React Forms

Introduction

• Controlled Forms
• Uncontrolled Forms
• Using Formik Library
• Validation
• Creating reusable custom form elements
• Uncontrolled forms using React
• React Hook Form to create uncontrolled forms

Controlled forms

In react we can pass state management to the react component. This is what a controlled form is. It's advantages are

• Instant Feedback
• Disable controls dynamically
• Formats the input data e.g. dates 25-03-2001

Example using UseState

  const [password, setPassword] = useState("");
...
      <Form onSubmit={handleSubmit} className="row g-3 needs-validation">
        <div>
          <div className="col-md-4">
            <Form.Group size="lg" controlId="password">
              <Form.Label>Password</Form.Label>
              <Form.Control
                type="password"
                value={password}
                onChange={(e) => onPasswordChange(e)}
              />
              <div className="invalid-feedback">{passwordError}</div>
              <div className="valid-feedback">Password looks good!</div>
            </Form.Group>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div>
          <div className="col-12">
            <Button
              type="submit"
              className="btn btn-primary"
              disabled={isSubmitting || !formValid}
            >{`${isSubmitting ? "Logging In" : "Login"}`}</Button>
          </div>
        </div>
      </Form>
...

Using React Components

import React from "react";

class EmailForm extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
    }
    this.state = {value: ''};
    this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this);
    
    handleChange(event) {
        this.setState({value: event.target.value});
    }
    
    render() {
        return (
            <form>
                <input type="email" value={this.state.value} onChange={this.handleChange} />
            </form>
        );
    }
}

Uncontrolled Forms

Introduction

Uncontrolled forms are when the DOM maintains the states and a reference is stored to it in react. To use an uncontrolled Form you need to

• Create a reference using React.createRef()
• Assign reference using ref prop on form element
• Extract value using the reference created in the constructor

Example

import React from "react";

class TestForm extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.submit = this.submit.bind(this);

    this.input = React.createRef();
  }

  submit(event) {
    // eslint-disable-next-line no-alert
    alert(`Value${this.input.current.value}`);
    event.preventDefault();
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <form onSubmit={this.submit}>
        <input type="text" ref={this.input} />
        <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
      </form>
    );
  }
}

export default TestForm;

When to Use

• For read-only elements like file input
• When using a non-react library
• To reduce re-rending form in a complex DOM

Using React Hook

• Uses uncontrolled elements
• Therefore minimizes re-rendering
• Works with Controlled components & UI libraries
• Provides Validation helpers and support for schema validators

Example useForm Hook

• Import the hook
• Get props from hook
• Set the callback to envoke if validation does fail on submit
• Set the forms handleSubmit function
• Register the input tag with a name
• If errors render them

import {useForm} from "react-hook-form";

export default App() {
    const {register, handleSubmit, errors} = useForm()

    const mySubmit = data => console.log(`Add validation on submit here ${data}`)

    return (
        <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(mySubmit)}>
            <input {...register("email")} />
            {errors.email && <span>this field is required</span>}
            <input type="submit" />
        </form>
    )
}

export default TestReactHookForm;

Validation with useForm

We can pass the standard HTML validation when we register the field. Any HTML validation can be used. e.g. min or max

 <input {...register("email", {required: "error messsage"})} />

We can also use a schema by installing the appropriate resolver e.g. yup resolver and setting the schema to use when we define the useForm hook

    const {register, handleSubmit, errors} = useForm({
       { resolver: yupResolver(schema)})
    }

Using Formik Library

Advantages

This is what is suggests.

• Reduces Verbosity
• Reduces code for state and callbacks
• Reduces errors
• Tracks values, errors and visited fields
• Hooks up appropriate callback functions
• Helpers for sync and async validation and showing errors
• Sensible defaults

Components of Formik

Here are the components which make up a Formik form. The first being the component responsible for controlling the form

• Formik
• Form
• Field
• ErrorMessage

Internally Formik maintains three maps.

