Component

UI component for a field to use, such as DatePicker, Text, Number and and custom component. Component can be editable (like Checkboxes) or readonly (like Label). Each UI library can define a set of properties api which it will take data from the current form instance and inject it to its Field's components (properties like the component value, if its disabled, required and more). For example, @cofi/react-components API is defined in here.

Field Component

To define field component - a component definition is required in the model object, and implementation is required in resources object.

Model

model.fields.someField.component - object. Contains:

NameTypeDescription
namerequired stringRepresents a key in resources.components object where actual UI components are defined
valueanyRepresent the current formatted (if formatter exists) view value of the component. Auto generate by the Form lifecycle
stateobjectReflects the current component state data.

Resources

resources.components - object. Required only if model.fields.someField.component defined in at least one of the fields. Key is the component name and value is an object which contains:

NameTypeDescription
rendereranyActual UI component
stateChangefunctionTriggers when state changes. Manage state changes outside of the ui component when using stateless component. More info

Example

import InputText from '../my-components/InputText';
import Checkboxes from '../my-components/Checkboxes';

const model = {
  fields: {
    firstName: {
      // ...
      component: { 
        name: 'InputText',
        state: {
          placeholder: 'Enter name',
        },
      }
    },
    hobbies: {
      // ...
      component: { 
        name: 'SelectItems',
        state: {
          searchFilter: '',
          pageItems: [],
        },
      }
    }
  },
};

const resources = {
  components : { 
    InputText: {
      renderer: InputText, 
    },
    SelectItems: {
      renderer: Checkboxes,
      stateChange: () => {
        // do something and return new state
      },
    },
  },
};

Components can be one of: stateful or stateless.

Shorthand

Definition shorthand for component can be found in definition shorthand documentation.

Stateful Component

Stateful components save and manage their internal data inside them in a private location. When using stateful components the state definition object can be ignored or can be used only as the initial props of the component. Stateful components only notify Cofi about value change, but not about state change (for example when search filter changes).

stateful-component

Example

employeeOfTheMonth field uses statelful component EntitySelect which manage its internal state internally such as keeping current state (like search filter) and fetching data fom the server. It uses the component.state only as its initial props data:

import EntitySelect from './components/EntitySelect';

const model = {
  fields: {
    // ...
    employeeOfTheMonth: {
      // ...
      component: {
       name: 'EntitySelect',
        state: {
          entityType: 'EMPLOYEE', 
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

const resource = {
  components: {
    EntitySelect: { 
      renderer: EntitySelect,
    },
  },
}

Stateless component

Stateless components don't save / manage data internally. Their data is stored outside the component (in component.state). They suppose to be 'presentational' components - only render the data they get as props. They notify Cofi about both value and state change. When a state is changed in the component (for example user changed search items filter):

  • UI Component (like Checkboxes) notifies UI Field Component about the change using onStateChange callback.
  • UI Field Component notifies Form component.
  • UI Form component (which uses internally Form class instance) calls - form.changeState(fieldId, newState) action.
  • Form instance updates state object.
  • stateChange handler (which is responsible to manage changes for the state outside the component) Is triggered if exists (for example it can fetch new search items form the server) and return new state object (which triggers the stateChange handler to be called again - recursive loop until return no changes).

Each state update - component re-renders with the new state. The major con to use this approach is the ability to have a full form persistency (for example save the form model on a local storage after each form change, and when page refreshes - use the last saved form model from the local-storage to init the form again. This will render the ui at the exact place the user has it left it).

stateless-component

Note: In your project, if a custom cofi component needs a non-strigify data, you can:

  • Define a resourceId in the component state (i.e someField.component.state.resourceId = 'myExtraData').
  • Define the resource under the resources object (i.e resources.myExtraData = () => {})
  • Consume Cofi's context in the component, and get the resource from context.resources[props.state.resourceId]

