Form Components

A Form component collects user data and serves as the display or user interface within the system. Form components define the type of widget that users will enter their data and will automatically add a property to the resource endpoint to interact with the Form component.

Adding a Form Component

To add a form component to a form, drag and drop the component from the left column into the desired location within the form.

Each new form starts with a submit button automatically added to it. This can be removed or edited as necessary.

7 drag component

Editing a Form Component

To edit a form component on a form, hover over the component and click the gear icon. You will then be presented with a settings form for the component.

8 edit component

The settings for a form component are different for each component type.

General Settings

Below is a list of general settings that are offered for the majority of our components.

Label

The name or title for this component.

Hide Label

Hide the label of this component. This setting will display the label in the form builder, but hide the label when the form is rendered.

Label Position

Position for the label for this field.

Label Width

The width of label on line in percentages.

Label Margin

The width of label margin on line in percentages.

Placeholder

The placeholder text that will appear when this field is empty.

Description

The Description is text that will appear below the input field.

Tooltip

Adds a tooltip icon to the side of this field.

Error Label

The label that will display for the field when a validation error message is shown.

Input Mask

An input mask helps the user with input by ensuring a predefined format. For a phone number field, the input mask defaults to (999) 999-9999.

  • 9: numeric
  • a: alphabetical
  • *: alphanumeric

Allow Multiple masks

This setting will allow you to set multiple input masks for the field. The mask is selected by the user via a dropdown list and will dynamically switch the mask for the field when selected. This feature is only availabe on our formio.js renderer.

Prefix

The text to show before a field. An example is ‘$’ for money

Suffix

The text to show after a field. An example would be ‘lbs’ for weight.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Multiple Values

If checked, multiple values can be added in this field. The values will appear as an array in the API and an “Add Another” button will be visible on the field allowing the creation of additional fields for this component.

Enable Spell Check

This setting will enable spell check on the field.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties. You can still see the value on form.io by viewing the form submissions.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Encrypted

Encrypt this field on the server. This is two way encryption which is not be suitable for passwords. This setting is only available on the ‘Enterprise’ project plan.

Hidden

A hidden field is still a part of the form JSON, but is hidden when viewing the form is rendererd.

Initial Focus

Make this field the initially focused element on this form when renderered. Only one component on this form or wizard page can carry the Initial Focus setting.

Hide Input

Hide the input when viewing the form from the front end browser. This does not encrypt on the server. Do not use for passwords.

Disabled

Disable this field on the form.

Show Label in DataGrid

Show the label of this component when in a datagrid.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

Textfield

A textfield can be used for short and general text input. There are options to define input masks and validations, allowing users to mold information into desired formats.

Number

Number fields should be used whenever a field should be limited to a type of number value.

Use Delimeter

Check this setting if you would like the value in this component to separate thousands by local delimiter

Decimal Places

The maximum number of decimal places for the values in this field.

Require Decimals

Always show decimals for this field, even if trailing zeros.

Text Area

A Text Area has the same options as the textfield form component. The difference is that it will be a multi-line input field that allows for longer text. The Text Area can also be utilized as a CK Editor WYSIWYG for the end user which is configured within the component settings.

Rows

This allows control over how many rows are visible in the text area.

Enable WYSIWYG

This setting will turn the Text Area into a user interface WYSIWYG using the famous CK Editor.

WYSIWYG Settings

Here you can modify the code base of the wysiwyg to customize the UI specific to your needs.

Check Box

A check box is a boolean value input field. It will either be on or off.

18 checkbox

Label

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties and also should not appear in exported data. You won’t be able to see the value on form.io, but it will be stored in database under the hood.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

19 checkbox validation

Required

If checked, the field will be required to be checked. If it is required, you may not need to persist the value as it can be assumed to be checked when a form was submitted or it will not submit.

Select Boxes

The Check Boxes form component works like the Radio component, but allows the user to check multiple values.

20 select box

Label

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Values

These are the values that will be selected on this field. The Value column is what will be stored in the database and the Label is what is shown to the users.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Inline Layout

If checked, this field will layout the checkboxes horizontally instead of vertically.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties and also should not appear in exported data. You won’t be able to see the value on form.io, but it will be stored in database under the hood.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

21 select box vali

Required

If checked, the field will be required to have at least one box checked. If it is required, you may not need to persist the value as it can be assumed to be checked when a form was submitted or it will not submit.

