Stateful Forms

Small library to deal with forms. Inspired by AngularJS + React. 0 dependencies.

<form stateful novalidate action="/endpoint" method="post" enctype="application/json">
 
  <fieldset sf-show="!($request.success && $response.json.success)">
 
    <div sf-class="has-error: $form.submitted && name.invalid">
      <label for="name">Name</label>
      <input type="text" name="name" id="name" required>
      <p sf-show="$form.submitted && name.invalid" style="display: none;">
        Please fill in a name
      </p>
    </div>
 
    <p sf-text="$response.json.errorMessage">
      <!-- Support for server side responses -->
    </p>
 
    <p sf-show="$request.failed || $request.error" style="display: none;">
      Oops, something went wrong on with the request. Try again later.
    </p>
 
    <button type="submit" name="button">Submit</button>
 
  </fieldset>
 
  <fieldset sf-show="$request.success && $response.json.success" style="display: none;">
 
    <h2>Form successfully submitted</h2>
 
    <p sf-text="$response.json.message"></p>
 
  </fieldset>
 
</form>
 
<script src="/stateful-forms.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function () {
    // This will make all your forms stateful when the DOM is loaded
    window.createStatefulForms();
  });
</script> 

Features

• 0 dependencies
• Tiny footprint ~6kb minified, ±10 times smaller than AngularJS
• Good documentation
• Works on IE9+
• Excellent performance
• Forms will be serialized and send with AJAX
• Uses HTML5 validation attributes
• No JavaScript configuration required
• Powerful expressions based on AngularJS expressions

When to use Stateful Forms?

• Contact forms
• Landing page signup forms
• Order forms
• Questionnaires
• When you deal with forms in general

Quick Start

1. Install stateful-forms
2. Add the script to your page
3. Call window.createStatefulForms() when the DOM is loaded
4. Add the stateful attribute to your forms
5. Scroll down for examples

Installation

Not yet written...

How does it work?

Stateful Forms creates a state object based on your form and form elements. That state object could look something like this before you touched the form:

{
  form: {
    submitted: false,
    valid: false,
    invalid: true,
    pristine: true,
    dirty: false,
    touched: false,
    untouched: true
  },
  email: {
    valid: false,
    invalid: true,
    pristine: true,
    dirty: false,
    touched: false,
    untouched: true
  },
  name: {
    // ... same as email
  },
  password: {
    // ... same as email
  }
}

It then exposes that state object to elements inside of your form we call directives. sf-show in this example is such a directive:

<p sf-show="$form.submitted && name.invalid">Please fill in a name.</p>

Inside of your directive you put expressions. In the previous example that was: form.submitted && name.invalid.

Whenever you change something in the form a state update is triggered. It checks if there are any directives listening to this state. If there are, it updates those directives with that state.

What happens on a form submit

When a form is submitted the form sets form.submitted to true.

If the form is valid, it is it serializes the form and makes an AJAX request to the endpoint in your action attribute.

In the mean while it sets request.pending to true. So you can go all wild on your loading indicators.

When the request is successful, request.success is set to true. Also a response object is added to the state.

This response object contains whatever you send back from the server on two properties.

• response.text contains the raw response text.
• response.json contains the response text parsed by JSON.parse.

See documentation and examples below.

Directives: attributes you can put on elements

• stateful, put on a form to create a stateful form. Supports multiple forms.
• sf-show="<Expression>", toggles the element if the expression is Truthy.
• sf-text="<Expression>", sets the text of the element.
• sf-class="<ObjectExpression>", sets classnames based on expressions.
• sf-attribute="<ObjectExpression>", sets attributes based on expressions.

sf-show directive

sf-show="<Expression>", toggles the element if the expression is Truthy.

<p sf-show="<Expression>"></p>
<p sf-show="name.invalid">Show when name is invalid</p>
<p sf-show="inquiry.value == 'question'">Show when inquiry is question</p>
<p sf-show="inquiry.value != 'question'">Show when inquiry is not question</p>
<p sf-show="$form.submitted && name.invalid"></p>
<p sf-show="request.failure || response.json.invalid"></p>

Note that the Truthy value of the Expression is used.

sf-text directive

sf-text="<Expression>", sets the text of the element.

<p sf-text="<Expression>">Will show the value of the expression here</p>
<p sf-text="email.value">This text will be replaced with email.value</p>
<p sf-text="email.valid ? 'Happy' : 'Unhappy'"></p>

sf-class directive

sf-class="<ObjectExpression>", sets classnames based on expressions.

