react-form-with-constraints
Simple form validation for React
Check the changelog for breaking changes and fixes between releases.
Introduction: what is HTML5 form validation?
⚠️ Client side validation is cosmetic, you should not rely on it to enforce security
<form>
<label for="email">Email:</label>
<input type="email" id="email" required>
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
The required
HTML5 attribute specifies that the user must fill in a value, type="email"
checks that the entered text looks like an email address.
Resources:
What react-form-with-constraints brings
- Minimal API and footprint
- Unobtrusive: easy to adapt regular React code
- Control HTML5 error messages:
<FieldFeedback when="valueMissing">My custom error message</FieldFeedback>
- Custom constraints:
<FieldFeedback when={value => ...}>
- Warnings and infos:
<FieldFeedback ... warning>
, <FieldFeedback ... info>
- Async validation
- No dependency beside React (no Redux, MobX...)
- Re-render only what's necessary
- Easily extendable
- Support for React Native with npm package
react-form-with-constraints-native
- Bootstrap 4 styling with npm package
react-form-with-constraints-bootstrap4
- Material-UI integration with npm package
react-form-with-constraints-material-ui
- ...
<input type="password" name="password"
value={this.state.password} onChange={this.handleChange}
required pattern=".{5,}" />
<FieldFeedbacks for="password">
<FieldFeedback when="valueMissing" />
<FieldFeedback when="patternMismatch">
Should be at least 5 characters long
</FieldFeedback>
<FieldFeedback when={value => !/\d/.test(value)} warning>
Should contain numbers
</FieldFeedback>
<FieldFeedback when={value => !/[a-z]/.test(value)} warning>
Should contain small letters
</FieldFeedback>
<FieldFeedback when={value => !/[A-Z]/.test(value)} warning>
Should contain capital letters
</FieldFeedback>
</FieldFeedbacks>
Examples
Other examples inside the examples directory.
How it works
The API works the same way as React Router v4:
<Router>
<Route exact path="/" component={Home} />
<Route path="/news" component={NewsFeed} />
</Router>
It is also inspired by AngularJS ngMessages.
If you had to implement validation yourself, you would end up with a global object that tracks errors for each field.
react-form-with-constraints works similarly.
It uses React context to share the FieldsStore
object across FieldFeedbacks
and FieldFeedback
.
API
The API reads like this: "for field when constraint violation display feedback", example:
<FieldFeedbacks for="password">
<FieldFeedback when="valueMissing" />
<FieldFeedback when="patternMismatch">Should be at least 5 characters long</FieldFeedback>
</FieldFeedbacks>
for field "password"
when constraint violation "valueMissing" display <the HTML5 error message (*)>
when constraint violation "patternMismatch" display "Should be at least 5 characters long"
(*) element.validationMessage
Async support works as follow:
<FieldFeedbacks for="username">
<Async
promise={checkUsernameAvailability} /* Function that returns a promise */
then={available => available ?
<FieldFeedback key="1" info style={{color: 'green'}}>Username available</FieldFeedback> :
<FieldFeedback key="2">Username already taken, choose another</FieldFeedback>
// Why key=*? Needed otherwise React gets buggy when the user rapidly changes the field
}
/>
</FieldFeedbacks>
Trigger validation:
class MyForm extends React.Component {
async handleChange(e) {
const target = e.target;
const fields = await this.form.validateFields(target);
const fieldIsValid = fields.every(field => field.isValid());
if (fieldIsValid) console.log(`Field '${target.name}' is valid`);
else console.log(`Field '${target.name}' is invalid`);
if (this.form.isValid()) console.log('The form is valid');
else console.log('The form is invalid');
}
async handleSubmit(e) {
e.preventDefault();
const fields = await this.form.validateForm();
const formIsValid = fields.every(field => field.isValid());
if (formIsValid) console.log('The form is valid');
else console.log('The form is invalid');
}
render() {
return (
<FormWithConstraints
ref={formWithConstraints => this.form = formWithConstraints}
onSubmit={this.handleSubmit} noValidate
>
<input
name="username"
onChange={this.handleChange}
required minLength={3}
/>
<FieldFeedbacks for="username">
<FieldFeedback when="tooShort">Too short</FieldFeedback>
<Async
promise={checkUsernameAvailability}
then={available => available ?
