Adding a Custom Form Element to an Adminhtml Form

Question

Is there a way to add a custom form element to a Magento Adminhtml form without placing the custom element in the lib/Varian folder?

I\'ve tracked down the

Answer 1

This is an old post but it still can be usefull for someone :

yes you can.

The code below is located in : app/code/local/MyCompany/MyModule/Block/MyForm.php

class MyCompany_MyModule_Block_MyForm extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Form 
{       
    protected function _prepareForm()
    {
        $form = new Varien_Data_Form(array(
            'id'        => 'edit_form',
            'action'    => $this->getUrl('*/*/save'),
            'method'    => 'post'
        ));

        $fieldset = $form->addFieldset('my_fieldset', array('legend' => 'Your fieldset title')));

        //Here is what is interesting us          
        //We add a new type, our type, to the fieldset
        //We call it extended_label
        $fieldset->addType('extended_label','MyCompany_MyModule_Lib_Varien_Data_Form_Element_ExtendedLabel');

        $fieldset->addField('mycustom_element', 'extended_label', array(
            'label'         => 'My Custom Element Label',
            'name'          => 'mycustom_element',
            'required'      => false,
            'value'     => $this->getLastEventLabel($lastEvent),
            'bold'      =>  true,
            'label_style'   =>  'font-weight: bold;color:red;',
        ));
    }
}

Here is the code of your custom element, which is located in app/code/local/MyCompany/MyModule/Lib/Varien/Data/Form/Element/ExtendedLabel.php :

class MyCompany_MyModule_Lib_Varien_Data_Form_Element_ExtendedLabel extends Varien_Data_Form_Element_Abstract
{
    public function __construct($attributes=array())
    {
        parent::__construct($attributes);
        $this->setType('label');
    }

    public function getElementHtml()
    {
        $html = $this->getBold() ? '' : '';
        $html.= $this->getEscapedValue();
        $html.= $this->getBold() ? '' : '';
        $html.= $this->getAfterElementHtml();
        return $html;
    }

    public function getLabelHtml($idSuffix = ''){
        if (!is_null($this->getLabel())) {
            $html = ''.$this->getLabel()
                . ( $this->getRequired() ? ' *' : '' ).''."\n";
        }
        else {
            $html = '';
        }
        return $html;
    }
}