plain string keys – they become array keys in the JSON of each row.

$mform->addFlexRepeaterElement(1,             // outer slot → REX_VALUE[1]
    MForm::factory()
        ->addTextField('headline',  ['label' => 'Überschrift'])  // → $row['headline']
        ->addCustomLinkField('link', ['label' => 'Link'])         // → $row['link']
);

No dotted prefix and no row index is needed in the template – the repeater handles row indices automatically at runtime.

MFRID placeholder

For widget-internal IDs that must be unique per row (e.g. TinyMCE, modal IDs), use __MFRID__ in HTML attributes (not in the field ID itself):

->addModalElement(
    'Einstellungen',
    MForm::factory()->addTextField('cssClass', ['label' => 'CSS-Klasse']),
    'btn-default', 'left',
    ['id' => 'modal-__MFRID__']
)

The repeater replaces __MFRID__ with a unique integer for each row.

Supported widget types inside the repeater

All standard MForm field types work. Special widgets explicitly supported:

Widget method	Notes
addCustomLinkField()	Single custom link (intern/extern/media/mailto/tel)
addCustomLinkMultipleField()	Multiple links as JSON array
addMFormLinkField()	Internal-link-focused custom link
addMediaField() / addMFormMediaField()	Single media file from mediapool
addMedialistField()	Multiple media files list
addImagelistField()	Image gallery with view-toggle (grid/list)
addLinklistField()	Multiple internal article links
addColorSwatchField()	Color / CSS-class picker
addRadioField()	Standard radio group
addCheckboxField()	Checkbox with Bootstrap wrapper
addCheckboxGroupField()	Multi-checkbox storing comma-separated string
addRadioImgField()	Visual layout picker
addTextReadOnlyField()	Read-only text display
addTextAreaReadOnlyField()	Read-only textarea display
addHeadline()	Static headline inside the row template
addDescription()	Static hint text inside the row template
addModalElement()	Sub-form in a Bootstrap modal; uses __MFRID__
addCollapseElement()	Collapsible section inside a row
addTextAreaField() with TinyMCE	Rich text editor; unique instance ID per row via __MFRID__
MarkdownEditor	Markdown editor; unique instance ID per row via __MFRID__

Nested repeaters

A repeater can contain another repeater one level deep. The inner sub-key is just a plain string – in the outer row's JSON it becomes an array under that key.

// Inner sub-form
$stepForm = MForm::factory()
    ->addTextField('title', ['label' => 'Schritt-Titel'])
    ->addTextAreaField('body', ['label' => 'Inhalt']);

// Outer sub-form embeds the inner one under sub-key 'steps'
$sectionForm = MForm::factory()
    ->addTextField('section_title', ['label' => 'Abschnittstitel'])
    ->addRepeaterElement('steps', $stepForm, true, true, [
        'btn_text' => 'Schritt hinzufügen',
    ]);

$mform->addRepeaterElement(2, $sectionForm, true, true, [
    'btn_text' => 'Abschnitt hinzufügen',
]);

In OUTPUT each section row contains $section['steps'] as a normal array of step rows.

Reading repeater values in OUTPUT PHP

Use MFormRepeaterHelper::decode() – it handles JSON decoding, HTML entity decoding and filters disabled rows in one step.

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Repeater\MFormRepeaterHelper;

$items = MFormRepeaterHelper::decode('REX_VALUE[2]');

foreach ($items as $item) {
    echo rex_escape($item['title'] ?? '');
}

Filter, sort, group, paginate

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Repeater\MFormRepeaterHelper;

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

// Filter by field value
$news = MFormRepeaterHelper::filterByField($items, 'category', 'news');
// Strict comparison (===)
$active = MFormRepeaterHelper::filterByField($items, 'status', '1', strict: true);

// Sort (asc / desc, auto-detects numeric vs. alphabetic)
$sorted = MFormRepeaterHelper::sortByField($items, 'date', 'desc');

// Group → [groupname => [items]]
$grouped = MFormRepeaterHelper::groupByField($items, 'category');

// Pagination
$paged = MFormRepeaterHelper::limitItems($items, perPage: 10, offset: $page * 10);

Custom link values inside repeater rows

use FriendsOfRedaxo\MForm\Utils\MFormOutputHelper;

$items = MFormRepeaterHelper::decode('REX_VALUE[2]');

foreach ($items as $item) {
    $url  = MFormOutputHelper::getCustomUrl($item['link'] ?? '');
    $data = MFormOutputHelper::prepareCustomLink(['link' => $item['link'] ?? ''], true);

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

decode() vs prepareItemsForOutput()

Method	When to use
decode(string $rexValue)	Recommended – use directly in module OUTPUT
prepareItemsForOutput(array $items)	When the array is already decoded (e.g. from a DB query)

Medialist / Imagelist values inside a repeater

Medialist and Imagelist store a comma-separated filename string:

$mediaNames = array_filter(explode(',', $item['images'] ?? ''));
foreach ($mediaNames as $filename) {
    $media = rex_media::get($filename);
    if ($media) {
        echo '<img src="' . rex_url::media($filename) . '" alt="' . rex_escape($media->getTitle()) . '">';
    }
}

Or use rex_var_custom_medialist::getMediaOutput() for the full widget-compatible output.

Options reference

Option key	Type	Default	Description
btn_text	string	'Hinzufügen'	Label on the "add row" button
btn_class	string	'btn-default'	Bootstrap class for the add button
open	bool	true	Rows expanded by default
confirm_delete	bool	true	Show confirmation dialog before deleting a row
min	int	0	Minimum number of rows (rows below this cannot be deleted)
default_count	int	0	Number of empty rows to pre-fill on first render
sortable	bool	true	Allow drag-and-drop reordering

Common pitfalls

• Use 0 as the row-index placeholder in IDs, not the actual index. The repeater renders the template once and patches all IDs at JS runtime.
• Do not share the slot ID between a repeater and a regular field in the same module – they would overwrite each other.
• Nested repeaters only go one level deep in the current implementation.
• __MFRID__ is a string placeholder – only use it inside attributes (e.g. id, data-*), not as the field value ID.
• Always decode repeater values with MFormRepeaterHelper::decode(), not json_decode() directly – the helper handles entity decoding and filters disabled rows automatically.
• TinyMCE and MarkdownEditor inside a repeater are supported – use __MFRID__ in the editor's ID attribute to ensure uniqueness per row (e.g. ['id' => 'tinymce-__MFRID__']).