Formik Using Components

This is the example with components. This now been re-implemented using hooks. It does use styled components around the controls which I personally found to be a bit hard to debug.

import React from "react";
import styled from "styled-components";
import { Formik, Field, Form, ErrorMessage } from "formik";

const SigninForm = styled(Form)`
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  padding: 30px;
  border: 1px solid black;
`;

const Container = styled.div`
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  flex: 1;
  height: 100%;
  align-items: center;
`;

const ContentContainer = styled.div`
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  width: 600px;
  margin-top: 50px;
`;

const Title = styled.h1`
  white-space: pre-line;
`;

const Label = styled.label`
  margin-top: 20px;
  font-size: 24px;
`;

const EmailField = styled(Field)`
  height: 40px;
  font-size: 24px;
`;

const ErrorLabel = styled.div`
  color: red;
  font-size: 26px;
`;

const PasswordField = styled(Field)`
  height: 40px;
  font-size: 24px;
`;

const CheckboxContainer = styled.div`
  display: flex;
  height: 50px;
  align-items: center;
`;

const RememberMeCheckboxField = styled(Field)`
  margin-top: 10px;
`;

const CheckboxLabel = styled(Label)`
  margin-top: 7px;
  margin-left: 10px;
`;

class LoginFormik extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.handleSubmit = LoginFormik.handleSubmit.bind(this);
    this.handleValidation = LoginFormik.handleValidation.bind(this);
  }

  static handleSubmit(values) {
    return new Promise((resolve) => {
      setTimeout(() => {
        resolve();
        // eslint-disable-next-line no-alert
        alert(JSON.stringify(values));
      }, 5000);
    });
  }

  static handleValidation(values) {
    const errors = {};

    if (!values.email) {
      errors.email = "Email cannot be empty";
    }

    if (!values.password) {
      errors.password = "Password cannot be empty";
    } else if (values.password.length < 8) {
      errors.password = "Password must be at least 8 characters";
    }
    return errors;
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <Container>
        <ContentContainer>
          <Title>Signin Form</Title>

          <Formik
            initialValues={{ email: "", password: "", rememberMe: false }}
            onSumbit={this.handleSumbit}
            validate={this.handleValidation}
          >
            {() => (
              <SigninForm>
                <Label>Email</Label>
                <EmailField name="email" type="email" />
                <ErrorMessage name="email">
                  {(error) => <ErrorLabel>{error}</ErrorLabel>}
                </ErrorMessage>

                <Label>Password</Label>
                <PasswordField name="password" type="password" />
                <ErrorMessage name="password">
                  {(error) => <ErrorLabel>{error}</ErrorLabel>}
                </ErrorMessage>

                <CheckboxContainer>
                  <RememberMeCheckboxField type="checkbox" name="rememberMe" />
                  <CheckboxLabel>Remember Me</CheckboxLabel>
                </CheckboxContainer>
              </SigninForm>
            )}
          </Formik>
        </ContentContainer>
      </Container>
    );
  }
}
export default LoginFormik;

Formik Validation

Formik provides two types of validation and they are not a surprise

• Field level
• Form level

Field Level

Note the returning of undefined not null

...
class LoginFormik extends React.Component {
  static validatePassword(value) {
    if (!value) {
      return "Password cannot be empty";
    }
    if (value.length < 5) {
      return "Very Weak";
    }
    if (value.length < 8) {
      return "Weak";
    }
    return undefined;
  }
...
                <Label>Password</Label>
                <PasswordField
                  name="password"
                  type="password"
                  validate={LoginFormik.validatePassword}
                />

Form Level

This is done by defining a function on the Formik validate property.

          <Formik
            initialValues={{ email: "", password: "", rememberMe: false }}
            onSumbit={this.handleSumbit}
            validate={this.handleValidation}

Formik Schema Validation (e.g. yup)

Introduction

Define the field, the error conditions and the error.

const schema = Yup.object().shape({
    name: Yup.string()
     .min(2, 'Too Short!')
     .max(50, 'Too Long!')
     .required('Required'),

    email: Yup.string() 
     .email('Invalid email')
     .required('Required'),
})

Implementation in code

The password validation can be done with

import * as Yup from "yup";
...
const passwordSchema = Yup.object().shape({
  password: Yup.string()
    .required("Password cannot be empty")
    .test("len", "Very Weak", (val) => val.length > 5)
    .test("len", "Weak", (val) => val.length > 8),
});

Implementation in JSX

We can use the schema either directly from the Formik

  <Formik
    initialValues={{ email: "", password: "", rememberMe: false }}
    onSumbit={this.handleSumbit}
    validationSchema={PasswordSchema}
  >

For on a field level

  static validatePassword(value) {
    let error;
    try {
      passwordSchema.validateSync({ password: value });
    } catch (validationError) {
      [error] = validationError.errors;
    }
    return error;
  }

useField Hook

Input

useField hook accepts as input

• a field name string
• a props object A list of props you want to be able to set on the field. E.g. label.