<FieldFeedback key="1" info style={{color: 'green'}}>Username available</FieldFeedback> :
<FieldFeedback key="2">Username already taken, choose another</FieldFeedback>
}
/>
<FieldFeedback when="*" />
</FieldFeedbacks>
</FormWithConstraints>
);
}
}
-
FieldFeedbacks
for: string
=> reference to a name
attribute (e.g <input name="username">
), should be unique to the current formstop?: 'first' | 'first-error' | 'first-warning' | 'first-info' | 'no'
=>
when to stop rendering FieldFeedback
s, by default stops at the first error encountered (FieldFeedback
s order matters)
Note: you can place FieldFeedbacks
anywhere, have as many as you want for the same field
, nest them, mix them with FieldFeedback
... Example:
<input name="username" ... />
<FieldFeedbacks for="username" stop="first-warning">
<FieldFeedbacks>
<FieldFeedback ... />
<Async ... />
<FieldFeedbacks stop="first-info">
...
</FieldFeedbacks>
</FieldFeedbacks>
<FieldFeedback ... />
<Async ... />
</FieldFeedbacks>
<FieldFeedbacks for="username" stop="no">
...
</FieldFeedbacks>
-
FieldFeedback
when?
:
ValidityState
as a string => HTML5 constraint violation name'*'
=> matches any HTML5 constraint violation'valid'
=> displays the feedback only if the field is valid(value: string) => boolean
=> custom constraint
error?: boolean
=> treats the feedback as an error (default)warning?: boolean
=> treats the feedback as a warninginfo?: boolean
=> treats the feedback as an infochildren
=> what to display when the constraint matches; if missing, displays the HTML5 error message if any
-
Async<T>
=> Async version of FieldFeedback
, similar API as react-promise
promise: (value: string) => Promise<T>
=> a promise you want to wait forpending?: React.ReactNode
=> runs when promise is pendingthen?: (value: T) => React.ReactNode
=> runs when promise is resolvedcatch?: (reason: any) => React.ReactNode
=> runs when promise is rejected
-
FormWithConstraints
-
validateFields(...inputsOrNames: Array<Input | string>): Promise<Field[]>
=>
Should be called when a field
changes, will re-render the proper FieldFeedback
s (and update the internal FieldsStore
).
Without arguments, all fields ($('[name]')
) are validated.
-
validateForm(): Promise<Field[]>
=>
Should be called before to submit the form
. Validates only all non-dirty fields (won't re-validate fields that have been already validated with validateFields(...)
),
If you want to force re-validate all fields, use validateFields()
without arguments.
-
isValid(): boolean
=> should be called after validateForm()
or validateFields()
, tells if the fields are valid
-
hasFeedbacks(): boolean
=> tells if the fields have any kind of feedback
-
reset(): Promise
=> resets internal FieldsStore
and re-render all FieldFeedback
s
-
Field
=>
{
name: string;
validations: {
key: number;
type: 'error' | 'warning' | 'info' | 'whenValid';
show: boolean | undefined;
}[];
isValid: () => boolean
}
-
Input
If you want to style <input>
, use <Input>
instead: it will add classes has-errors
, has-warnings
, has-infos
and/or is-valid
on <input>
when the field is validated.
Example: <Input name="username" />
can generate <input name="username" class="has-errors has-warnings">
FYI react-form-with-constraints-bootstrap4
and react-form-with-constraints-material-ui
already style the fields to match their respective frameworks.
Browser support
You can use HTML5 attributes like type="email"
, required
, pattern
..., in this case a recent browser is needed,...
<label htmlFor="username">Username</label>
<input type="email" name="username" id="username"
value={this.state.username} onChange={this.handleChange}
required />
<FieldFeedbacks for="username">
<FieldFeedback when="*" />
</FieldFeedbacks>
...or ignore them and rely on when
functions:
<label htmlFor="username">Username</label>
<input name="username" id="username"
value={this.state.username} onChange={this.handleChange} />
<FieldFeedbacks for="username">
<FieldFeedback when={value => value.length === 0}>Please fill out this field.</FieldFeedback>
<FieldFeedback when={value => !/\S+@\S+/.test(value)}>Invalid email address.</FieldFeedback>
</FieldFeedbacks>
In the last case you will have to manage translations yourself (see SignUp example).
react-form-with-constraints needs a polyfill such as core-js or babel-polyfill to support IE 11 and lower. See also React JavaScript Environment Requirements.
Notes