inferno-formlib

The goal of this project is to create a bootstrap 4 compatible form generation library for Inferno.js using isomorphic-schema definitions.

Currently maintained versions

inferno-formlib 7.x supports Inferno v7 inferno-formlib 5.x supports Inferno v5

Example With Sticky Action Bar

This is the basic anatomy of a form generated with inferno-formlib. It can generate nested forms from isomorphic-schema form definitions and list fields support drag'n'drop reordering.

import { Component } from 'inferno'
 
// Imports to define form schema
import { Schema } from 'isomorphic-schema'
import TextField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/TextField'
import DateField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/DateField'
 
// Register widgets
import 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/InputField'
import 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/DateField'
 
// Form generation
import { FormRows } from 'inferno-formlib'
import { ActionBar } from 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/ActionBar'
 
// Some useful Bootstrap components
import Form from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Form/Form'
import Button from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Button'
import Row from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Row'
import Col from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Col'
 
const formSchema = new Schema('Form Schema', {
    title: new TextField({
      label: 'Race Name' 
    }),
    startDate: new DateField({
      label: 'Start Date'
    })
  })
})
 
class FormEdit extends Component {
  constructor (props) {
    super(props)
 
    this.didChange = this.didChange.bind(this)
    this.doSubmit = this.doSubmit.bind(this)
 
    this.state = {
      validationErrors: undefined,
      isMounted: false, // Prevents animations on mounting of form
      value: {}
    }
  }
 
  componentDidMount () {
    this.setState({
      isMounted: true
    })
  }
 
  didChange (propName, value) {
    const newValue = this.state.value
    newValue[propName] = value
    this.setState({
      value: newValue
    })
  }
 
  doSubmit (e) {
    e.preventDefault()
    const validationErrors = formSchema.validate(this.state.value)
    this.setState({
      validationErrors
    })
 
    if (validationErrors === undefined) {
      // TODO: Submit form to API
    } else {
      // TODO: Show error message
    }
  }
 
  render () {
    return (
      <Form onSubmit={this.doSubmit}>
        <Row>
          <Col>
            <h2>My Form</h2>
          </Col>
        </Row>
 
        <FormRows
          schema={formSchema}
          validationErrors={this.state.validationErrors}
          value={this.state.value}
          isMounted={this.state.isMounted}
          onChange={this.didChange}
         />
 
        <ActionBar boundary={{top: 0, bottom: 0}}>
          <Row>
              <Col>
                <Button type="submit" color="success">Save</Button>
              </Col>
          </Row>
        </ActionBar>
      </Form>
    )
  }
}

.InfernoFormlib-ActionBar {
    background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.8);
    z-index: 1;
    padding: 0.5rem 1rem;
    width: 100%;
    border-top: 1px solid #777;
}
.InfernoFormlib-StickyActionBar {
    position: fixed;
}
.InfernoFormlib-ActionBar--hidden {
    visibility: hidden;
}
.InfernoFormlib-StickyActionBar--hidden {
    display: none;
}
 

Form Demos

To see form demos:

$ git clone [e-mail]:jhsware/inferno-formlib.git
 
$ cd inferno-formlib
 
$ npm i && npm run build-test
 
$ node test/browser/server.js

You can now access the examples in your browser at http://localhost:8080

The package generates your form rows and calls an onChange handler whenever the form is updated.

Installation

$ npm i -S inferno-formlib isomorphic-schema component-registry

To use the components without requiring transpilation you import from the /dist directory:

import { FormRows } from 'inferno-formlib/dist/FormRows'

You can get a nicer debugging experience by importing your components from the original source code in the /lib directory. However this requires that you transpile node_module/inferno-formlib imports and add the contents of the .babelrc config file from this repos to your project:

import { FormRows } from 'inferno-formlib/lib/FormRows'

You will find a working webpack.config file in the folder test/browser. Don't forget to add your .babelrc file and babel package devDepencies.

Another Example

More examples can be found at https://github.com/jhsware/inferno-formlib/tree/master/test/browser/src

You will find some standard form css if you look at https://github.com/jhsware/inferno-formlib/blob/master/test/browser/app.css

Animations are done with https://github.com/jhsware/inferno-animation

import { Component } from 'inferno'
 
// Form schema definition
import { Schema } from 'isomorphic-schema'
import TextField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/TextField'
import EmailField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/EmailField'
import IntegerField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/IntegerField'
import TextAreaField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/TextAreaField'
 
// Widgets need to be imported so they can be found by inferno-formlib
// we import them one-by-one to reduce bundle size.
import 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/InputField'
import 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/TextAreaField'
import 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/FormRow'
import { FormRows } from 'inferno-formlib/dist/FormRows'
 
