RxFormMapper is a framework developed for angular and allows you to convert, by annotation, classes into reactive form and vice versa.
Reactive forms use an explicit and immutable approach to managing the state of a form at a given point in time. Each change to the form state returns a new state, which maintains the integrity of the model between changes. Reactive forms are built around observable streams, where form inputs and values are provided as streams of input values, which can be accessed synchronously.
So... Why RxFormMapper?
Sometimes you want to transform the classes you have into reactive forms, for example you have a user model that you want to have filled out by a form:
export class User {
name: string;
surname: string;
age: number;
}So what to do? How to make a user form ? Solution is to create new instances of Reactive Form object and manually copy all properties to new object. But things may go wrong very fast once you have a more complex object hierarchy.
new FormGroup(
name: new FormControl(user.name),
surname: new FormControl(user.surname),
age: new FormControl(user.age),
);To avoid all this you can use RxFormMapper:
export class User {
@FormControl()
name: string;
@FormControl()
surname: string;
@FormControl()
age: number;
}import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { FormControl } from '@angular/forms';
import { User } from 'src/app/models/user.model';
@Component({
selector: 'app-user-editor',
templateUrl: './user-editor.component.html',
styleUrls: ['./user-editor.component.css']
})
export class UserEditorComponent {
public form: FormGroup;
constructor(rxFormMapper: RxFormMapper) {
this.form = rxFormMapper.writeForm(User);
}
}See it in action at https://stackblitz.com/edit/rx-form-mapper-example?file=src/app/user-registration.ts
npm i rx-form-mapper --save
reflect-metadata is required (with angular+ you should already have this dependency installed.)
npm i reflect-metadata --save
Import the NgModule for RxFormMapper
import { RxFormMapperModule } from 'rx-form-mapper';
@NgModule({
...
imports: [RxFormMapperModule.forRoot()],
...
})
export class MyAppModule { }import { RxFormMapper } from 'rx-form-mapper';
@Component({ ... })
export class MyComponent {
constructor(private readonly rxFormMapper: RxFormMapper) {}
}import { RxFormMapper } from 'rx-form-mapper';
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { FormGroup } from '@angular/forms';
import { User } from 'src/app/models/user.model';
@Component({ ... })
export class MyComponent {
public myForm: FormGroup;
constructor(rxFormMapper: RxFormMapper) {
this.myForm = rxFormMapper.writeForm(new User());
}
}This module enables RxFormMapper features
This service provides the methods to serialize and deserialize our objects
This method converts our class instance into reactive form instance
this.form = formMapper.writeForm(new Post());This method converts our class type into reactive form instance
this.form = formMapper.fromType(Post);This method converts our form instance into specific class instance
const post: Post = formMapper.readForm(this.form, Post);If you want to expose some of properties as a FormControl, you can do it by @FormControl decorator
import { FormControl } from 'rx-form-mapper';
export class User {
@FormControl()
name: string;
@FormControl()
surname: string;
@FormControl()
age: number;
}If you want to expose some of properties as a FormGroup, you can do it by @FormGroup decorator
import { FormGroup } from 'rx-form-mapper';
export class Child {}
export class User {
@FormGroup()
child: Child;
}If you want to expose some of properties as a FormArray, you can do it by @FormArray decorator
import { FormGroup } from 'rx-form-mapper';
export class Child {}
export class User {
@FormArray(Child)
children: Child[];
}When you're trying to serialize a property into FormArray its required to known what type of object you are trying to convert.
If you want to add extra data to your form, you can do it by optional @Form decorator
import { Form } from 'rx-form-mapper';
@Form({
validators: Validators.required
})
export class User {
@FormControl()
name: string;
@FormControl()
surname: string;
@FormControl()
age: number;
}If you want to create custom forms for specific fields, you can do it by @CustomControl decorator
Declare your custom mapper class implementing CustomControlMapper interface
import { CustomControlMapper } from 'rx-form-mapper';
import { AbstractControlOptions, FormControl } from '@angular/forms';
export class CustomAuthorControlMapper implements CustomControlMapper {
public writeForm(value: any, abstractControlOptions: AbstractControlOptions): AbstractControl {
return new FormControl(value, abstractControlOptions);
}
public readForm(control: AbstractControl): ChildTestClass {
return control.value;
}
}And pass it's type as argument of CustomControl decorator
import { Form } from 'rx-form-mapper';
import { CustomAuthorControlMapper } from '.';
export class Post {
@CustomControl(CustomAuthorControlMapper)
author: Person;
}Sometimes you want to injects other services into your CustomMapper, RxFormMapper allows you to do it simple:
Declare your CustomControlMapper class, decorate with @Injectable and includes it in a module as a normal service.
import { CustomControlMapper } from 'rx-form-mapper';
import { AbstractControlOptions, FormControl } from '@angular/forms';
@Injectable()
export class CustomAuthorControlMapper implements CustomControlMapper {
public writeForm(value: any, abstractControlOptions: AbstractControlOptions): AbstractControl {
return new FormControl(value, abstractControlOptions);
}
public readForm(control: AbstractControl): ChildTestClass {
return control.value;
}
}And pass it's type as validator or asyncValidator option
import { Form } from 'rx-form-mapper';
import { CustomAuthorControlMapper } from '.';
export class Post {
@CustomControl(CustomAuthorControlMapper)
author: Person;
}If you want to set a validator on a class or a property, you can do it by specifying validators option to @Form, @FormControl,@CustomControl or @FormArray decorators
import { FormControl } from 'rx-form-mapper';
export class User {
@FormControl({
validators: Validators.required
})
completeName: string;
}If you want to set an AsyncValidator on a class or a property, you can do it by specifying asyncValidators option to @Form, @FormControl,@CustomControl or @FormArray decorators
import { FormControl } from 'rx-form-mapper';
const asyncValidator = (control: AbstractControl) => return of(undefined);
export class User {
@FormControl({
asyncValidators: asyncValidator
})
name: string;
}Sometimes you want to injects other services into your validator or asyncValidator, RxFormMapper allows you to do it simple with Angular Forms interfaces:
Declare your validator class implementing Validator or AsyncValidator interfaces, decorate with @Injectable and includes it in a module as a normal service.
import { AsyncValidator } from '@angular/forms';
@Injectable()
export class UniqueNameValidator implements AsyncValidator {
constructor(private readonly http: HttpProvider) {}
public validate(control: AbstractControl): Promise<ValidationErrors> | Observable<ValidationErrors> {
// implementation
}
}And pass it's type as validator or asyncValidator option
import { FormControl } from 'rx-form-mapper';
import { UniqueNameValidator } from 'src/app/validators/unique-Name.validator';
export class User {
@FormControl({
asyncValidators: UniqueNameValidator
})
name: string;
}Sometimes you want to change the default strategy of form validation, you can do it specifying updateOn option to @Form, @FormControl,@CustomControl or @FormArray decorators
import { FormControl } from 'rx-form-mapper';
export class User {
@FormControl({
validators: Validators.required,
updateOn: 'blur'
})
name: string;
}