Dynamic Form

This library generates Angular FormGroup and related DOM from a specified JSON configuration. Such configuration can either be baked in into the application or received dynamically from back-end. Exact form input fields are NOT part of the library and must be provided by a library user. A set of Material based input components can be found in Material Components For Dynamic Form . Dynamic Form 1.x is only compatible with Angular v13 v14 and v15. Future releases from the 16.0.0 are directly linked to the correspondent Angular version.

Installation

Install the library through NPM:

$ npm i @elemental-concept/dynamic-form

DynamicFormModule should be included into your Angular modules automatically by IDE. If your IDE doesn't support such functionality, don't forget to add it manually:

import { DynamicFormModule } from '@elemental-concept/dynamic-form';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    DynamicFormModule
  ]
})
class SomeModule {
}

Usage

The library provides DynamicFormComponent and DynamicFormFactoryService to generate forms in run-time. In most cases DynamicFormComponent should be used directly. DynamicFormFactoryService can be used to create a completely custom solution when supplied component is not enough.

DynamicFormComponent expects form configuration, form value and optional input component mapping. Form configuration describes all fields, their labels, validations, etc in a simple format. Value is a regular key-value map as used by FormGroup. DynamicFormComponent also provides a set of events for application to react to data and state changes. Additionally, custom HTML can be placed inside the form if needed.

Simple Example

<!-- my-form.component.html -->
<ecdf-dynamic-form [config]="config" [value]="value"></ecdf-dynamic-form>

// my-form.component.ts
import { Component } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'my-form',
  templateUrl: './my-form.component.html',
  styleUrls: [ './my-form.component.scss' ]
})
export class MyFormComponent {
  config = {
    elements: [
      {
        id: 'firstName',
        label: 'First name',
        type: 'string',
        validators: [ { type: 'required' } ]
      },
      {
        id: 'lastName',
        label: 'Last name',
        type: 'string',
        validators: [ { type: 'required' } ]
      }
    ]
  };

  value = {
    firstName: 'John',
    lastName: 'Doe'
  };
}

Adding Custom HTML To The Form

DynamicFormComponent has 4 content slots which can be used to annotate and decorate the form according to the design. One of these slots should also contain submit button if required. Slots are specified by CSS classes:

• before-form - content will be placed befor <form> tag.
• form-header - content will be placed at the start of <form> tag.
• form-footer - content will be placed at the end of <form> tag.
• after-form - content will be placed after <form> tag.

<!-- my-form.component.html -->
<ecdf-dynamic-form [config]="config" [value]="value">

  <h3 class="before-form">Sign-up form</h3>

  <p class="form-header">All fields are mandatory</p>

  <div class="form-footer">
    <button>Sign up now!</button>
  </div>

  <p class="after-form">Terms and conditions.</p>

</ecdf-dynamic-form>

This will render the following structure:

<h3 class="before-form">Sign-up form</h3>

<form>

  <p class="form-header">All fields are mandatory</p>

  <!-- FORM FIELDS RENDERED HERE DYNAMICALLY -->

  <div class="form-footer">
    <button>Sign up now!</button>
  </div>

</form>

<p class="after-form">Terms and conditions.</p>

API

DynamicFormComponent

@Input config: DynamicFormConfig<M>

Required. Specifies a configuration of input fields and related data. Please check DynamicFormConfig section for more info.

@Input value: { [ key: string ]: any }

Required. Value of the form. Can be an empty object {}.

@Input componentMap: DynamicFormComponentMap<M>

Mapping between textual input types like string and checkbox to actual Angular components. This mapping should be provided either by component library like Material Components For Dynamic Form or by the app developer manually. Check DynamicFormComponentMap section for more info.

@Output valueChanges: EventEmitter<DynamicFormComponentValue>

Fires an event each time there are any changes to a form value.

@Output statusChanges: EventEmitter<DynamicFormComponentStatus>

Fires an event each time there are any status changes to a form.

@Output formSubmit: EventEmitter<DynamicFormComponentValue>

Fires an event when the user submits the form.

DynamicFormConfig

This is where all the magic happens. This configuration allows developers to describe forms of varying complexities to suit most needs. Each form element describes basic attributes like id and label as well as validations, relationships between different form elements, error messages, etc. M describes meta information format used by the chosen set of components. Meta information allows for additional input component customisation, like CSS classes, etc.

interface DynamicFormConfig<M> {
  elements: DynamicFormElement<M>[];

  endpoint?: string;
}

interface DynamicFormElement<M> {
  id: string;
  type: '_description_' | string;

  disabled?: boolean;
  label?: string;
  placeholder?: string;
  meta?: M;
  options?: DynamicFormElementOption[];
  dependsOn?: DynamicFormElementRelationship[];
  validators?: DynamicFormValidator[];
  errors?: DynamicFormErrors;
}

Required attributes:

• id - unique ID of a form field, for example, password or email. component library.
• type - type of form field. Types depend on a form component library. Dynamic Form does not care about types at all as it does not render the final HTML into the view.

