Type-safe <form> for React using Zod !
Features / opinions
💎
Type-safe
Get form data as a typed object
Typo-safe name and id attribute generation
🤯
Simple nested object and array fields
✅
Validation on the client and the server
Via FormData (Remix !
💜
) and JSON
👍
Tiny: Less than 3kb (minified & gzipped, not including Zod)
🛑
No controlled inputs required
🚀
As performant as React form libraries can get!
You can still use your own controlled inputs if needed
🛑
No components, just a React hook
🛑
No internal form state
The form is validated directly from the <form> DOM element
If you enjoy this lib a Twitter shout-out @esamatti is always welcome!
😊
Install
ExampleAlso on Codesandbox!
import { z } from "zod" ;
import { useZorm } from "react-zorm" ;
const FormSchema = z . object ( {
name : z . string ( ) . min ( 1 ) ,
age : z
. string ( )
. regex ( / ^ [ 0-9] + $ / )
. transform ( Number ) ,
} ) ;
function Signup ( ) {
const zo = useZorm ( "signup" , FormSchema , {
onValidSubmit ( e ) {
e . preventDefault ( ) ;
alert ( "Form ok!\n" + JSON . stringify ( e . data , null , 2 ) ) ;
} ,
} ) ;
const disabled = zo . validation ?. success === false ;
return (
< form ref = { zo . ref } >
Name:
< input
type = "text"
name = { zo . fields . name ( ) }
className = { zo . errors . name ( "errored" ) }
/ >
{ zo . errors . name ( ( e ) => (
< ErrorMessage message = { e . message } / >
) ) }
Age
< input
type = "text"
name = { zo . fields . age ( ) }
className = { zo . errors . age ( "errored" ) }
/ >
{ zo . errors . age ( ( e ) => (
< ErrorMessage message = "Age must a number" / >
) ) }
< button disabled = { disabled } type = "submit" >
Signup!
< / button >
< pre > Validation status: { JSON . stringify ( zo . validation , null , 2 ) } < / pre >
< / form >
) ;
}
Also checkout this classic TODOs example demonstrating almost every feature in the library and if you are in to Remix checkout this server-side validation example .
Nested data
ObjectsCreate a Zod type with a nested object
const FormSchema = z . object ( {
user : z . object ( {
email : z . string ( ) . min ( 1 ) ,
password : z . string ( ) . min ( 8 ) ,
} ) ,
} ) ;
and just create the input names with .user.:
< input type = "text" name = { zo . fields . user . email ( ) } / > ;
< input type = "password" name = { zo . fields . user . password ( ) } / > ;
ArraysArray of user objects for example:
const FormSchema = z . object ( {
users : z . array (
z . object ( {
email : z . string ( ) . min ( 1 ) ,
password : z . string ( ) . min ( 8 ) ,
} ) ,
) ,
} ) ;
and put the array index to users(index):
users . map ( ( user , index ) => {
return (
< >
< input type = "text" name = { zo . fields . users ( index ) . email ( ) } / >
< input type = "password" name = { zo . fields . users ( index ) . password ( ) } / >
< / >
) ;
} ) ;
And all this is type checked
👌
See the TODOs example for more details
Server-side validationThis is Remix but React Zorm does not actually use any Remix APIs so this method can be adapted for any JavaScript based server.
import { parseForm } from "react-zorm" ;
export let action : ActionFunction = async ( { request } ) => {
const form = await request . formData ( ) ;
// Get parsed and typed form object. This throws on validation errors.
const data = parseForm ( FormSchema , form ) ;
} ;
Server-side field errorsThe useZorm() hook can take in any additional ZodIssues via the customIssues option:
const zo = useZorm ( "signup" , FormSchema , {
customIssues : [
{
code : "custom" ,
path : [ "username" ] ,
message : "The username is already in use" ,
} ,
] ,
} ) ;
These issues can be generated anywhere. Most commonly on the server. The error chain will render these issues on the matching paths just like the errors coming from the schema.