Custom Validation

You can use javascript to perform validation on a field. The way to respond is by setting the valid variable. If it is set to true then the validation passes. If you set it to a string, the validation fails and the validation message is set to whatever the valid variable is set to.

In addition, input variable is set to the value that has been entered in the field. The component variable is set to the definition of the field.

You can also reference other resources and properties for validation. For example, if there is a user resource with a password field, you can use its value with user.password

Select

A select field will display a list of values in a drop down list to users. Users can select one of the values.

16 select

Label

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Placeholder

The placeholder text that will appear before an option is selected.

Data Source Type

Select the type of data the options will be pulled from.

Values

These are the values that will be selected on this field. The Value column is what will be stored in the database and the Label is what is shown to the users.

Raw Json

Enter a JSON Array to use. It should be formatted as an array of objects with named properties.

URL

Enter a url with a data source in JSON Array format. This can be used to populate a Select list with external JSON values. For example, suppose you wish to populate your select drop down with a list of all States within the U.S. You can use an external JSON array like the following.

https://cdn.rawgit.com/mshafrir/2646763/raw/states_titlecase.json

And place that within the URL of the select drop down Data Source URL. You will then need to provide the Value Property as well as change the Item Template so that it will pull the right value as well as display correctly within the dropdown. The following image shows how the configuration would look for this particular setup.

Select URL JSON Source

This will now turn your select dropdown into a list of available States within the US.

Value Property

If Raw JSON or URL is selected, enter the name of the property on the objects that will contain the value that will be stored in the database.

Search Query Name

If URL is selected, enter the name of the search query parameter to filter requests with. Example, if your url is http://api.dogs.com/dogs, and this option is set to type, and the user types nice in the select field, then this component will send a request to http://api.dogs.com/dogs?type=nice and update the select items with the results. If this option is omitted, no new requests will be made when user enters text in the select field.

Item Template

If Raw JSON or URL is selected, use the template field to determine how the values will be displayed in the select box. You can use the item variable to access the current object in the array. For example, you can embed the value by using {{ item.value }} in a template.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Required

If checked, the field will be required to have a value.

Radio

Radio form components should be used when presenting a list of options from which one should be chosen.

14 radio

Label

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Values

These are the values that will be selected on this field. The Value column is what will be stored in the database and the Label is what is shown to the users.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Inline Layout

If checked, this field will layout the radio buttons horizontally instead of vertically.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties and also should not appear in exported data. You won’t be able to see the value on form.io, but it will be stored in database under the hood.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

15 radio validation

Required

If checked, the field will be required to have a value.

Custom Validation

You can use javascript to perform validation on a field. The way to respond is by setting the valid variable. If it is set to true then the validation passes. If you set it to a string, the validation fails and the validation message is set to whatever the valid variable is set to.

In addition, input variable is set to the value that has been entered in the field. The component variable is set to the definition of the field.

You can also reference other resources and properties for validation. For example, if there is a user resource with a password field, you can use its value with user.password

HTML Element

An HTML Element component may be added to a form to display a single HTML element. This is useful if you wish to quickly insert and configure some HTML in your form. All unsafe HTML is stripped before rendering to prevent cross-site scripting exploits. This includes tags like <script>, <embed>, and <style>, and attributes like onmouseover or onload.

If you wish to insert more complicated HTML in your form, see the Content component

HTML Tag

The name of the HTML tag to display.

CSS Class

The CSS class to add to the HTML element. You may specify multiple classes by separating them with single spaces.

Attributes

Attributes and their values to add to the HTML element. This is commonly used to add href attributes to <a> tags, or src attributes to <img> tags.

Content

The text content of the HTML element. While adding more child HTML tags here will properly display them, it is recommended you use the Content component to easily write and preview more complex HTML.

Content

Content may be added to a form to provide non-field information. For example, if you need instructions at the top of a form that are for display only, use a Content component. There are no settings for a Content component and the value is not submitted back to the server.

