vue-next-dynamic-form

Vue component for generating a form dynamically from metadata.

Installation

• Install from npm:

  npm install @reside-ic/vue-next-dynamic-form

• Import into your project and register as a global or local component:

  import {DynamicForm} from "@reside-ic/vue-next-dynamic-form"
    
  // global
  const app = Vue.createApp({})
  app.use(DynamicForm);
    
  // or local
  createApp({
    components: {
      DynamicForm
    }
  }).mount('#app')
    

• Include the following css file in your app:

  dist/css/style.min.css

  Note that this css file contains some Bootstrap styles. If you already have Bootstrap in your project and don't want to duplicate style declarations you can import src/style-partial.scss into a style bundle, but you must first include Bootstrap's functions, variables, mixins, forms and buttons partials for it to compile.

Browser

To use the dynamic form component directly in the browser, just include dist/js/vue-dynamic-form.min.js on the page, after Vue:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@3/dist/vue.global.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/@reside-ic/vue-next-dynamic-form/dist/vue-dynamic-form.min.js"></script>

In this case the component will be automatically registered. See example/index.html.

Usage

Example

<template>
    <dynamic-form v-model:form-meta="myFormMeta" 
                  @submit="handleSubmit"></dynamic-form>
</template>
<script>

const app = createApp({
     data() {
          return {
             myFormMeta
           }
        },
     methods: {
         submit(data) {
            axios.post("/my-form", data)
        }
     }
 });
vueNextDynamicForm.default.install(app); 
app.mount('#app');

const myFormMeta = {   
    controlSections: [
        {
            label: "General",
            description: "Select general model options:",
            controlGroups: [
                {
                    label: "Area scope",
                    controls: [
                        {
                            name: "area_scope",
                            type: "multiselect",
                            options: [{id: "MWI", label: "Malawi"}, {id: "MWI.1", label: "Central"}],
                            value: ["MWI","MWI.1"],
                            required: true
                        }]
                },
                {
                    label: "Area level",
                    controls: [
                        {
                            name: "area_level",
                            type: "multiselect",
                            options: [{id: "q1", label: "Apr - Jun 2015"}, {id: "q2", label: "Jul - Sep 2015"}]
                        }]
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            label: "ART",
            description: "Optionally select which quarter of data to use at time point 1 and 2",
            controlGroups: [
                {
                    label: "Number on ART",
                    controls: [
                        {
                            name: "art_t1",
                            label: "Time 1",
                            type: "select",
                            value: "q1",
                            helpText: "Quarter matching midpoint of survey",
                            options: [{id: "q1", label: "Jan - Mar 2015"}, {id: "q2", label: "Apr - Jun 2015"}],
                            required: true
                        },
                        {
                            name: "art_t2",
                            label: "Time 2",
                            type: "select",
                            helpText: "Quarter matching midpoint of survey",
                            options:  [{id: "q1", label: "Jan - Mar 2015"}, {id: "q2", label: "Apr - Jun 2015"}],
                            required: false
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            label: "Advanced options",
            controlGroups: [
                {
                    label: "Number of simulations",
                    controls: [{
                        name: "num_sim",
                        type: "number",
                        required: true,
                        transform: "$/100"
                    }]
                },
                {
                    label: "Decimal parameter",
                    controls: [{
                        name: "dec_param",
                        type: "number",
                        required: true,
                        step: 0.1
                    }]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

</script>

Note that the step value on number controls may be any valid value for HTML input elements of type number. However, in read-only mode the form displays numbers according to the default local Intl.NumberFormat, typically to three decimal places so will round any values with greater precision.

On user submission the form emits a submit event with a payload that contains the form data as JSON. In this example, the payload would be of the form:

{
    area_scope: ["MWI","MWI.1"],
    area_level: [],
    art_t1: "q1",
    art_t2: null,
    num_sim: null
}

If the optional transform property is present on any control, this string is interpreted as a jsonata transform and will be applied to the value emitted.

See this as a working example here

The form also emits a validate event when its valid state changes. The form is valid if all controls which are required have values. The valid event provides a single boolean parameter which is true is the form has become valid, false if it has become invalid. The validate event is also emitted when the form is mounted, indicating the initial valid state.

Example without v-model

If for some reason you don't want form values to be automatically updated, you can handle the change event yourself:

<template>
   <dynamic-form :form-meta="myFormMeta" 
                 @change="handleChange"
                 @submit="handleSubmit"></dynamic-form>
</template>
<script>
    export default {
        data() {
            return {
                myFormMeta: myFormMeta          
            }
        },
        methods: {
            handleChange(newFormMeta) {
                this.myFormMeta = newFormMeta            
            },
            handleSubmit(data) {
                ...
            }
        }
    }
</script>

Optional component props

As well as the required v-model or form-meta, you can optionally customize the submit button text by passing submit-text, and the HTML element's id by passing id:

    <dynamic-form id="my-dynamic-form" 
                  v-model="myFormMeta"
                  @submit="handleSubmit"
                  submit-text="Validate">
    </dynamic-form>

You can also hide the submit button:

    <dynamic-form v-model="myFormMeta"
                  @submit="handleSubmit"
                  :include-submit-button="false">
    </dynamic-form>

Similarly, you can customize the 'required' warning text and the placeholder text used by the select and multi-select inputs by passing strings to the required-text and select-text attributes, respectively.

    <dynamic-form v-model="myFormMeta"
                  @submit="handleSubmit"
                  :select-text="Select an option"
                  :required-text="Compulsory">
    </dynamic-form>

You can also put the form into read-only mode, by setting the readonly attribute, which defaults to false. In read-only mode, input controls are replaced by text fields, and no submit button or required indicators are displayed.

    <dynamic-form v-model="myFormMeta"
                  :readonly="true>
    </dynamic-form>

Control types

At the moment only 3 control types are supported:

• select
• multiselect
• number

Testing, building and publishing

• To run unit tests with jest: npm test
• To build distribution files: npm run-script build
• To publish to npm:
  • first iterate the version in package.json
  • create a user account if you don't have one
  • request organization membership to join reside-ic
  • log into your account : npm login
  • then npm publish --access public