To make their generation type-safe react-zorm exports createCustomIssues() chain to make it easy:
const issues = createCustomIssues ( FormSchema ) ;
issues . username ( "Username already in use" ) ;
const zo = useZorm ( "signup" , FormSchema , {
customIssues : issues . toArray ( ) ,
} ) ;
This code is very contrived but take a look at these examples:
The ChainsThe chains are a way to access the form validation state in a type safe way. The invocation via () returns the chain value. On the fields chain the value is the name input attribute and the errors chain it is the possible ZodIssue object for the field.
There few other option for invoking the chain:
fields invocationReturn values for different invocation types
("name"): string - The name attribute value("id"): string - Unique id attribute value to be used with labels and aria-describedby(): string - The default, same as "name"(index: number): FieldChain - Special case for setting array indices
errors invocation
(): ZodIssue | undefined - Possible ZodIssue object(value: T): T | undefined - Return the passed value on error. Useful for setting class names for example(value: typeof Boolean): boolean - Return true when there's an error and false when it is ok. Example .field(Boolean).<T>(render: (issue: ZodIssue) => T): T | undefined - Invoke the passed function with the ZodIssue and return its return value. When there's no error a undefined is returned. Useful for rendering error message components(index: number): ErrorChain - Special case for accessing array elements
Using input values during renderingThe first tool you should reach is React. Just make the input controlled with useState(). This works just fine with checkboxes, radio buttons and even with text inputs when the form is small. React Zorm is not really interested how the inputs get on the form. It just reads the value attributes using the platform form APIs (FormData).
But if you have a larger form where you need to read the input value and you find it too heavy to read it with just useState() you can use useValue() from Zorm.
import { useValue } from "react-zorm" ;
function Form ( ) {
const zo = useZorm ( "form" , FormSchema ) ;
const value = useValue ( { form : zo . ref , name : zo . fields . input ( ) } ) ;
return < form ref = { zo . ref } > ...< / form > ;
}
useValue() works by subscribing to the input DOM events and syncing the value to a local state. But this does not fix the performance issue yet. You need to move the useValue() call to a subcomponent to avoid rendering the whole form on every input change. See the Zorm type docs on how to do this.
Alternatively you can use the <Value> wrapper which allows access to the input value via render prop:
import { Value } from "react-zorm" ;
function Form ( ) {
const zo = useZorm ( "form" , FormSchema ) ;
return (
< form ref = { zo . ref } >
< input type = "text" name = { zo . fields . input ( ) } / >
< Value form = { zo . ref } name = { zo . fields . input ( ) } >
{ ( value ) => < span > Input value : { value } < / span>} < / Value> < / form >
) ;
}
This way only the inner <span> element renders on the input changes.
Here's a codesandox demonstrating these and vizualizing the renders.
FAQ
When Zorm validates?When the form submits and on input blurs after the first submit attempt.
If you want total control over this, pass in setupListeners: false and call validate() manually when you need. Note that now you need to manually prevent submitting when the form is invalid.
function Signup ( ) {
const zo = useZorm ( "signup" , FormSchema , { setupListeners : false } ) ;
return (
< form
ref = { zo . ref }
onSubmit = { ( e ) => {
const validation = zo . validate ( ) ;
if ( ! validation . success ) {
e . preventDefault ( ) ;
}
} }
>
...
< / form >
) ;
}
How to handle 3rdparty components?That do not create <input> elements?
Since Zorm just works with the native <form> you must sync their state to <input type="hidden"> elements in order for them to become actually part of the form.
Here's a Codesandbox example with react-select.