A WYSIWYG editor has been provided to help with formatting the content. If you use the HTML view of the editor, note that all unsafe HTML is stripped before rendering to prevent cross-site scripting exploits. This includes tags like <script>, <embed>, and <style>, and attributes like onmouseover or onload.

Button

Buttons can be added to perform various actions within the form.

11 button

Label

This is the label or title that will appear on the button.

Action

This is the action that will be performed. Currently there are two actions that can be performed, submit and reset.

Submit

A submit action submits the form to either the form.io server or a custom callback url that has been priorly set up.

Reset

Reset the form fields back to their original state.

Theme

Set a theme (color) for the button. These options currently map to Bootstrap classes that will be added to the button.

Size

Set the size of the button. These options currently map to Bootstrap classes that will be added to the button.

Left Icon

If you have an icon library and would like to include an icon to the left of the button label, you can do so by adding the icon class here.

Right Icon

If you have an icon library and would like to include an icon to the right of the button label, you can do so by adding the icon class here.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Block

If checked, the display of the button will be set to “block” which will cause it to span the full width of the container.

Disable on Form Invalid

If checked, this button will be disabled if any of the client side validation fails. This is useful for preventing the submission of a form that has invalid data entered.

Email

The email component is nearly identical to the text field component. The Email component has a custom validation setting that, if set up correctly, can ensure the value entered is a valid email address. The email component can also more easily be integrate into a form’s email action. Use this component when you want an email address field for your form.

Phone Number

The phone number form component can be used to enter phone numbers in a form.

28 phone number

A textfield can be used for general text input that is shorter than a sentence. There are options to define input masks and validations so information can be molded into desired formats.

9 textfield edit settings

Label

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Placeholder

The placeholder text that will appear when this field is empty.

Input Mask

An input mask helps the user with input by ensuring a predefined format. For a phone number field, the input mask defaults to (999) 999-9999.

  • 9: numeric
  • a: alphabetical
  • *: alphanumeric

Example telephone mask: (999) 999-9999

See the jquery.inputmask documentation for more information.

Prefix

The text to show before a field. An example is ‘$’ for money

Suffix

The text to show after a field. An example would be ‘lbs’ for weight.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Multiple Values

If checked, multiple values can be added in this field. The values will appear as an array in the API and an “Add Another” button will be visible on the field.

Unique

If checked, this field will be enforced as unique for this form. Submissions will be checked to see if an existing value matches. This validation is currently server side only.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties and also should not appear in exported data. You won’t be able to see the value on form.io, but it will be stored in database under the hood.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

29 phone vali

Required

If checked, the field will be required to have a value.

Date/Time

Date/Time form components can be used to input dates, times or both dates and times.

22 date time

Label

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Default value

The default value for the date component. You can put new Date(); for the current date or use a few of Moment.js functions to set the date to a specific date. For example: moment().add(50, 'days').calendar(); You can use the add or subtract function to go forward or backwards in dates.

Placeholder

The placeholder text that will appear when this field is empty.

Date Format

The format for displaying this field’s date. The format must be specified like the AngularJS date filter.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties and also should not appear in exported data. You won’t be able to see the value on form.io, but it will be stored in database under the hood.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

23 date

Enable Date Input

If this is checked, dates can be entered for this field.

Initial Mode

When the date picker appears, this sets the initial view of the picker.

Minimum Date

A value of the date that this field’s value must be after.

Maximum Date

A value of the date that this field’s value must be before.

Starting Day

On the calendar, select the day of the week that should start the week. In Europe this is typically Monday and in the US this is typically Sunday.

Minimum Mode

Limit the datepicker modes to a minimum of this value.

Maximum Mode

Limit the datepicker modes to a maximum of this value.

Maximum Years Displayed

The maximum number of years to display in the datepicker.

Show Week Numbers

If this is checked, when in Day mode, the datepicker will display the week number on the left hand side of the datepicker.

24 time

Enable Time Input

Allow entering a time as part of this field.

Hour Step Size

The number of hours to increment/decrement in the time picker.

Minute Step Size

The number of minutes to increment/decrement in the time picker.

12 Hour Time (AM/PM)

If checked, time will be displayed in 12 hour (am/pm) time. If not checked, it will appear in 24 hour time.

