`<LongForm>`

This Enterprise Edition component offers an alternative form layout, to be used as child of <Create> or <Edit>. Expects <LongForm.Section> elements as children.

Test it live on the Enterprise Edition Storybook.

This component will come in handy if you need to create a long form, with many input fields divided into several sections. It makes navigation easier, by providing a TOC (Table Of Contents) and by keeping the toolbar fixed at the bottom position.

Usage

Use <LongForm> as a child of <Create> or <Edit>. It should have <LongForm.Section> children, which contain inputs.

import {
    ArrayInput,
    BooleanInput,
    DateInput,
    Edit,
    required,
    SelectInput,
    SimpleFormIterator,
    TextField,
    TextInput,
    Labeled,
} from 'react-admin';
import { LongForm } from '@react-admin/ra-form-layout';

const sexChoices = [
    { id: 'male', name: 'Male' },
    { id: 'female', name: 'Female' },
];

const languageChoices = [
    { id: 'en', name: 'English' },
    { id: 'fr', name: 'French' },
];

const CustomerEdit = () => (
    <Edit component="div">
        <LongForm>
            <LongForm.Section label="Identity">
                <Labeled label="id">
                    <TextField source="id" />
                </Labeled>
                <TextInput source="first_name" validate={required()} />
                <TextInput source="last_name" validate={required()} />
                <DateInput source="dob" label="born" validate={required()} />
                <SelectInput source="sex" choices={sexChoices} />
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section label="Occupations">
                <ArrayInput source="occupations" label="">
                    <SimpleFormIterator>
                        <TextInput source="name" validate={required()} />
                        <DateInput source="from" validate={required()} />
                        <DateInput source="to" />
                    </SimpleFormIterator>
                </ArrayInput>
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section label="Preferences">
                <SelectInput
                    source="language"
                    choices={languageChoices}
                    defaultValue="en"
                />
                <BooleanInput source="dark_theme" />
                <BooleanInput source="accepts_emails_from_partners" />
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
    </Edit>
);

Props

Here are all the props you can set on the <LongForm> component:

Prop	Required	Type	Default	Description
`children`	Required	`ReactNode`	-	A list of `<LongForm.Section>` elements.
`defaultValues`	Optional	`object\|function`	-	The default values of the record.
`id`	Optional	`string`	-	The id of the underlying `<form>` tag.
`noValidate`	Optional	`boolean`	-	Set to `true` to disable the browser’s default validation.
`onSubmit`	Optional	`function`	`save`	A callback to call when the form is submitted.
`sanitizeEmptyValues`	Optional	`boolean`	-	Set to `true` to remove empty values from the form state.
`sx`	Optional	`object`	-	An object containing the Material UI style overrides to apply to the root component
`toolbar`	Optional	`ReactElement`	-	A custom toolbar element.
`validate`	Optional	`function`	-	A function to validate the form values.
`warnWhenUnsavedChanges`	Optional	`boolean`	-	Set to `true` to warn the user when leaving the form with unsaved changes.

Additional props are passed to react-hook-form’s useForm hook.

`children`

The children of <LongForm> must be <LongForm.Section> elements.

const CustomerEdit = () => (
    <Edit component="div">
        <LongForm>
            <LongForm.Section label="Identity">
                ...
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section label="Occupations">
                ...
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section label="Preferences">
                ...
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
    </Edit>
);

`defaultValues`

The value of the form defaultValues prop is an object, or a function returning an object, specifying default values for the created record. For instance:

const postDefaultValue = () => ({ id: uuid(), created_at: new Date(), nb_views: 0 });

export const PostCreate = () => (
    <Create>
        <LongForm defaultValues={postDefaultValue}>
            <LongForm.Section label="Summary">
                <TextInput source="title" />
                <RichTextInput source="body" />
                <NumberInput source="nb_views" />
                <SaveButton />
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
    </Create>
);

Tip: You can include properties in the form defaultValues that are not listed as input components, like the created_at property in the previous example.

Tip: React-admin also allows to define default values at the input level. See the Setting default Values section.

`id`

Normally, a submit button only works when placed inside a <form> tag. However, you can place a submit button outside the form if the submit button form matches the form id.

Set this form id via the id prop.

export const PostCreate = () => (
    <Create>
        <LongForm id="post_create_form">
            <LongForm.Section label="summary">
                <TextInput source="title" />
                <RichTextInput source="body" />
                <NumberInput source="nb_views" />
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
        <SaveButton form="post_create_form" />
    </Create>
);

`noValidate`

The <form novalidate> attribute prevents the browser from validating the form. This is useful if you don’t want to use the browser’s default validation, or if you want to customize the error messages. To set this attribute on the underlying <form> tag, set the noValidate prop to true.

const PostCreate = () => (
    <Create>
        <LongForm noValidate>
            ...
        </LongForm>
    </Create>
);

`onSubmit`

By default, <LongForm> calls the save callback passed to it by the edit or create controller, via the SaveContext. You can override this behavior by setting a callback as the onSubmit prop manually.

export const PostCreate = () => {
    const [create] = useCreate();
    const postSave = (data) => {
        create('posts', { data });
    };
    return (
        <Create>
            <LongForm onSubmit={postSave}>
                ...
            </LongForm>
        </Create>
    );
};

`sanitizeEmptyValues`

In HTML, the value of empty form inputs is the empty string (''). React-admin inputs (like <TextInput>, <NumberInput>, etc.) automatically transform these empty values into null.