// Some bootstrap stuff...
import Button from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Button'
import Col from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Col'
import Form from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Form/Form'
import Row from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Row'
 
const formSchema = new Schema('Form Schema', {
  title: new TextField({
    label: 'Title',
    placeholder: 'Type here...',
    required: true
  }),
  email: new EmailField({
    label: 'E-mail',
    placeholder: '[e-mail]',
    required: true
  }),
  age: new IntegerField({
    label: 'Age',
    placeholder: 'i.e. 16',
    required: true
  }),
  bio: new TextAreaField({
    label: 'Bio',
    placeholder: 'Type here...',
    help: 'This <b>will be</b> rendered as HTML',
    required: true
  })
})
 
export default class FormSection extends Component {
 
  constructor (props) {
    super(props)
 
    this.state = {
        value: {},
        validationError: undefined
    }
 
    this.didChange = this.didChange.bind(this)
    this.doSubmit = this.doSubmit.bind(this)
  }
 
  doSubmit (e) {
    e.preventDefault()
    const errors = formSchema.validate(this.state.value)
    this.setState({
      validationError: errors
    })
  }
 
  didChange (propName, value) {
    const val = this.state.value
    val[propName] = value
    this.setState({
        value: val
    })
    // This is where you would call this.props.onChange
  }
 
  render () {
    return (
      <Form onSubmit={this.doSubmit}>
        <Row>
          <Col>
            <FormRow
              renderHelpAsHtml={true}
              schema={formSchema}
              validationErrors={this.state.validationError}
              value={this.state.value}
              onChange={this.didChange} />
          </Col>
        </Row>
        <Row>
          <Col>
            <Button type="submit">Save</Button>
          </Col>
        </Row>
      </Form>
    )
  }
}

Customising How Rows are Rendered

This example shows how you create a character limit counter for text fields. You do this by customising how the row is rendered by means of a row widget adapter. The row widget adapter is registered in the globalRegistry and will override the existing generic row widget used to render text input fields.

Note that this approach will override the look and feel of all TextField rows.

import { Component } from 'inferno'
import { findDOMNode } from 'inferno-extras'
 
import { Adapter, globalRegistry } from 'component-registry'
 
import { interfaces, i18n } from 'isomorphic-schema'
import { IFormRowWidget }  from 'inferno-formlib/dist/interfaces'
 
import { ErrorMsg, HelpMsg, Label } from 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/FormRow'
import { animateOnAdd, animateOnRemove } from 'inferno-animation'
import FormText from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Form/FormText'
import FormGroup from 'inferno-bootstrap/dist/Form/FormGroup'
 
import { renderString } from 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/common'
 
function CharsLeft (props) {
  const outp = renderString(i18n('isomorphic-schema--field_charactersLeft'), props.options && props.options.lang, 'Tecken kvar: ${charsLeft}')
  const color = (props.charsLeft < 0 ? 'danger' : undefined)
 
  return <FormText muted color={color} className="CharsLeft" for={props.id}>{outp.replace('${charsLeft}', props.charsLeft)}</FormText>
}
 
/*
    PROPS:
    - animation: animation css class prefix
    - submitted: bool, has been submitted
    - field:  isomorphic-schema field validator object
    - errors: isomorphic-schema field and server error object { fieldErrors, serverErrors } or undefined if no errors
    - id:     unique id of field
*/
class Row extends Component {
  // TODO: Add animation support
 
  // support required
  componentDidMount () {
      if (this.props.formIsMounted) {
          animateOnAdd(findDOMNode(this), 'InfernoFormlib-Row--Animation')
      }
  }
 
  componentWillUnmount () {
      animateOnRemove(findDOMNode(this), 'InfernoFormlib-Row--Animation')
  }
 
  render () {
    const field = this.props.adapter.context
    const value = this.props.value
 
    let charsLeft
    if (field._maxLength) {
      charsLeft = (typeof value === 'string' ? field._maxLength - value.length : field._maxLength)
    }
 
    return (
      <FormGroup id={this.props.namespace.join('.') + '__Row'}>
        {field.label && <Label id={this.props.id}>{field.label}</Label>}
        <div className="InfernoFormlib-RowFieldContainer">
            {this.props.children}
        </div>
        {this.props.validationError ? <ErrorMsg field={field} validationError={this.props.validationError} submitted={this.props.submitted} /> : null}
        {(charsLeft !== undefined) && <CharsLeft charsLeft={charsLeft} />}
        {field.help && <HelpMsg field={field} text={field.help} required={field._isRequired} />}
      </FormGroup>
    )
  }
}
 
new Adapter({
  implements: IFormRowWidget,
  adapts: interfaces.ITextField,
  
  Component: Row
})
 

i18n Support

To add translations, you can add a translation utility which implements ITranslationUtil. Use string template style variables to output options from the field definition.

import { interfaces } from 'inferno-formlib'
import { Utility } from 'component-registry'
 
export default new Utility({
  implements: interfaces.ITranslationUtil,
  message (label, lang) {
    // Use 'en' as fallback language
    const langDict = lang[lang] || lang['en']
    // Use label as fallback string
    return langDict[label] || label
  }
})
 