// passing a name like email
const [field, meta, helpers] = useField('email');
// passing a props object
 const MyTextField = ({ label, ...props }) => {
   const [field, meta, helpers] = useField(props);
   return (
     <>
       <label>
         {label}
         <input {...field} {...props} />
       </label>
       {meta.touched && meta.error ? (
         <div className="error">{meta.error}</div>
       ) : null}
     </>
   );
 };

Output

It returns an array of

• FieldInputProps
• FieldMetaProps
• FieldHelperProps

FieldInputProps

Key values are

• name
• value
• checked, multiple
• onBlur, onChange

FieldMetaProps

Contains computed meta data.

• error
• touched
• value

initialValue

FieldHelperProps

Contains methods for updating the value, touched or error status for the field. This can be done but using the

• setValue
• setTouched
• setError

These

Example 1

In this example we pass label as a prop to the useField.

/* eslint-disable react/jsx-props-no-spreading */
import React from "react";
import PropTypes from "prop-types";

import { useField } from "formik";

// Note passing the non-standard prop label separately.
const TestTextInput = ({ label, ...props }) => {
  // Get the default field and meta props
  const [field, meta] = useField(props);

  // Add our label to the JSX
  // Pass the field and props to the input
  // Manage the display of the error
  return (
    <>
      <label htmlFor={props.name}>{label}</label>
      <input {...field} {...props} />
      {meta.touched && meta.error ? <div>{meta.error}</div> : null}
    </>
  );
};

TestTextInput.propTypes = {
  label: PropTypes.string,
  name: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
};

TestTextInput.defaultProps = {
  label: null,
};

export default TestTextInput;

Example 2

Here is a rating button example.
An below is the usage of this field.

Formik with Functional Components

Here is the sample from the Formik help showing how to make a similar form with the Formik hooks. The documentation is pretty good.

 import React from 'react';
 import { Formik } from 'formik';
 import * as Yup from 'yup';
 
 const SignupForm = () => {
   return (
     <Formik
       initialValues={{ firstName: '', lastName: '', email: '' }}
       validationSchema={Yup.object({
         firstName: Yup.string()
           .max(15, 'Must be 15 characters or less')
           .required('Required'),
         lastName: Yup.string()
           .max(20, 'Must be 20 characters or less')
           .required('Required'),
         email: Yup.string().email('Invalid email address').required('Required'),
       })}
       onSubmit={(values, { setSubmitting }) => {
         setTimeout(() => {
           alert(JSON.stringify(values, null, 2));
           setSubmitting(false);
         }, 400);
       }}
     >
       {formik => (
         <form onSubmit={formik.handleSubmit}>
           <label htmlFor="firstName">First Name</label>
           <input
             id="firstName"
             type="text"
             {...formik.getFieldProps('firstName')}
           />
           {formik.touched.firstName && formik.errors.firstName ? (
             <div>{formik.errors.firstName}</div>
           ) : null}
 
           <label htmlFor="lastName">Last Name</label>
           <input
             id="lastName"
             type="text"
             {...formik.getFieldProps('lastName')}
           />
           {formik.touched.lastName && formik.errors.lastName ? (
             <div>{formik.errors.lastName}</div>
           ) : null}
 
           <label htmlFor="email">Email Address</label>
           <input id="email" type="email" {...formik.getFieldProps('email')} />
           {formik.touched.email && formik.errors.email ? (
             <div>{formik.errors.email}</div>
           ) : null}
 
           <button type="submit">Submit</button>
         </form>
       )}
     </Formik>
   );
 };

Usage of this would look like this where we are passing a label to always be associated with the field.

<TestTextInput
   label="First Name"
   name="firstname"
   type="text"
   placeholder="jane"
/>