<p sf-class="<ObjectExpresssion>"></p>
<p sf-class="has-error: email.invalid">
  Gets has-error class when email is invalid
</p>
<p sf-class="has-error: email.invalid; is-valid: email.valid">
  Gets has-error or is-valid class based on
</p>
<p sf-class="has-error: form.submitted && email.invalid"></p>

sf-attributes directive

sf-attribute="<ObjectExpression>", sets attributes based on expressions.

<button sf-attributes="disabled: terms_and_conditions.invalid" type="submit">
  Create account
</button>

Expressions

Expressions in Stateful Forms are a slimmed down version of AngularJS expressions. The actual code is a remix of angular/expressionist.js, slimmed down and converted to es5. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means.

Additionally Stateful Forms uses something called ObjectExpression.

Valid expressions

Not all of these are directly applicable in real world usage, but it is nice to know there is power when you need it.

!false || true
(true && false) || true
!(11 == 10)
!true
2<3
2>3
2<=2
2>=2
2==3
2!=3
true&&true
true||false
7==3+4?10:20
true&&false?10:20
'str ' + 4
a.b
a.b.c.d
taxRate / 100 * subTotal

Please see test/parser.js for more examples.

ObjectExpression

An ObjectExpression is an object holding expressions:

key1: <Expression>; key2: <Expression>

They are used in sf-class and sf-attributes.

<p sf-class="has-error: name.invalid; is-valid: name.valid"></p>
<input sf-attributes="disabled: firstQuestion.invalid" type="text">

It uses the ; character to split expressions. And the first : character to split the key from the expression.

The example would return:

{
  has-error: 'name.invalid',
  is-valid: 'name.valid'
}

Which is in turn parsed by the sf-class or sf-attributes directive to become usable.

In AngularJS but not in Stateful Forms

These would’t make a lot of sense in Stateful Forms either.

• Variable assignment someVar = 'hello' not supported
• Function calls someFunc() not supported
• Array access a[0] not supported
• Object literals { a: 'prop' } not supported
• Object key access obj['someKey'] not supported
• ... more obscure expressions omitted

Form elements

The following list shows all the supported form elements. You can ignore the right hand side of the arrow.

• input[type="text"] => StatefulTextInput

• input[type="hidden"] => StatefulTextInput

• input[type="phone|tel"] => StatefulTextInput, doesn’t validate

• input[type="email"] => StatefulTextInput, validates email

• textarea => StatefulTextInput

• input[type="checkbox"] => StatefulCheckbox

• input[type="radio"] => StatefulRadio grouped by StatefulRadioGroup

• select => StatefulSelect

• No type="file" support

• No type="date" support`

Why doesn’t input[type="phone"] validate?

Since there are so many different types of phone numbers. It’s impossible to have a one size fits all.

The best way to include phone validation is through a regular expression on the pattern attribute.

The following StackOverflow post might give you more insight: A comprehensive regex for phone number validation

Why no type="date" or datepicker support?

The date type is horribly supported among browser with inconsistent UI and API’s. If you want to use a custom datepicker you are better of reflecting the value to a hidden input field.

Proxy a form element into an other type

Advanced usage, you better now what you are doing. You can potentially use the sf-element attribute to set what type a form element should use. This might be useful for unsupported form elements. Usage: sf-element="text" for example.

Form elements states

Form element states are the same as in AngularJS.

form.pristine = has the form element been interacted with
form.dirty = !pristine
form.valid = is the form element valid
form.invalid = !valid
form.touched = did the form element blur (or interacted with for some elements)
form.untouched = !touched

Form element state is reflected as classnames

Form elements reflect their state as classnames (just like AngularJS). The state is prefixed with is-{state}.

<input type="text" class="is-valid is-untouched is-pristine">

Validation

Stateful Form implements pretty much everything you can in HTML5.

• required
• min
• max
• maxlength
• minlength
• pattern

Note that required is needed for a form element to not be valid by default.

For now there is no async validator support out of the box. This is often needed for checking if usernames are taken.

The form itself

Stateful Forms only fully work when you:

• Add the stateful attribute to a form element.
• Add the novalidate attribute to a form element

Only inside of that form do directives work.

The $form object in the state object

$form is always available and refers to the form itself. It has the same properties as a form element with a couple extra properties.

$form.submitted = has the submit button been clicked

$form.pristine = have any of the form elements inside been interacted with
$form.dirty = !pristine
$form.valid = are all form elements valid
$form.invalid = !valid
$form.touched = did any form element blur
$form.untouched = !touched

The $request object in the state object

The $request object is always available

//  state object
{
  $request: {
    pending: false,
    success: true,
    failed: false,
    status: request.status
  }
  // ... state omitted
}

The $response object in the state object

The $response object is only available when the form is submitted.

