react-easy-validation

This library gives an easy way to validate forms in React by using a wrapper on your components.

Features

• Simple usage by wrapping components you want to validate.
• Supports components which manage errors from props.
• Supports validation of a set of components by associating groups with these components.
• Can observe a value prop of your component as well as a value outside it.
• May be used with libraries like Material-UI or React Toolbox.

Demo

Let's see a complete example (source) with Material-UI.

Installation

It requires React v0.14 or later.

npm install react-easy-validation --save

This assumes that you’re using npm package manager with a module bundler.

Getting started

Two wrappers are provided to cover specific cases of validation:

• <ValidationIn />
• <ValidationOut />

Any wrapper takes an array of validators and an array of groups. It listens to a value and checks it with every validator. If some of them doesn't match with value, an error flag and an error message are passed to the component.

On the other side, a method validate allows you to validate a set of components by checking a given group. It returns the validation result at the same time.

Now, consider the following component Input:

const Input = ({ err, msg, val, ...other }) => (
    <div>
        <input {...other} value={val} />
        {err && <span>{msg}</span>}
    </div>
)

Documentation

ValidationIn

Use this wrapper if your validation depends on a value inside the component you want to validate. In most of the cases, you'll use this one.

Usage

<ValidationIn
    error="err"
    groups={['form']}
    helper="msg"
    validators={[{
        rule: value => value,
        hint: 'Required'
    }, {
        rule: value => value.startsWith('P'),
        hint: 'Must start with P'
    }]}
    value="val">
    <Input val="Paris" />
</ValidationIn>

Props

All of these can be changed on the fly:

Name	Type	Default	Required	Description
children	element		✓	Component you want to validate.
error	string	error		Name of the component's prop which receives error flags.
groups	array		✓	Groups you want to associate with your component. Any type is allowed because a group is used like a key.
helper	string	helperText		Name of the component's prop which receives error messages.
validators	array		✓	Validators whose order is important. Each validator is an object like { rule: func, hint: any }. Here, rule takes a value as parameter and returns a result. If it's falsy, then hint is passed to the component as well as a flag containing true.
value	string	value		Name of the component's prop which is validated.

Note: A library like validator.js can easily be used in your validators' rules.

ValidationOut

In a case where your validation depends on a value outside your component, use that one.

Usage

<ValidationOut
    error="err"
    groups={['form']}
    helper="msg"
    validators={[{
        rule: value => value.length > 4,
        hint: 'Must be longer'
    }, {
        rule: value => value.endsWith('g'),
        hint: 'Must end with g'
    }]}
    value="Hong Kong">
    <Input />
</ValidationOut>

Props

It has exactly the same props than previous wrapper, except for:

Name	Type	Default	Required	Description
value	any			Value which is validated.

Validate a group

Use the method validate to check if a group of components is valid or not.

Syntax

const result = validate(group[, mute])

Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Optional	Description
group	any			Group you want to validate.
mute	boolean	false	✓	Flag which enables to silently validate a group.

Return value

• Type: boolean
• Description: Result of the validation.

Clear a group

Use the method clear to remove flags and messages of a group's components.

Syntax

clear(group)

Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Optional	Description
group	any			Group you want to clear.

Example

Here is a basic example with <ValidationIn />:

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import { validate, ValidationIn } from 'react-easy-validation'
 
import Input from './Input'
 
class Example extends Component {
    state = { value: '' }
 
    handleChange = event => {
        this.setState({ value: event.target.value })
    }
 
    handleClick = () => {
        validate('form') && alert('Success')
    }
 
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <ValidationIn
                    error="err"
                    groups={['form']}
                    helper="msg"
                    validators={[{
                        rule: value => value,
                        hint: 'Required'
                    }, {
                        rule: value => /^\d+$/.test(value),
                        hint: 'Only numbers'
                    }]}
                    value="val">
                    <Input
                        onChange={this.handleChange}
                        val={this.state.value}
                    />
                </ValidationIn>
                <button onClick={this.handleClick}>
                    Validate
                </button>
            </div>
        )
    }
}

Note: Be aware that it would have been similar with <ValidationOut />.

Unit testing

You can easily test your form validation with Enzyme. Just make sure to follow these two points:

• It requires a full rendering of your components by using mount.
• Because this library is built with a singleton pattern, don't forget to unmount your wrapper after using it.