Form component

Overview

The Form component is a collection of fields that can be grouped in tabs and fieldsets. It enables CRUD operations.

Form is a basic component.

Structure

Javascript constructor: form.js

The following components can be used in the scope of the Form component:

ActionDelete
Checkbox
Checkboxset
DataSource
FieldSet
FileUploader
Hidden
Input
Multiline
Multiselect
Radioset
Select
Text
Textarea
Wysiwyg

Component options

Form configuration extends the uiCollection configuration.

Form-specific configuration:

Option	Description	Type	Default
`ajaxSave`	Save Form values by AJAX.	Boolean	`false`
`ajaxSaveType`	There are two possible approaches to collect form data for ajaxSave: `default` - collects data using native FormData JavaScript class `simple` - collects data to simple key value pairs object	`default`\|`simple`	`default`
`component`	The path to the component’s JS constructor in terms of RequireJS.	String	`Magento_Ui/js/form/form`
`exports` `selectorPrefix` `messagesClass`	Used to notify some external entity about property changing. `exports` value is an object, composed of the following: `key`: name of the internal property or method which is tracked for changes. `value`: name of the property or method which receives the notification. Can use string templates. For more details see the Linking properties of UI components topic.	Object String String
`imports` `reloadUrl`	Used for tracking changes of an external entity property. `imports`’s value is an object, composed of the following: `key`: name of the internal property or method which receives the notifications. `value`: name of the property or method which is tracked for changes. Can use string templates. For more details see the Linking properties of UI components topic.	Object String	`'${ $.provider}:reloadUrl'`
`messagesClass`	The CSS class assigned to the `<div>` element, where the form elements validation error is rendered.	String	`'messages'`
`selectorPrefix`	The name that can be used to address the block to which this attribute is assigned. The name must be unique per generated page. If not specified, the name is assigned automatically in the following format: `ANONYMOUS_n`	String	`'.page-content'`
`template`	The path to the component’s `.html` template.	String	`'ui/form/field'`

Create an instance of the Form component

To create an instance of the Form component, you need to do the following:

In you custom module, add a configuration file for the instance, for example: customer_form.xml.
Add a set of fields (the Fieldset component with the component of the Field) for entity or to implement the upload of meta info in the DataProvider.
Create the DataProvider class for the entity that implements DataProviderInterface
- Add a component in Magento layout as a node: <uiComponent name="customer_form"/>

Example:

<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
    <body>
        <referenceContainer name="content">
            ...
            <uiComponent name="customer_form"/>
        </referenceContainer>
    </body>
</page>

Configure the Form component

Component could be configured in two ways:

globally: using any module’s view/ui_component/etc/definition.xml file. All settings declared in this file will be applied to all component’s instances
locally: using concrete component instance configuration, such as <your module root dir>/Magento/Customer/view/base/ui_component/customer_form

Create configuration file: <your module root dir>/Magento/Customer/view/base/ui_component/customer_form.xml

<form xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Ui:etc/ui_configuration.xsd">
    <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
        <item name="js_config" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="provider" xsi:type="string">customer_form.customer_form_data_source</item>
            </item>
            <item name="deps" xsi:type="string">customer_form.customer_form_data_source</item>
        </item>
        <item name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Customer Information</item>
        <item name="layout" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="type" xsi:type="string">tabs</item>
            <item name="navContainerName" xsi:type="string">left</item>
        </item>
...

Nodes are optional and contain parameters required for component:

js_config -> deps - sets the dependency on component initialization
js_config -> config -> provider - specifies the name of the component data
layout - configuration class meets the visualization component. Names for deps and provider are specified with a complete path from the root component with the separator “.”

Add a description of the fields in the form using components and Field Fieldset:

...
<fieldset name="customer">
   <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
       <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
           <item name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Account Information</item>
       </item>
   </argument>
   <field name="entity_id">
       <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
               <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
               <item name="visible" xsi:type="boolean">false</item>
               <item name="dataType" xsi:type="string">text</item>
               <item name="formElement" xsi:type="string">input</item>
               <item name="source" xsi:type="string">customer</item>
           </item>
        </argument>
    </field>
…

To group components you can use the component container as in example below:

<container name="container_group">
    <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
        <item name="type" xsi:type="string">group</item>
        <item name="js_config" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="component" xsi:type="string">Magento_Ui/js/form/components/group</item>
        </item>
        <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Group</item>
            <item name="required" xsi:type="boolean">true</item>
            <item name="dataScope" xsi:type="boolean">false</item>
            <item name="sortOrder" xsi:type="number">20</item>
        </item>
    </argument>
    <field name="group_id">
    ...
    </field>
    <field name="disable_auto_group_change">
    ...
    </field>
</container>

Creating DataSource

You need to configure component’s DataSource in order to provide data and meta information for your Form component.

DataSource aggregates an object of class implements the interface \Magento\Framework\View\Element\UiComponent\DataProvider\DataProviderInterface

An example of the configuration of the DataSource object:

<form xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Ui:etc/ui_configuration.xsd">
    <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
        ...
    </argument>
    <dataSource name="customer_form_data_source">
        <argument name="dataProvider" xsi:type="configurableObject">
            <argument name="class" xsi:type="string">Magento\Customer\Model\Customer\DataProvider</argument>
            <argument name="primaryFieldName" xsi:type="string">entity_id</argument>
            <argument name="requestFieldName" xsi:type="string">id</argument>
            <argument name="meta" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="customer" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
                        <item name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Account Information</item>
                    </item>
                </item>
                <item name="address" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="is_collection" xsi:type="boolean">true</item>
                    <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
                        <item name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Addresses</item>
                    </item>
                </item>
            </argument>
            <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="js_config" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="component" xsi:type="string">Magento_Ui/js/grid/provider</item>
                </item>
                <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="submit_url" xsi:type="string">customer/index/save</item>
                    <item name="validate_url" xsi:type="string">customer/index/validate</item>
                </item>
            </argument>
        </argument>
        <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="js_config" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="component" xsi:type="string">Magento_Ui/js/form/provider</item>
            </item>
        </argument>
    </dataSource>
</form>

Component configuration:

argument “dataProvider” - contains configuration, class name and arguments
js_config -> component - > JS indication of a responsible component

Data provided by data source is shared and available for all components in the Assembly (in this case for all child components of UI Form).

Data Source is another UI Component that provides data in specific format which is shared among all UI Components.

Replacing

Replacing principles are the same for all UI Components.

Global replacement

To replace all instances of a UI Form with a custom implementation redefine link to a constructor in definition.xml.

app/code/Magento/Ui/view/base/ui_component/etc/definition.xml

<form class="Magento\Ui\Component\Form">
    <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
        <item name="js_config" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="component" xsi:type="string">Magento_Ui/js/form/customFormConstructor</item>
        </item>
    </argument>
</form>

Instance Replacement

To replace one instance of a UI Form Component redefine link to a constructor in your module’s form configuration file:

app/code/Magento/Customer/view/base/ui_component/customer_form.xml

<form xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Ui/etc/ui_configuration.xsd">
    <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
        <item name="js_config" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="component" xsi:type="string">Magento_Customer/js/form/customFormConstructor</item>
        </item>
        </argument>
</form>

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