Obfo (Object Form)

Convert HTML Forms into nested JavaScript objects.

Installation

npm install obfo

Usage

<form id="fo" data-obfo-container="{}">
  <input name="first" value="Jon" />
  <input name="last" value="Doe" />
</form>

import obfo from "obfo";
const fo = document.getElementById("fo");
const ob = obfo(fo);
console.log(ob); // logs { first: "Jon", last: "Doe" }

Attributes

To handle the differences between HTML forms and JavaScript object structures, we use data attributes to define container behavior.

data-obfo-container

The data-obfo-container attribute groups elements into dictionaries ({}) or arrays ([]) when converting a form to an object.

An element is considered a "direct child" of a container if:

• It is an input (input, textarea, select) element or has a data-obfo-container attribute.
• There are no other elements between the container and the element.

Elements that are not inputs or do not have the data-obfo-container attribute are ignored. Unless specified with the option.submit parameter, button elements are also ignored.

Note: The data-obfo-container attribute must be set on the top form element.

data-obfo-container: {}

Direct children of data-obfo-container="{}" must have a name or data-obfo-name attribute set.

Example:

<form id="fo" data-obfo-container="{}">
  <input name="first" value="Jon" />
  <input name="last" value="Doe" />
</form>

import obfo from "obfo";
const fo = document.getElementById("fo");
const ob = obfo(fo);
console.log(ob); // logs { first: "Jon", last: "Doe" }

data-obfo-container: []

name and data-obfo-name attributes on direct children of data-obfo-container="[]" are ignored.

Example:

<form id="fo" data-obfo-container="[]">
  <input name="first" value="Jon" />
  <input name="last" value="Doe" />
</form>

import obfo from "obfo";
const fo = document.getElementById("fo");
const ob = obfo(fo);
console.log(ob); // logs ["Jon", "Doe"]

data-obfo-name

This attribute is used as the key if the container is a direct child of a dictionary.

data-obfo-value

This attribute is used to extract the text of a non-input element to use as a value. It should be used in conjunction with data-obfo-name where a key is required.

data-obfo-cast

The data-obfo-cast attribute casts the input value to a specific type. The available types are:

• string (default) - The value as is.
• checkbox/radio - true or false based on the "checked" state of the element.
• number - The value as a number.
• bigint - The value as a BigInt.
• date - The value as a Date object.
• file - Used on input[type=file]. Returns the first file object, which can later be read using FileReader.
• files - Returns a list of file objects (see file above).
• null - null
• undefined - undefined

If data-obfo-cast is used without a value, it defaults to the value of the "type" attribute.

Example:

<input type="checkbox" data-obfo-cast="checkbox" />
<!-- is equivalent to -->
<input type="checkbox" data-obfo-cast />

Comprehensive Examples

Example with nested objects:

<form id="fo" data-obfo-container="{}">
  <input name="first" value="Jon" />
  <input name="last" value="Doe" />
  <div data-obfo-container="{}" data-obfo-name="address">
    <input name="street" value="123 Main St" />
    <input name="city" value="Anytown" />
  </div>
</form>

import obfo from "obfo";
const fo = document.getElementById("fo");
const ob = obfo(fo);
console.log(ob); // logs { first: "Jon", last: "Doe", address: { street: "123 Main St", city: "Anytown" } }

Example with arrays:

<form id="fo" data-obfo-container="{}">
  <div data-obfo-container="[]" data-obfo-name="tags">
    <input value="JavaScript" />
    <input value="HTML" />
    <input value="CSS" />
  </div>
</form>

import obfo from "obfo";
const fo = document.getElementById("fo");
const ob = obfo(fo);
console.log(ob); // logs { tags: ["JavaScript", "HTML", "CSS"] }