Read Only Input

If checked, users cannot directly enter a time. They can only use the increment/decrement controls to change the time. If unchecked, users can directly enter time values.

26 date time vali

Required

If checked, the field will be required to have a value.

Custom Validation

You can use javascript to perform validation on a field. The way to respond is by setting the valid variable. If it is set to true then the validation passes. If you set it to a string, the validation fails and the validation message is set to whatever the valid variable is set to.

In addition, input variable is set to the value that has been entered in the field. The component variable is set to the definition of the field.

You can also reference other resources and properties for validation. For example, if there is a user resource with a password field, you can use its value with user.password

Currency

The Currency component should be used when a field should display currency amounts on a form. This component holds a numeric input mask that allows two decimal values and automatically adds commas as a user inputs a currency amount.

currency

Label

The name or title for this component.

Placeholder

The placeholder text that will appear when this field is empty.

Prefix

The text to show before a field. An example is ‘$’ for money

Suffix

The text to show after a field. An example would be ‘lbs’ for weight.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Multiple Values

If checked, multiple values can be added in this field. The values will appear as an array in the API and an “Add Another” button will be visible on the field allowing the creation of additional fields for this component.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

Signature

A signature field is a special field that allows someone to sign the field with either their finger on a touch enabled device or with the mouse pointer. This signature will be converted into an image and stored with the form submission.

31 signature

You can enter a short instruction here.

Width

How wide the signature area should be. This can be in pixels or percents.

Height

How high the signature area should be. This can be in pixels or percents.

Background Color

The Background color of the signature area. This can be an RGB value in RGB(255,255,255) format, a hex value like #000000 or the name of a color.

Pen Color

The pen color in the signature area. This can be an RGB value in RGB(255,255,255) format, a hex value like #000000 or the name of a color.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

Survey

The Survey component works similar to the radio. Instead of one question, users are able to select a value for multiple questions which are configured within the component settings. Survey is a great component to utilize when asking multiple questions with the same context of answers or values.

Label

The label for this component that will appear next to it.

Questions

The questions you would like to ask within the survey.

Values

The values that can be selected per question. Example: ‘Satisfied’, ‘Very Satisfied’, etc.

Custom CSS Class

A custom CSS class to add to this component. You may add multiple class names separated by a space.

Tab Index

Sets the tabindex attribute of this component to override the tab order of the form. See the MDN documentation on tabindex for more information on how it works.

Protected

If checked, this field is for input only. When being queried by the API it will not appear in the properties and also should not appear in exported data. You won’t be able to see the value on form.io, but it will be stored in database under the hood.

Persistent

If checked, the field will be stored in the database. If you want a field to not save, uncheck this box. This is useful for fields like password validation that shouldn’t save.

Table View

If checked, this value will show up in the table view of the submissions list.

Required

If checked, the field will be required to have every question answered. If it is required, you may not need to persist the value as it can be assumed to be checked when a form was submitted or it will not submit.

Custom Validation

You can use javascript to perform validation on a field. The way to respond is by setting the valid variable. If it is set to true then the validation passes. If you set it to a string, the validation fails and the validation message is set to whatever the valid variable is set to. In addition, input variable is set to the value that has been entered in the field. The component variable is set to the definition of the field.

Nested Form

Nested Form component allows you to insert one (child) Resource/Form with all its fields into another (parent) Resource/Form.

For example, if you have Song resource (parent) and Artist resource (child) and you want to create both Song and Artist submissions by submitting one form, you may use Nested Form component for this case.

Name

The label for this field that will appear next to it.

Hide Label

Check if you want to hide the label when your parent form is rendered

Label Position

Choose where to render the label relatively to the Nested Form component itself

Form

Select a child Form/Resource that you’d like to nest into parent form

Custom CSS Class

CSS class / classes (space separated) that will be added to component’s element

Save as reference

Check if you’d like to save only _id of child form submission instead of storing all child submission object inside of parent submission. This will also help all changes you’ve made in child submission be reflected in parent submission. If not checked, whole child submission object will be saved, and no any child submission changes would be reflected in parent submission.