/* eslint-disable */
var en = {
  'isomorphic-schema--field_required': 'Required',
  'isomorphic-schema--text_field_too_short': 'The text is too short. Min ${minLength} chars.'
}
 
var sv = {
  'isomorphic-schema--field_required': 'Obligatorisk',
  'isomorphic-schema--text_field_too_short': 'Texten är för kort. Minst ${minLength} tecken.'
}
 
var fr = {
  'isomorphic-schema--field_required': 'Obligatoire',
  'isomorphic-schema--text_field_too_short': 'Le texte est trop court. Au moins ${minLength} caractères.'
}
 
var lang = { en, sv, fr }

Creating a Widget

For now, check the code at https://github.com/jhsware/inferno-formlib/tree/master/test/browser/src/ImageUploadWidget

Creating an AutoComplete Widget

There is an AutoComplete wudget that you can use as a base for your own autocomplete. First you need to create a new isomorphic-schemafield. We are assuming that the underlying value is an object that has the form:

const obj = {
  id: 'asdfg',
  theTitle: 'Yada Yada'
}

The data flows through the widget and field like this:

Value passed to field widget:

  props.value -> field.toFormattedString() -> state.text ...

Value rendered in field widget input control:

  state.text -> input.value

Option selected from list:

  getOptions -> options -> select an option -> field.fromString() -> props.onChange() -> props.value ...

Text entered in input control:

  onInput() ->  e.target.value -> state.text -> input
  

import { globalRegistry, createObjectPrototype, createInterface } from 'component-registry'
import axios from 'axios'
 
import DynamicSelectAsyncBaseField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/DynamicSelectAsyncBaseField'
import TextField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/TextField'
import ObjectField from 'isomorphic-schema/lib/field_validators/ObjectField'
import { Schema } from 'isomorphic-schema';
 
import AutoComplete from 'inferno-formlib/dist/widgets/AutoComplete'
import { IInputFieldWidget } from 'inferno-formlib/dist/interfaces'
 
export const IMySelectAsyncField = createInterface({
  name: 'IMySelectAsyncField'
})
 
const userSchema = new Schema('User Schema', {
  id: new TextField({}),
  theTitle: new TextField({})
})
 
export const MySelectAsyncField = createObjectPrototype({
  implements: [IMySelectAsyncField],
  extends: [DynamicSelectAsyncBaseField],
 
  constructor (options) {
    this._IDynamicSelectAsyncBaseField.constructor.call(this, options)
    this.valueType = new ObjectField({
      schema: userSchema,
      required: true
    })
  },
 
  validateAsync (inp, options, context) {
    const promise = this._IDynamicSelectAsyncBaseField.validateAsync.call(this, inp)
    return promise.then(function (error) {
      if (error) {
        return Promise.resolve(error)
      } else {
        // We could validate the data further here by this.valueType.validate(inp),
        // but skipping because the value is selected and we don't have any fancy
        // validation rules ATM. You could also go one step further and check that
        // the value actually exists in your backend. Just make sure you don't kill your
        // backend API...
        return Promise.resolve(undefined)
      }
    })
  },
 
  getOptionsAsync (inp, options, context) {
    // This should return a list of objects [{ name: 'maps to obj.id', 'title': 'maps to obj.theTitle'}]
    return axios.get('https://some.url/endpoint/to/options', {q: options.search}).then((res) => return res.data)
  },
 
  getOptionTitleAsync (inp, options, context) {
    return this.getOptionsAsync(inp, options, context)
      .then(user => {
        const find = user.find(x => user.name === inp)
        return Promise.resolve(find.title)
      }).catch(err => {
        return Promise.reject(undefined)
      })
  },
 
  toFormattedString (inp) {
    // Convert data from data model to internal representation 
    if (inp) {
      return {
        name: inp.id,
        title: inp.theTitle
      }
    }
  },
 
  fromString (inp) {
    // Convert data from selected value in dropdown list to
    // object value in data model
    if (inp) {
      return {
        id: inp.name,
        theTitle: inp.title
      }
    }
  }
})
 
new Adapter({
  implements: IInputFieldWidget,
  adapts: IMySelectAsyncField,
  Component: AutoComplete
})

Now you can use your new field in form schemas or ObjectPrototype interfaces. NOTE: When rendering forms with async fields you need to call mySchema.validateAsync when validating.

Custom Widgets

Custom widgets override whatever standard widget would be rendered for a specific field in form. This is useful if you want a different behaviour for a field in one specific form.

TODO: Explain how to use a custom widget in a form

Manually Created Forms

You can see an example of a manually created form at https://github.com/jhsware/inferno-formlib/blob/master/test/browser/src/DatePage.js

TODO: Explain how to use widgets for manual creation of forms

Transpiling

Make sure you have the following in your .babelrc file (you probably do) and allow transpiling of the inferno-formlib node module:

{
  "presets": ["es2015", "stage-0"],
  "plugins": [
      [
        "babel-plugin-inferno",
        {
          "imports": true
        }
      ]
    ]
}

Dev Notes

Distribution

main: '', // CommonJS module transpiled to ES5. Can be consumed by webpack or Node.js as is module: '', // ES6 module with import/export but transpiled to ES5 esnext: '', // ES6 code https://github.com/rollup/rollup/wiki/pkg.module

Side effects: https://webpack.js.org/guides/tree-shaking/