//  state object
{
  $response: {
    json: JSON.parse(request.responseText),
    text: request.responseText
  }
  // ... state omitted
}

You can use the response object to show messages from the server. If you decide to implement something like that.

<p sf-text="response.json.message"></p>

Examples

Check out the examples directory for more elaborate use cases. If you clone this repo you can run them by running npm run dev.

working example:

<!-- working example -->
<form novalidate action="/endpoint" method="post">
 
  <input type="text" name="name" required>
 
  <!-- Note the value of the sf-show attribute -->
  <p sf-show="$form.submitted && name.invalid">
    Please enter a correct name
  </p>
 
  <button type="submit" name="button">Submit</button>
</form>
 
<script src="/stateful-forms.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', window.createStatefulForms);
</script> 

Show validation message when form submitted and field is valid

• Useful for validation messages

<form stateful novalidate action="/endpoint" method="post">
 
  <input type="email" name="email" value="" required>
  <p sf-show="$form.submitted && name.invalid">
    Please enter a correct name
  </p>
 
  <button type="submit" name="button">Submit</button>
 
</form>
<!-- script omitted -->

Additionally it is a good practice to show the required * asterisk only when the form is submitted:

<form stateful novalidate action="/endpoint" method="post">
 
  <div class="form-item">
    <label for="create_account_email">Email <span sf-show="$form.submitted && email.invalid" class="req">*</span></label>
 
    <input type="email" name="email" id="create_account_email" required>
 
    <p class="desc" sf-show="$form.submitted && email.invalid" style="display: none;">
      Please enter a valid email
    </p>
  </div>
 
</form>
<!-- script omitted -->

Give an element a class based on validation

• Useful to give a class to a surrounding element

<form stateful novalidate action="/endpoint" method="post">
 
  <div class="form-item" sf-class="has-error: $form.submitted && email.invalid">
    <input type="email" name="email" value="" required>
    <p sf-show="$form.submitted && name.invalid">
      Please enter a correct name
    </p>
  </div>
 
  <button type="submit" name="button">Submit</button>
 
</form>
<!-- script omitted -->

Disable submit button based on checkbox

• Useful for terms and conditions checkbox

<form stateful novalidate action="/endpoint" method="post">
 
  <label class="form-item checkbox">
    <input name="terms_and_conditions" type="checkbox" required> I agree to the terms and conditions
  </label>
 
  <button class="button" sf-attributes="disabled: terms_and_conditions.invalid" type="submit" name="button">
    Create account
  </button>
 
</form>
<!-- script omitted -->

Show value of form element when valid

• Useful to show a confirmation message with the users email

<!-- form and script omitted -->
<div class="form-item">
  <label for="create_account_email">Email <span sf-show="$form.submitted && email.invalid" class="req">*</span></label>
 
  <input type="email" name="email" id="create_account_email" required>
 
  <p class="desc" sf-show="$form.submitted && email.invalid" style="display: none;">
    Please enter a valid email
  </p>
</div>
 
<p sf-show="email.valid" style="display: none;" class="form-item">
  We will send a confirmation email to <strong sf-text="email.value"></strong>.
</p>

Show messages based on selected with a select element

<!-- form and script omitted -->
<div class="form-item">
  <label for="inquiry">Inquiry</label>
 
  <select name="inquiry" class="select width-50">
    <option selected value="question">Question</option>
    <option value="feedback">Feedback</option>
    <option value="billing">Billing</option>
    <option value="other">Other</option>
  </select>
 
</div>
 
<div class="form-item">
  <span sf-show="inquiry.value == 'question'">
    Ask us any question.
  </span>
  <span sf-show="inquiry.value == 'feedback'" style="display: none;">
    We are always open for feedback.
  </span>
  <span sf-show="inquiry.value == 'billing'" style="display: none;">
    Let’s figure out this billing inquiry together.
  </span>
  <span sf-show="inquiry.value == 'other'" style="display: none;">
    Tell us what’s on your mind.
  </span>
</div>

Acknowledgements

This project could not be made if it is wasn’t for the excellent work of the AngularJS team. Especially on the angular/expressionist.js project which I happen to stumble upon.

TODO

• Build support for input[type="radio"]
• Reflect classnames to form elements
• Test out successful responses
• Build support for input[type="hidden"]
• Figure out what to do with input[type="date"]
• Rename form, response and request to $form, $response, $request
• Create a solid build step with minification
• Publish to npm
• Publish to bower
• Publish to cdnjs
• Write installation guide
• Put in ESLint

Author & License

Created by Jeroen Ransijn under the MIT license.