castform

v0.1.2
Async form validation on the client and server.
form validate middleware

castform

castform

Form validation on the client and server.

usage

server.js using connect

Castform can work with the a server instance and can also be a middleware for connect, express, and flatiron. See the examples folder for working examples.

var castform = require('castform');

// server
var server = http.createServer();
castform(options, server);

// middleware
connect()
  .use(castform(options));

The options object given to castform will contain the schemas on how your forms are validated. See the example in example/options.js.

The top level must contain a forms object, which must contain a fields object with the names of the fields as they key and an object containing options for it.

The following are the available options:

{
  // An array of objects containing the validating functions for the field.
  // These will be executed in order until one of them fails validation or
  // they all pass. The object can have these keys.
  validate: [
    // Validation function, will be passed the value of the field.
    // This function should return true if the value passes validation.
    { fn: function checkLength(s) { return s.length < 15; }

    // Message to display when validation fails.
    // If function is async and a message is given to the `pass` function,
    // then it will overwrite this message.
      msg: 'Must be between 1 and 15 characters' },

    // Can also be a regular expression.
    { fn: /^[a-zA-Z0-9_]*$/
      msg: 'Must contain only the characters a-zA-Z0-9_' },

    // If this is an async function, then it should have another
    // parameter `done`, which is a function that should be called when
    // it's finished. The `done` function should be called with a
    // boolean true if the validation passed, and an optional message.
    //
    // If the function is async, it will assume that IO is needed to
    // know if validation passes. Therefore, on the client it will
    // make an AJAX call that will call the function on the
    // server with the value.
    { fn: function isAvailable(value, done) {
          db.collection.findOne(value, function(err, doc) {
            if (err) {
              done(false, err.message);
            } else if (!doc) {
              done(false);
            } else {
              done(true);
            }
          });
        }
      msg: 'That username is taken' },
  ],

  // Wether this field is required or not. If it is blank it will be considered undefined too.
  required: true,

  storage: {
    // If you want to save the value the user types in whenever it changes,
    // this will preserve it in case they navigate away from the page,
    // or reload.
    session: false,

    // Use along with `session`. If the page sets the value of a field,
    // but this is set to true, it will overwrite that value.
    force: false,

    // Set true to cache async validation checks from
    // the same fields with the same values.
    cache: false,
  },

  // Use along with `storage.cache`. Contains the cached value result pairs
  // for asynchronous validation.
  cache: {},

  // How much delay after field value changes until an async validation
  // function is called. This and the cache are designed to lower the
  // amount of requests made to the server via the async functions.
  delay: 500,

  // Sanitizes a field value.
  sanitize: function(value) { return parseInt(value, 10); }

  // Called when the page first loads and castform is told to validate
  // a form.
  load: function($field, options) {
  },

  // Called right before a field's value changes and will be validated.
  check: function($field, options) {
  },

  // When validation either fails or is successful.
  // `pageLoad` is true when this is first called when the page loads.
  // All form fields are validated once when the page loads.
  pass: function($field, options, pageLoad, success, validationOptions) {
  },

  // Called when the form is submitted. The following options can only be
  // used per form, not per field.
  submit: {
    // Only called if form values pass validation. They are checked both
    // client side and server side. The values will also be sanitized for
    // those that were given a `sanitize` function.
    //
    // `pass` function must eventually be called with `true` if
    // the submission with the values was successful. Or with `false` and
    // an error message if not successful.
    //
    // If you don't want the form to be submitted to the server and
    // validated, or you want to handle that yourself, set this to `false`.
    server: function(values, pass) {
      db.users.add(values, function(err) {
        pass(!err, err ? err.message : null);
      });
    },

    // When the form is submitted on the client, these will be called.
    client: {
      // This is called when a user submits a form client side.
      // It can be used to for example display a loading icon next to the
      // submit button. The submit button is also disabled by castform
      // when the form is submitted, and enabled when the `pass` function
      // is called with a failure.
      before: function($submit, options, values) {
      },

      // Can be used to further check something in the values.
      // If this function is given, then the `pass` function must eventually
      // be called with a boolean `success` and a `message` argument.
      //
      // If `submit.server` is set to `false`, then this can be used to
      // manually make a remote call.
      validate: function($submit, options, values, pass) {
      }

      // This is called either after client side `validation` function
      // finishes with an error, if it was provided. Or after the form
      // is submitted to the server and the `pass` function is called.
      pass: function($submit, options, values, success, message) {
      }
    }
  }
}

classes

The following classes are used to style forms.

  • castform-field - Added to all fields that will be validated by castform.
  • castform-success - Added to a field when it successfully passes validation.
  • castform-fail - Added to a field when it fails validation.
  • castform-submit - Added to the submit button when the form has been submitted.
  • castform-tooltip - Used on the tooltip that shows validation error messages on each field.

client side

On the client, you'll need to include the script that castform provides in /castform/castform.js.

<script src="/castform/castform.js"></script>

Castform should find your forms by looking at their id.

<form id="form-signup">
  <div>
    <label for="username">username</label>
    <input name="username" id="username" />
  </div>
  <div>
    <input type="submit" />
  </div>
<form>

Options can also be accessed and set on the client side with castform.options.

<script src="/castform/castform.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  castform.options.forms.signup.myNewField = {
    required: true,
    // etc
  };
</script>

install

$ npm install castform

tests

Tests are written with nodeunit.

$ npm test
npm i castform

Metadata

  • MIT
  • Whatever
  • PopTip
  • released 6/15/2013

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