How to validate dependent fields like password confirm?See https://twitter.com/esamatti/status/1488553690613039108
How to use checkboxes?Checkboxes can result to simple booleans or arrays of selected values. These custom Zod types can help with them. See this usage example .
const booleanCheckbox = ( ) =>
z
. string ( )
// Unchecked checkbox is just missing so it must be optional
. optional ( )
// Transform the value to boolean
. transform ( Boolean ) ;
const arrayCheckbox = ( ) =>
z
. array ( z . string ( ) . nullish ( ) )
. nullish ( )
// Remove all nulls to ensure string[]
. transform ( ( a ) => ( a ?? [ ] ) . flatMap ( ( item ) => ( item ? item : [ ] ) ) ) ;
How to do server-side validation without Remix?If your server does not support parsing form data to the standard FormData you can post the form as JSON and just use .parse() from the Zod schema. See the next section for JSON posting.
How to submit the form as JSON?Prevent the default submission in onValidSubmit() and use fetch():
const zo = useZorm ( "todos" , FormSchema , {
onValidSubmit : async ( event ) => {
event . preventDefault ( ) ;
await fetch ( "/api/form-handler" , {
method : "POST" ,
headers : {
"Content-Type" : "application/json" ,
} ,
body : JSON . stringify ( event . data ) ,
} ) ;
} ,
} ) ;
If you need loading states React Query mutations can be cool:
import { useMutation } from "react-query" ;
// ...
const formPost = useMutation ( ( data ) => {
return fetch ( "/api/form-handler" , {
headers : {
"Content-Type" : "application/json" ,
} ,
body : JSON . stringify ( data ) ,
} ) ;
} ) ;
const zo = useZorm ( "todos" , FormSchema , {
onValidSubmit : async ( event ) => {
event . preventDefault ( ) ;
formPost . mutate ( event . data ) ;
} ,
} ) ;
return formPost . isLoading ? "Sending..." : null ;
APITools available for importing from "react-zorm"
useZorm(formName: string, schema: ZodObject, options?: UseZormOptions): ZormCreate a form Validator
param formName: stringThe form name. This used for the input id generation so it should be unique string within your forms.
param schema: ZodObjectZod schema to parse the form with.
param options?: UseZormOptions
onValidSubmit(event: ValidSubmitEvent): any: Called when the form is submitted with valid data
ValidSubmitEvent#data: The Zod parsed form dataValidSubmitEvent#target: The form HTML ElementValidSubmitEvent#preventDefault(): Prevent the default form submission setupListeners: boolean: Do not setup any listeners. Ie. onValidSubmit won't be called nor the submission is automatically prevented. This gives total control when to validate the form. Set your own onSubmit on the form etc. Defaults to true.customIssues: ZodIssue[]: Any additional ZodIssue to be rendered within the error chain. This is commonly used to handle server-side field validation
return Zorm
ref: HTMLFormElement ref for the <form> elementvalidation: SafeParseReturnType | null: The current Zod validation status returned by safeParse()validate(): SafeParseReturnType: Manually invoke validationfields: FieldChain: The fields chainerrors: ErroChain: The error chain
Zorm TypeThe type of the object returned by useZorm(). This type object can be used to type component props if you want to split the form to multiple components and pass the zorm object around.
import type { Zorm } from "react-zorm" ;
function MyForm ( ) {
const zo = useZorm ( "signup" , FormSchema ) ;
return (
// ...
< SubComponent zorm = { zo} / >
//..
) ;
}
function SubComponent ( props : { zorm : Zorm < typeof FormSchema > } ) {
// ...
}
useValue(subscription: ValueSubscription): stringGet live raw value from the input.
ValueSubscription
form: RefObject<HTMLFormElement>: The form ref from zo.refinitialValue: string: Initial value on the first and ssr rendertransform(value: string): any: Transform the value before setting it to the internal state. The type can be also changed.
Value: React.ComponentRender prop version of the useValue() hook. The props are ValueSubscription. The render prop child is (value: string) => ReactNode.
< Value form = { zo . ref } name = { zo . fields . input ( ) } >
{ ( value ) => < > value< / > }
< / Value >
parseForm(form: HTMLFormElement | FormData, schema: ZodObject): Type<ZodObject>Parse HTMLFormElement or FormData with the given Zod schema.
safeParseForm(form, schema): SafeParseReturnTypeLike parseForm() but uses the safeParse()
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