Optional attributes:

• disabled - change the status of the form element to be readonly or editable
• label - label to show next to the form field. Exact location and presentation of the label will depend on form
• placeholder - can be used by a component library to display a placeholder when form field value is empty.
• meta - a set of meta attributes which are passed directly to a component library without any modifications. Meta handling is completely dependent on a component library.
• options - list of possible values for a form field. Behaviour depends on a component library.
• dependsOn - list of dependencies which control when form field will be visible. For example, a text input field might only appear when a check box is selected. dependsOn allows you to express such behaviour.
• validators - a set of Angular form validators to be applied to a form field.
• errors - a set of error messages to show when validations fail.

Example:

{
  elements:
  [
    {
      id: 'firstName',
      label: 'First name',
      type: 'string',
      validators: [ { type: 'required' } ]
    },
    {
      id: 'lastName',
      label: 'Last name',
      type: 'string',
      validators: [ { type: 'required' } ]
    }
  ];
}

DynamicFormElementOption

interface DynamicFormElementOption {
  label: string;
  value: any;
}

• label - label of an option visible to the end user.
• value - value of an option which will be assigned to the form field when a user selects it.

DynamicFormElementRelationship

Dynamic Form allows specifying basic relationships between form fields. All relationships in a set are merged with AND logical operation. Five operations are available:

• equals
• lessThan
• moreThan
• set
• notSet

Example

{
  elements:
  [
    {
      id: 'subscribe',
      label: 'Do you wish to subscribe to our newsletter?',
      type: 'checkbox'
    },
    {
      id: 'email',
      label: 'Your e-mail for newsletter subscription',
      type: 'email',
      validators: [ { type: 'email' } ],
      dependsOn: [ { id: 'subscribe', type: 'set' } ]
    }
  ];
}

In this example email field will only be presented to the user when check box subscribe is checked.

Complete interface reference:

interface DynamicFormElementRelationshipCommon {
  id: string;
}

interface DynamicFormElementRelationshipEquals extends DynamicFormElementRelationshipCommon {
  type: 'equals';
  value: any;
}

interface DynamicFormElementRelationshipLessThan extends DynamicFormElementRelationshipCommon {
  type: 'lessThan';
  value: number;
}

interface DynamicFormElementRelationshipMoreThan extends DynamicFormElementRelationshipCommon {
  type: 'moreThan';
  value: number;
}

interface DynamicFormElementRelationshipIsSet extends DynamicFormElementRelationshipCommon {
  type: 'set';
}

interface DynamicFormElementRelationshipIsNotSet extends DynamicFormElementRelationshipCommon {
  type: 'notSet';
}

type DynamicFormElementRelationship =
  | DynamicFormElementRelationshipEquals
  | DynamicFormElementRelationshipLessThan
  | DynamicFormElementRelationshipMoreThan
  | DynamicFormElementRelationshipIsSet
  | DynamicFormElementRelationshipIsNotSet;

DynamicFormValidator

Describes an Angular form validator to be assigned to a form field. It's just one-to-one mapping to existing validators. Custom validators are not supported yet.

Example:

{
  elements:
  [
    {
      id: 'email',
      label: 'E-mail',
      type: 'email',
      validators: [ { type: 'required' }, { type: 'email' } ]
    }
  ];
}

This is equal to:

new FormGroup({
  email: new FormControl('', [ Validators.required, Validators.email ])
});

Complete interface reference:

interface DynamicFormValidatorMin {
  type: 'min';
  value: number;
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorMax {
  type: 'max';
  value: number;
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorRequired {
  type: 'required';
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorRequiredTrue {
  type: 'requiredTrue';
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorEmail {
  type: 'email';
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorMinLength {
  type: 'minLength';
  length: number;
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorMaxLength {
  type: 'maxLength';
  length: number;
}

interface DynamicFormValidatorPattern {
  type: 'pattern';
  pattern: string;
}

export interface DynamicFormValidatorEqualTo {
  type: 'equalTo';
  field: string;
}

type DynamicFormValidator =
  | DynamicFormValidatorMin
  | DynamicFormValidatorMax
  | DynamicFormValidatorRequired
  | DynamicFormValidatorRequiredTrue
  | DynamicFormValidatorEmail
  | DynamicFormValidatorPattern
  | DynamicFormValidatorEqualTo;

DynamicFormErrors

interface DynamicFormErrors {
  [key: string]: string;
}

A simple key-value map between error codes and their messages.

Creating Custom Input Components

This section is not finished yet. Please check the source code in the sample app on how it's done as well as Material Components For Dynamic Form mentioned earlier.