Nested Forms for remotely deployed project

If your project is remotely deployed with subdirectories, then you need in your app call

 Formio.setProjectUrl(<project_URL>). 

This will help Formio understand where to fetch nested resources from and will set up base URLs properly.

Component Data

The Component ‘Data’ settings will allow you to configure the way your data is saved, rendered, or calculated on your field.

Default Value

Default value will be the value for this field, before user interaction. Having a default value will override the placeholder text.

Input Format

Input Format setting protects from cross-site scripting attacks. Input types default to ‘Plain’, but ‘HTML’ as well as ‘Raw’ can be selected.

Database Index

Set this field as an index within the database which can increase performance for submission queries. Note - this setting is only available on the Enterprise plan and must have a Submission Collection set in order to activate.

Custom Default Value

Write JavaScript or JSON to customize the value the field will be defaulted to.

Calculated Values

Caclulated values allow calculating values based on the values in other fields of the form. Calculated values uses plain javascript and can return any value to the field. There are two variables available to calculate off of, data and row. data is the full data in the form. You can access values within it by using the field keys. For example data.myfieldkey. If you field is within a datagrid, there is an additional variable available of row which contains the values for that row of the datagrid. You can access the values the same as with data as row.myfieldkey. The values are also in data.mydatagrid[0].myfieldkey and data.mydatagrid[1].myfieldkey plus each additional row as the index.

Also you have access to special util variable - library of useful functions. More information about util library could be find here.

Return the calculated value in the value variable and it will be set. Each time the form values change it will be recalculated. You do NOT need to watch form fields as you do for other custom logic in your form. It will automatically update.

It is very common to disable the field using calculated values.

Calculate on Server

Perform the custom calculations on the server as well as the frontend.

Component API

Property Name

Form components directly translate to a resource property on the API that is generated for the form. By default a property name is generated by camel casing the field title. You can change the property name by going to the API tab in the form component settings.

Field Tags

Tag the field for use in custom logic or within your application.

Custom Properties

This allows you to configure any custom properties for this component by setting a ‘Key’ and ‘Value’ the property.

Component Layout Settings

In addition to Layout Components, which are detailed in the next section of this guide, you can marginally change the arrangement of the components on your Form within the Layout settings. Each component allows for marginal layout changes from top, bottom, left, and right.

To change the layout, simply input a margin amount in the Top, Right, Bottom, or Left field. Components will be arranged accordingly depending on what margin field you input to. Set margins must be a valid CSS measurement input like “10px” in order to render properly.

layout

Conditional Components

The conditional component requires an API key to be configured to function correctly.


Any form component can use conditional logic to determine when to hide or display itself. The settings for a conditional field, are configured on the component itself, and can be found by viewing the Conditional tab within the components settings.

The conditional logic is based on the following rules:

  • Each field can hide or display.
  • The visibility is dependent on another component defined within the form.
  • The logic is activated when the configured field contains the plaintext value defined in the settings.

In addition to Simple Conditional logic, you can also use Advanced Conditional logic, which uses actual JavaScript for any combination of conditions.

JavaScript conditional logic requires you to set the value of show to either true or false. You have access to the current value of any form component via the data object, and the components API key. Advanced Conditional logic will only work, if Simple Conditional logic isn’t already defined.

When using Advanced Conditional logic with the select boxes form component, you must use the following syntax to get the value of the select box, which will always be true or false, depending on if it is checked or not: data.selectbox_component.selectbox_value


Calculated Value

Caclulated values allow calculating values based on the values in other fields of the form. Calculated values uses plain javascript and can return any value to the field. There are two variables available to calculate off of, data and row. data is the full data in the form. You can access values within it by using the field keys. For example data.myfieldkey. If you field is within a datagrid, there is an additional variable available of row which contains the values for that row of the datagrid. You can access the values the same as with data as row.myfieldkey. The values are also in data.mydatagrid[0].myfieldkey and data.mydatagrid[1].myfieldkey plus each additional row as the index.

Also you have access to special util variable - library of useful functions. More information about util library could be find here.

Return the calculated value in the value variable and it will be set. Each time the form values change it will be recalculated. You do NOT need to watch form fields as you do for other custom logic in your form. It will automatically update.

It is very common to disable the field using calculated values.