Winterfell

Generate complex, validated and extendable JSON-based forms in React

Winterfell allows you to build up complex, multi-page forms with conditional questions, validation and conditional-page switching via a JSON schema, rendered by React.

Winterfell was initially made for a project in a sector that required a large, complex form with questions that would result in more questions or different pages when you clicked next. With an easy to write schema and a high level of customisation, comes a great power.

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Usage

First install Winterfell via npm

$ npm install winterfell --save

Winterfell uses a JSON schema to render your form. We will go through that later.

var Winterfell = require('winterfell');
var schema     = require('./schema');

React.render(
  <Winterfell schema={schema} />,
  document.getElementById('form')
);

Features

Easy, quick and extendable
JSON schema
Design agnostic and customisable
Multi-page forms
Infinitely-recursive conditional questions
Conditional page switching
Conditional form submitting
Disable regular submissions
Instant form validation
Decide when to validate per field
Validation against other fields values
Predefined validation types
Predefined error messages
Custom validation types
Custom error messages
Custom error rendering
Custom required asterisk rendering
Custom classes
Custom InputTypes
Question pre and post text
Question panel header and text
Question set header and text
Ability to disable buttons
Default values
Events

Schema

The schema is built up of three main parts, formPanels, questionPanels and questionSets.

Form Panels

The initial formPanels entry is used as a page of questions, or questionPanels in Winterfell's case.

{
  "formPanels": [
    {
      "index": 1,
      "panelId": "intro-panel"
    },
    {
      "index": 2,
      "panelId": "register-panel"
    },
    {
      "index": 3,
      "panelId": "final-panel"
    }
  ]
}

Question Panels

Question Panels are the fleshed-out details about a page of questions. We defined the questionSets that exist on this page, any conditions for submitting the panel and button information. You should have one of these for every panel defined in formPanels above.

Each questionPanel has the ability to have a header and some text along with it that is displayed above the questions. You can define these via the panelHeader and panelText fields.

Supported actions are GOTO and SUBMIT. When using GOTO, the target can be any questionPanelId. SUBMIT places the target in to the action field of the form element.

{
  "questionPanels": [
    {
      "panelId": "intro-panel",
      "panelHeader": "A quick survey?",
      "panelText": "Please could you take a few minutes to fill out our survey?",
      "action": {
        "conditions": [
          {
            "questionId": "existing-user",
            "value": "no",
            "action": "GOTO",
            "target": "register-panel"
          }
        ],
        "default": {
          "action": "GOTO",
          "target": "final-panel"
        }
      },
      "button": {
        "text": "Next",
        "disabled": false
      },
      "": {
        "text": "Back",
        "disable": false
      },
      "questionSets": [
        {
          "index": 1,
          "questionSetId": "intro-set"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Question Sets

Questions Sets are groups of questions. Here is where you define questions with their validations, types, conditions etc. conditionalQuestions are recursive and will work as expected.

The questionSet below has an initial radio button with yes and no options. When you select yes, a question asking for the users email address will render.

Each question has the ability to have some text associated with it which gets rendered below the questions-label and some postText which will be rendered below the questions input.

{
  "questionSets": [
    {
      "questionSetId": "intro-set",
      "questionSetHeader": "I am a question set header",
      "questionSetText": "I am a question set text",
      "questions": [
        {
          "questionId": "existing-user",
          "question": "Are you an existing user?",
          "text": "We'd just like to know so we can get you in the right place.",
          "input": {
            "type": "radioOptionsInput",
            "default": "yes",
            "options": [
              {
                "text": "Yes",
                "value": "yes",
                "conditionalQuestions": [
                  {
                    "questionId": "register-user-email",
                    "question": "Please enter the email address your account is registered with",
                    "postText": "We will not spam your email address.",
                    "input": {
                      "type": "emailInput",
                      "placeholder": "Email Address"
                    },
                    "validateOn": "blur",
                    "validations": [
                      {
                        "type": "isLength",
                        "params": [
                          1
                        ]
                      }
                    ]
                  }
                ],
                "validations": [
                  {
                    "type": "isLength",
                    "params": [
                      1
                    ]
                  }
                ]
              },
              {
                "text": "No",
                "value": "no",
                "conditionalQuestions": []
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The validateOn property is used to dictate when to validate the field. The default for this is blur, which results in the field being validated when the user unfocusses from the field. You can also set this field to change which will validate the field as the user types, or changes their answer. Setting validateOn to submit will result in the field being validated when the next or submit button being pressed and only then.

Validations are handled via the Validator package on npm. In the validations key item, you can set your types of validation for the field. The type must be a method on the Validator package, or a custom defined method.

A validation-items params key must be an array of parameters for the validation method. The value will be unshifted to the start of the array and called up on the validation method in order. For example:

Validation item where the value must be a minimum length of 1.

{
  "type": "isLength",
  "params": [
    1
  ]
}

Validation item where the value must be a minimum length of 1 and a maximum of 20.

{
  "type": "isLength",
  "params": [
    1,
    20
  ]
}

You can also add a custom error message for the questions validaton item by using the message property.