Example

  1. Email field uses stateless component TextInput with no stateChange.
import TextInput from './components/TextInput';

const model = {
  fields: {
    // ...
    email: {
      // ...
      component: {
       name: 'TextInput',
        state: { 
          placeholder: 'Enter Email', 
        },
      },
    },
  }
};

const resources = {
  components: {
    TextInput: { renderer: TextInput },
  },
}
  1. Users field uses stateless component Checkboxes which renders all the items as checkbox elements and a search input above, with an initial state. Component Checkboxes notifies Cofi when a search filter changes which triggers stateChange handler to get new items and update the component state:
import Checkboxes from '../myComponents/Checkboxes';

const model = {
  // ...
  fields: {
    users: {
      // ...
      component: {
        name: 'Checkboxes',
        state: { // initial state data that will be updated during lifecycle
          filter: '', 
          items: [], 
          isLoading: false
        },
      }
    }
  },
};

const resources = {
  components: {
    Checkboxes: { 
      renderer: Checkboxes,
      stateChange: (props) => {
        // do some calculations and return new state
      },
    },
  },
};

State Change

resources.components.someComponent.stateChange - function.

function ({ 
  id, 
  value, // data value
  dependencies, // { id: { value (data value) } } 
  componentValue, // view value
  state, 
  prevValue, 
  prevDependencies, // { id: { value (data value) } }
  prevComponentValue, // view value
  prevState,
  context,
})

Return value is one of:

  • new state object - which is set to component.state. In this case stateChange function is called again (recursive).
  • undefined - Lets the form know there are no more state changes needed. In that case stateChange function will not be called again.

Note: stateChange can create recursive set states, so make sure to define a case that returns undefined result.

Define a state change handler when developing a stateless component (meaning keeping all the component's data outside of the component in the model.fields.someField.component.state object instead of inside the ui component itself), and want to update the state object again after the component called changeState and changed the component.state object. Manage the changes of the component outside the component - in cofi's handler is useful in terms that its not binded to any ui library implementation (such as react or angular). The same logic can be reused with different ui components libraries.

Function is called after field state or value changes (i.e form.changeValue or form.changeState actions are called) and returns state changes with updated data. Function can be sync / async (which resolves to the return value).

Example

consider users field which uses Checkboxes component, which shows items according to data from the server (according to a filter), by defining a stateChange function that creates the calls to the server to get items, and propagates it to the component.state object - each time component.state.filter changes.

import Checkboxes from '../myComponents/Checkboxes';
import UserService from '../services/UserService';

const model = {
  // ...
  fields: {
    users: {
      // ...
      component: {
        name: 'Checkboxes',
        state: { // initial state data that will be updated during lifecycle
          filter: '', 
          items: [], 
          isLoading: false
        },
      }
    }
  },
};

const resources = {
  components: {
    Checkboxes: { 
      renderer: Checkboxes,
      stateChange: async ({ state, prevState }) => {
        // if prevState not defined or filter changed
        // return item = [], and isLoading = true
        // to notify component to show loading wheel
        if (!prevState || prevState.filter !== state.filter) {
          return { ...state, items: [], isLoading: true };
        }

        // else if isLoading changed from falsy to true - do search and return 
        // new items + isLoading = false
        // to notify component to hide loading wheel and show page items
        if (state.isLoading) {
          const users = await UserService.search(state.filter);
          const items = allServerItems.map(user => ({ label: user.name, value: user.id }));
          return { ...state, items, isLoading: false };
        }

        // no more changes needed
        return undefined;
      },
    },
  },
};

Lets see the what happens when a user changes the search filter of the checkboxes items:

  • Component notify the Field about the change using onStateChange callback, with the new state that includes the new search filter.
  • Field component notifies Form component which calls form.changeState action with the new state.
  • New state is saved to component.state (at this point component re-renders with the new state).
  • state changed so stateChange handler searchAsyncItems is called.
  • searchAsyncItems - identifies that filter has changed from the last state object, and change the state to { items: [], isLoading: true }
  • New state is saved to component.state (at this point component re-renders with the new state, and show loading wheel).
  • state changed so stateChange handler searchAsyncItems is called.
  • searchAsyncItems - identifies that loading has begun and calls the server to fetch new items. Return promise.
  • Promise resolves to the new state { items, isLoading: false }.
  • New state is saved to component.state (at this point component re-renders with the new state, showing new items and hiding loading wheel).
  • state changed so stateChange handler searchAsyncItems is called.
  • searchAsyncItems - identifies no more changed needed - and return undefined to stop the loop.
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