silverstripe-framework/docs/en/02_Developer_Guides/03_Forms/06_Tabbed_Forms.md

title: Tabbed Forms summary: Find out how CMS interfaces use jQuery UI tabs to provide nested FormFields.

Tabbed Forms

SilverStripe's [api:FormScaffolder] can automatically generate [api:Form] instances for certain database models. In the CMS and other scaffolded interfaces, it will output [api:TabSet] and [api:Tab] objects and use jQuery Tabs to split parts of the data model.

All interfaces within the CMS such as [api:ModelAdmin] and [api:LeftAndMain] use tabbed interfaces by default.

When dealing with tabbed forms, modifying the fields in the form has a few differences. Each [api:Tab] will be given a name, and normally they all exist under the Root [api:TabSet].

[api:TabSet] instances can contain child [api:Tab] and further [api:TabSet] instances, however the CMS UI will only display up to two levels of tabs in the interface. If you want to group data further than that, try [api:ToggleField].

Adding a field to a tab

:::php
$fields->addFieldToTab('Root.Main', new TextField(..));

Removing a field from a tab

:::php
$fields->removeFieldFromTab('Root.Main', 'Content');

Creating a new tab

:::php
$fields->addFieldToTab('Root.MyNewTab', new TextField(..));

Moving a field between tabs

:::php
$content = $fields->dataFieldByName('Content');

$fields->removeFieldFromTab('Root.Main', 'Content');
$fields->addFieldToTab('Root.MyContent', $content);

Add multiple fields at once

:::php
$fields->addFieldsToTab('Root.Content', array(
	TextField::create('Name'),
	TextField::create('Email')
));

API Documentation

• [api:FormScaffolder]