alfresco-ng2-components/docs/core/form.component.md

Added, Status

Added	Status
v2.0.0	Active

Form component

Shows a Form from APS (see it live: Form Quickstart)

Contents

• Basic Usage

  • Properties
  • Events

• Details

  • Custom empty form template
  • Controlling outcome execution behaviour
  • Field Validators

• Other documentation

  • Common scenarios

• See also

Basic Usage

<adf-form 
    [taskId]="taskId">
</adf-form>

Display form instance by task id:

<adf-form 
    [taskId]="selectedTask?.id">
</adf-form>

For an existing Task both form and values will be fetched and displayed.

Display form definition by form id:

<adf-form 
    [formId]="selectedFormDefinition?.id"
    [data]="customData">
</adf-form>

Only form definition will be fetched.

Display form definition by form name:

<adf-form 
    [formName]="selectedFormDefinition?.name"
    [data]="customData">
</adf-form>

Display form definition by ECM nodeId:

In this case the metadata of the node are showed in an activiti Form. If there is no form definied in activiti for the type of the node, a new form will be automaticaly created in Activiti.

<adf-form 
    [nodeId]="'e280be3a-6584-45a1-8bb5-89bfe070262e'">
</adf-form>

Display form definition by form name, and store the form field as metadata:

The param nameNode is optional.

<adf-form 
    [formName]="'activitiForms:patientFolder'"
    [saveMetadata]="true"
    [path]="'/Sites/swsdp/documentLibrary'"
    [nameNode]="'test'">
</adf-form>

Display form definition by ECM nodeId:

In this case the metadata of the node are shown in an activiti Form, and store the form field as metadata. The param nameNode is optional.

<adf-form 
    [nodeId]="'e280be3a-6584-45a1-8bb5-89bfe070262e'"
    [saveMetadata]="true"
    [path]="'/Sites/swsdp/documentLibrary'"
    [nameNode]="'test'">
</adf-form>

Properties

Name	Type	Default value	Description
form	FormModel		Underlying form model instance.
taskId	string		Task id to fetch corresponding form and values.
nodeId	string		Content Services node ID for the form metadata.
formId	string		The id of the form definition to load and display with custom values.
formName	string		Name of the form definition to load and display with custom values.
saveMetadata	boolean	false	Toggle saving of form metadata.
data	FormValues		Custom form values map to be used with the rendered form.
path	string		Path of the folder where the metadata will be stored.
nameNode	string		Name to assign to the new node where the metadata are stored.
showTitle	boolean	true	Toggle rendering of the form title.
showCompleteButton	boolean	true	Toggle rendering of the Complete outcome button.
disableCompleteButton	boolean	false	If true then the Complete outcome button is shown but it will be disabled.
disableStartProcessButton	boolean	false	If true then the Start Process outcome button is shown but it will be disabled.
showSaveButton	boolean	true	Toggle rendering of the Save outcome button.
showDebugButton	boolean	false	Toggle debug options.
readOnly	boolean	false	Toggle readonly state of the form. Forces all form widgets to render as readonly if enabled.
showRefreshButton	boolean	true	Toggle rendering of the Refresh button.
showValidationIcon	boolean	true	Toggle rendering of the validation icon next to the form title.
fieldValidators	FormFieldValidator[]	[]	Contains a list of form field validator instances.

Events

Name	Type	Description
formSaved	EventEmitter<FormModel>	Emitted when the form is submitted with the Save or custom outcomes.
formCompleted	EventEmitter<FormModel>	Emitted when the form is submitted with the Complete outcome.
formContentClicked	EventEmitter<ContentLinkModel>	Emitted when form content is clicked.
formLoaded	EventEmitter<FormModel>	Emitted when the form is loaded or reloaded.
formDataRefreshed	EventEmitter<FormModel>	Emitted when form values are refreshed due to a data property change.
executeOutcome	EventEmitter<FormOutcomeEvent>	Emitted when any outcome is executed. Default behaviour can be prevented via event.preventDefault().
onError	EventEmitter<any>	Emitted when any error occurs.

