"Rate" field type

It's possible to use a rating field in a standard form...

Back-End Form

You can use the "Rate" field type to provide a simple rating mechanism to the content author. While the stars looks very similar to the typical star ratings produced on the front-end, the underlying logic is different.

{{ entry.myRatingField }}

When using this field type, the value will be controlled like a normal Craft field. It's value will be stored in the database as a simple integer.

If you'd like to do complex calculations with this field value, you'd do those calculations in Twig. Once you have calculated the value needed, you can use it to render a set of locked stars.

{% set ratingValue = entry.myRatingField %}

// do interesting math

{{ craft.starRatings.lockedStars(newValue) }}

Front-End Form

To use your Star Rating field in a front-end form, simply include something like this:

{{ craft.starRatings.formField('myRatingField') }}

The formField method accepts three parameters:

{{ craft.starRatings.formField(fieldHandle, existingValue = 0, namespace = 'fields') }}

Parameter	Description
fieldHandle	The handle of your ratings field.
existingValue	The current value of your field. (default 0)
namespace	The namespace of your field. (default "fields")

Matrix fields only

It's highly unlikely that you'll ever need to use the namespace parameter. This only exists to accommodate situations in which the rating field exists within a matrix block.

For the vast majority of cases, the default namespace will work perfectly.