{
  "type": "isLength",
  "params": [
    1
  ],
  "message": "Please select an option"
}

To validate a questions answer against another questions answer, you can wrap curly-braces around a parameter in the params property and it will be turned in to a questions answer. For example:

{
  "type": "equals",
  "params": [
    "{password}"
  ],
  "message": "Confirm Password must match the Password field"
}

HTML Classes

Winterfell allows you to define classes for the rendered form in multiple different areas. To use them, place them in the root of the form-schema like so:

{
  "formPanels": [],
  "classes": {
    "form": "form-wrapping-class",
    "label": "question-label"
  }
}

The table below describes the current set of classes.

Class Name	Description
form	The form element itself
questionPanels	The div that wraps around the active `questionPanel`
questionPanel	The div that wraps around the active `questionSets` and the button bar
questionPanelHeaderContainer	The div that wraps around the `questionPanels` header text and text
questionPanelHeaderText	The h3 tag that holds the `questionPanel` header text
questionPanelText	The p tag that holds the `questionPanel` text
questionSetHeader	The h4 tag that holds the `questionSet` header
questionSetText	The p tag that holds the `questionSet` text
questionSetHeaderContainer	The div that wraps around the header and text of a `questionSet`
questionSets	The div that wraps around the `questionSets` inside of a `questionPanel`
questionSet	The div that wraps around the `questions` inside a `questionSet`
question	The div that wraps around the `question`
questionText	The p tag that holds the `question` text
questionPostText	The p tag that holds the `question` post-text
label	Label inside of a `question`
backButton	Panel-back button, shown when on a second panel
controlButton	Typically the Next or Submit button, depending on panel
buttonBar	The div wrapped around the buttons described above
errorMessage	Error Message div class - Not used if custom renderError method used
input	Assigned to the inputs for types `textInput`, `textareaInput`, `emailInput` and `passwordInput`
select	Assigned to the `selectInput` select-element
file	Assigned to the `fileInput` file-element
checkboxInput	The div that wraps around the `checkboxInput`
checkbox	Assigned to the `checkboxOptionsInput` and `checkboxInput` checkbox-input
checkboxList	Assigned the to UL wrapped around the checkbox items in `checkboxOptionsInput`
checkboxListItem	Assigned to the LI inside of the `checkboxList` mentioned above
checkboxLabel	Assigned to the label inside of a checkbox option
radioList	Assigned to the UL wrapped around the radio items in `radioOptionsInput`
radioListItem	Assigned to the LI inside of the `radioList` mentioned above
radioLabel	Assigned to the label inside of a radio button option
radio	Assigned to the radio button inside of a `radioOptionsInput`

Default & Custom Input Types

The default set of input types that ships with Winterfell are the following:

textInput
textareaInput
emailInput
hiddenInput
fileInput
passwordInput
selectInput
checkboxInput
checkboxOptionsInput
radioOptionsInput

You can also define custom input types like so:

var Winterfell         = require('winterfell');
var MyAwesomeInputType = require('./awesomeInputType');

Winterfell
  .addInputType('myAwesomeInputType', MyAwesomeInputType);

// OR

Winterfell
  .addInputTypes({
    myAwesomeInputType : MyAwesomeInputType
  });

Custom Error Messages

Error messages can be set strings, or methods that are called to generate an error message. They can be set like so:

var Winterfell = require('winterfell');

Winterfell
  .addErrorMessage('isLength', 'Please enter some text!');

Winterfell
  .addErrorMessages({
  	isLength : (validationItem) => {
  	  /*
  	   * validationItem = {
  	   *   type   : 'isLength',
  	   *   params : [] //Starts with answer
  	   * }
  	   */

  	  return 'Please enter a value';
  	}
  });

Custom Validation Methods

Validation methods can be defined and will be chosen over methods defined in the Validator package.

var Winterfell = require('winterfell');

Winterfell
  .addValidationMethod('isLength', value => {
  	/*
  	 * arguments == validation parameters
  	 */

    return true; // Valid
  });

Winterfell
  .addValidationMethods({
  	isLength : value => {
  	  /*
  	   * arguments == validation parameters
  	   */

      return true; // valid
    }
  });

Props & Config

The following table shows the props Winterfell accepts, their types and descriptions. The only prop that is required is schema.

Prop Name	Type	Description
panelId	string	Initial `panelId` to render
schema	object	`schema` for the form to render
ref	string	`ref` field for form element
encType	string	`encType` field for the form element
method	string	`method` field for the form element
action	string	Default `action` field for the form element
disableSubmit	boolean	Prevent the form from submitting naturally
questionAnswers	object	Existing `questionAnswers`. `questionId` => `answer`
renderError	function	Custom validation error render method. Return a React Component Or React Element.
renderRequiredAsterisk	function	Custom require asterisk rendering method. Return a React Component or React Element.

Events

The following events can be registered as props of Winterfell.

Event Prop	Description	Arguments
onRender	Fired when Winterfell has initially rendered	N/A
onUpdate	Fired when a questions answer has been changed	`questionAnswers`
onSwitchPanel	Fired when a panel is switched or changed	`panel`
onSubmit	Fired when the form is submitted successfully	`questionAnswers`, `action`

Final Notes

Pull requests are completely welcome. If you'd like to get in touch, Tweet me. Initial schema design by Jordan Appleson.

License

MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

stiknoltz/Winterfell