Let's not forget about SQLFORM.factory either. This lets you create a SQLFORM based on a virtual table that you create as an argument to SQLFORM.factory. For example, I used this code to provide edit capabilities when editing time clock entries for an app I'm writing. It includes form validation, and I wrote a module that handles the actual db update. When you see "timeclock.edit_entry(....)", this is just handing off the form variables to the module, which performs extra validation on the data before committing it to the db. NOTE: All of this code is inside my "def edit():" function.
def validate_form(form): users = [auth.user.id] for user in user_security.get_subordinates(auth.user): users.append(user.auth_user.id) if int(form.vars.auth_user) not in users: form.errors.adjusted_start = "You do not have permission to modify this person's time clock." if not request.args(0): raise HTTP(400, 'Timeclock ID not found') timeclock_id = request.args(0) timeclock_entry = db(db.timeclock.id==timeclock_id).select().first() if timeclock_entry is None: raise HTTP(400, 'Timeclock ID not found') form = SQLFORM.factory( Field('adjusted_start', 'datetime', requires=IS_NOT_EMPTY()), Field('adjusted_end', 'datetime'), Field('reason', 'text', requires=IS_NOT_EMPTY()), Field('auth_user', db.auth_user, readable=False, writable=False), hidden = {'id': timeclock_id, 'auth_user': timeclock_entry.auth_user.id} ) form.vars.auth_user = timeclock_entry.auth_user.id form.vars.adjusted_start = timeclock_entry.adjusted_start form.vars.adjusted_end = timeclock_entry.adjusted_end if form.accepts(request.vars, session, keepvalues=True, onvalidation=validate_form(form)): row_id = timeclock.edit_entry(auth.user, timeclock_entry, form.vars.reason, form.vars.adjusted_start, form.vars.adjusted_end) if isinstance(row_id, str): response.flash = row_id else: redirect(URL('index')) return dict(form=form, timeclock_entry=timeclock_entry, history=history)