Details

All form* events receive an instance of the FormModel as event argument for ease of development:

MyView.component.html

<adf-form
    [taskId]="selectedTask?.id"
    (formSaved)="onFormSaved($event)">
</adf-form>

MyView.component.ts

onFormSaved(form: FormModel) {
    console.log(form);
}

Custom empty form template

You can add a template that will be show if no form definition has been found

<adf-form .... >

    <div empty-form >
        <h2>Empty form</h2>
    </div>

</adf-form>

Controlling outcome execution behaviour

If absolutely needed it is possible taking full control over form outcome execution by means of executeOutcome event. This event is fired upon each outcome execution, both system and custom ones.

You can prevent default behaviour by calling event.preventDefault(). This allows for example having custom form validation scenarios and/or additional validation summary presentation.

Alternatively you may want just running additional code on outcome execution without suppressing default one.

MyView.component.html

<adf-form
    [taskId]="selectedTask?.id"
    executeOutcome="validateForm($event)">
</adf-form>

MyView.component.ts

import { FormOutcomeEvent } from '@alfresco/adf-core';

export class MyView {

    validateForm(event: FormOutcomeEvent) {
        let outcome = event.outcome;

        // you can also get additional properties of outcomes
        // if you defined them within outcome definition

        if (outcome) {
            let form = outcome.form;
            if (form) {
                // check/update the form here
                event.preventDefault();
            }
        }
    }

}

There are two additional functions that can be of a great value when controlling outcomes:

• saveTaskForm() - saves current form
• completeTaskForm(outcome?: string) - save and complete form with a given outcome name

Please note that if event.preventDefault() is not called then default outcome behaviour will also be executed after your custom code.

Field Validators

You can supply a set of validator objects to the form using the fieldValidators property. Each validator implements checks for a particular type of data (eg, a date validator might check that the date in the field falls between 1980 and 2017). ADF supplies a standard set of validators that handle most common cases but you can also implement your own custom validators to replace or extend the set. See the FormFieldValidator class for full details and examples.

Other documentation

Common scenarios

Render form by using form definition JSON

Please give a look to the demo-form as a sample of form definition JSON.

The component below with the form definition JSON assigned to the variable formDefinitionJSON, shows how a form is rendered by using form definition JSON.

@Component({
    selector: 'sample-form',
    template: `<div class="form-container">
                    <adf-form
                        [form]="form">
                    </adf-form>
                </div>`
})
export class SampleFormComponent implements OnInit {

    form: FormModel;
    formDefinitionJSON: any;

    constructor(private formService: FormService) {
    }

    ngOnInit() {        
        this.form = this.formService.parseForm(this.formDefinitionJSON);
    }
}

Changing field value based on another field

Create a simple Form with a dropdown widget (id: type), and a multiline text (id: description).

formService.formFieldValueChanged.subscribe((e: FormFieldEvent) => {
    if (e.field.id === 'type') {
        const fields: FormFieldModel[] = e.form.getFormFields();
        const description = fields.find(f => f.id === 'description');
        if (description != null) {
            console.log(description);
            description.value = 'Type set to ' + e.field.value;
        }
    }
});

You subscribe to the formFieldValueChanged event and check whether event is raised for the type widget, then you search for a description widget and assign its value to some simple text.

The result should be as following:

Listen all form Events

If you want to listen all the events fired in the form you can subscribe to this Subject :

formService.formEvents.subscribe((event: Event) => {
  console.log('Event fired:' + event.type);
  console.log('Event Target:' + event.target);
});

Customize form outcomes (buttons) styles

If you want custtomize the outcoumes style of your form you can do it using plain css selectors. Any outcome has an Id that is composed in the following way:

  adf-form-YOUR_OUTCAME_NAME

Using the CSS you can target any outcome ID and change the style as in this example:

#adf-form-complete {
    background-color: blue !important;
    color: white;
}


#adf-form-save {
    background-color: green !important;
    color: white;
}

#adf-form-customoutcome {
    background-color: yellow !important;
    color: white;
}

See also

• FormFieldValidator
• Extensibility
• Form rendering service
• Form field model