React Uncontrolled Form

A 2kb library for building forms and validation with uncontrolled fields in React.

Usage

Install the package with npm.

npm install --save react-uncontrolled-form

Import the Field and Form components.

import { Field, Form } from 'react-uncontrolled-form';

Example

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  handleSubmit(form) {
  }
 
  render() {
    return (
      <Form onSubmit={form => this.handleSubmit(form)}>
        <Field>
          {() =>
            <input name="email" type="email"/>
          }
        </Field>
        <Field validators={[minLength(6)]}>
          {state =>
            <div>
              <input name="password" type="password"/>
              <div>{state.message}</div>
            </div>
          }
        </Field>
        <button>Submit</button>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

CodeSandbox Examples

• Field Validation
• Form Validation
• Inital Values

Field Component

The Field component requires its children to be a function that returns JSX. When a Field renders it will call the children function, passing state and validate as arguments, and render the output. During the render, if an element with a name attribute is found, it will be registered with the Form and have the necessary props passed to it.

Form Component

The Form component will render a <form> element and validate its Field components on submission. A form prop, containing essential field registration functions, is automatically passed to all child components to be used by the Field component. If you nest a Field component inside another component, you must pass along the form prop to it.

Form Submission

When a form is submitted, all fields will have their validators run. The onSubmit event handler is passed an object containing the form's validity, values, and invalid fields.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  handleSubmit(form) {
    if (form.valid) {
      console.log('Form values:', form.values);
    }
  },
 
  render() {
    return (
      <Form onSubmit={form => this.handleSubmit(form)}>
        <Field>
          {() =>
            <input name="username"/>
          }
        </Field>
        <button>Submit</button>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

Initial Values

You can pass initial values to your fields by adding the values prop to the Form.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    const values = {
      firstName: 'Eric',
      lastName: 'Valadas'
    };
 
    return (
      <Form values={values}>
        <Field>
          {() =>
            <input name="firstName"/>
          }
        </Field>
        <Field>
          {() =>
            <input name="lastName"/>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

Validators

Validators are simply functions that return an error message.

function minLength(length) {
  return value => {
    if (!value || value.length < length) {
      return `Must be at least ${length} characters`;
    }
  };
}
 
class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Form>
        <Field validators={[minLength(3)]}>
          {state =>
            <div>
              <input name="username"/>
              <div>{state.message}</div>
            </div>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

The validation message will be passed to your Field component via state.message. If a validator does not return a message, the field is considered valid.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Form>
        <Field>
          {state =>
            <div className={'form-group' + (state.valid ? '' : ' has-error')}>
              <label className="control-label" htmlFor="username">Username</label>
              <input name="username" id="username" className="form-control"/>
              <span className="help-block">{state.message}</span>
            </div>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
};

Validation

All fields have a validate function that will call each validator in the validators prop. By default, validate is only called when the form is submitted. However, this function is passed to the render prop and can be called whenever you like. Here's an example of validating a field as you type.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Form>
        <Field validators={[minLength(3)]}>
          {(state, validate) =>
            <div>
              <input name="username" onChange={validate}/>
              <div>{state.message}</div>
            </div>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

You can also add field messages to your form which can be useful for things like server-side validation errors after submitting the form.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {messages: {}};
  }
 
  handleSubmit() {
    this.setState({
      messages: {username: 'Username already exists'}
    });
  },
 
  render() {
    return (
      <Form messages={this.state.messages} onSubmit={form => this.handleSubmit(form)}>
        <Field>
          {state =>
            <div>
              <input name="username"/>
              <div>{state.message}</div>
            </div>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

Field Dependant Validation

If you need access to another field's value for validation, you can do so by adding a ref to your form. To retrieve the value, call the form's values function.

function match(compareValue, fieldName) {
  return value => {
    if (compareValue() !== value) {
      return fieldName + ' does not match';
    }
  };
}
 
class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Form ref={form => this.form = form}>
        <Field>
          {() =>
            <input name="email" type="email"/>
          }
        </Field>
        <Field
          validators={[match(() => this.form.values().email, 'Email')]}
          exclude={true}
        >
          {state =>
            <div>
              <input name="confirm-email" type="email"/>
              <div>{state.message}</div>
            </div>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

Nested Components

The Form component uses a form prop to provide field registration functions, initial values, and messages to its child components. If you want to nest a Field component inside another component, you will need to pass the form prop manually.

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Field form={this.props.form}>
        {() =>
          <input name="username"/>
        }
      </Field>
    );
  }
}
 
class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    <Form>
      <MyComponent/>
    </Form>
  }
}

Transform

The value of any field can be transformed by passing a transform prop to the Field component. For example, a checkbox input will have the value "on" if no value is provided, but it can be changed to a boolean value if that is preferred.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <Form>
        <Field transform={value => Boolean(value)}>
          {() =>
            <label>
              <input name="agree-to-terms" type="checkbox"/>
              I agree to the terms
            </label>
          }
        </Field>
      </Form>
    );
  }
}

Custom Change Events

If you create a custom input, or use a component like react-select, which passes a custom value to the onChange handler, the Field component will still register the value. The field's value will be set to the argument passed to onChange. The Field component passes an onChange prop to the child with a name attribute, so you do not need to set one yourself.

React-Select

With the use of a couple optional props, react-select works just as you'd expect. In this example, simpleValue and multi set to true will produce a value of "one,two". Using this in combination with the transform prop on the Field, a value of ["one", "two"] can be achieved.

class MyForm extends React.Component {
  render() {
    <Form>
      <Field transform={value => value.split(',')}>
        {state =>
          <Select
            name="numbers"
            value={state.value}
            simpleValue={true}
            multi={true}
            options={[
              {value: 'one', label: 'One'},
              {value: 'two', label: 'Two'},
            ]}
          />
        }
      </Field>
    </Form>
  }
}

Form Props

Prop	Description
onSubmit	A callback function onSubmit({valid: [bool], values: {...}, invalidFields: {...}}
values	An object that will provide values to the form's fields
messages	An object that will provide messages to the form's fields

Field Props

Prop	Description
form	An object containing the form's registration functions, initial values, and messages
validators	An array containing the field's validators
exclude	A boolean that, when set to true, will exclude this field from the form's values
transform	A function to transform the field's value