But for your own input components based on react-hook-form, this is not the default. React-hook-form doesn’t transform empty values by default. This leads to unexpected create and update payloads like:

{
    id: 1234,
    title: 'Lorem Ipsum',
    is_published: '',
    body: '',
    // etc.
}

If you prefer to omit the keys for empty values, set the sanitizeEmptyValues prop to true. This will sanitize the form data before passing it to the dataProvider, i.e. remove empty strings from the form state, unless the record actually had a value for that field before edition.

const PostCreate = () =>  (
    <Create>
        <LongForm sanitizeEmptyValues>
            ...
        </LongForm>
    </Create>
);

For the previous example, the data sent to the dataProvider will be:

{
    id: 1234,
    title: 'Lorem Ipsum',
}

Note: Setting the sanitizeEmptyValues prop to true will also have a (minor) impact on react-admin inputs (like <TextInput>, <NumberInput>, etc.): empty values (i.e. values equal to null) will be removed from the form state on submit, unless the record actually had a value for that field.

If you need a more fine-grained control over the sanitization, you can use the transform prop of <Edit> or <Create> components, or the parse prop of individual inputs.

`sx`: CSS API

The <LongForm> component accepts the usual className prop. You can also override the styles of the inner components thanks to the sx property. This property accepts the following subclasses:

Rule name	Description
`RaLongForm`	Applied to the root component
`& .RaLongForm-toc`	Applied to the TOC
`& .RaLongForm-main`	Applied to the main `<Card>` component
`& .RaLongForm-toolbar`	Applied to the toolbar
`& .RaLongForm-error`	Applied to the `<MenuItem>` in case the section has validation errors

`toolbar`

You can customize the form Toolbar by passing a custom element in the toolbar prop. The form expects the same type of element as <SimpleForm>, see the <SimpleForm toolbar> prop documentation in the react-admin docs.

import {
    Edit,
    SaveButton,
    Toolbar as RaToolbar,
} from 'react-admin';
import { LongForm } from '@react-admin/ra-form-layout';

const CustomToolbar = () => (
    <RaToolbar>
        <SaveButton label="Save and return" type="button" variant="outlined" />
    </RaToolbar>
);

const CustomerEdit = () => (
    <Edit component="div">
        <LongForm toolbar={<CustomToolbar />}>
            <LongForm.Section label="Identity">
                ...
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section label="Occupations">
                ...
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section label="Preferences">
                ...
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
    </Edit>
);

`validate`

The value of the form validate prop must be a function taking the record as input, and returning an object with error messages indexed by field. For instance:

const validateUserCreation = (values) => {
    const errors = {};
    if (!values.firstName) {
        errors.firstName = 'The firstName is required';
    }
    if (!values.age) {
        // You can return translation keys
        errors.age = 'ra.validation.required';
    } else if (values.age < 18) {
        // Or an object if the translation messages need parameters
        errors.age = {
            message: 'ra.validation.minValue',
            args: { min: 18 }
        };
    }
    return errors
};

export const UserCreate = () => (
    <Create>
        <LongForm validate={validateUserCreation}>
            <LongForm.Section label="Summary">
                <TextInput label="First Name" source="firstName" />
                <TextInput label="Age" source="age" />
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
    </Create>
);

Tip: React-admin also allows to define validation rules at the input level. See the Validation chapter for details.

Tip: The validate function can return a promise for asynchronous validation. See the Server-Side Validation section in the Validation documentation.

`warnWhenUnsavedChanges`

React-admin keeps track of the form state, so it can detect when the user leaves an Edit or Create page with unsaved changes. To avoid data loss, you can use this ability to ask the user to confirm before leaving a page with unsaved changes.

Warn About Unsaved Changes

Warning about unsaved changes is an opt-in feature: you must set the warnWhenUnsavedChanges prop in the form component to enable it:

export const TagEdit = () => (
    <Edit>
        <LongForm warnWhenUnsavedChanges>
            ...
        </LongForm>
    </Edit>
);

Warning: This feature only works if you have a dependency on react-router 6.3.0 at most. The react-router team disabled this possibility in react-router 6.4, so warnWhenUnsavedChanges will silently fail with react-router 6.4 or later.

`<LongForm.Section>`

The children of <LongForm> must be <LongForm.Section> elements.

This component adds a section title (using a <Typography variant="h4">), then renders each child inside a Material UI <Stack>, and finally adds a Material UI <Divider> at the bottom of the section.

It accepts the following props:

Prop	Required	Type	Default	Description
`label`	Required	`string`	-	The main label used as the section title. Appears in red when the section has errors
`children`	Required	`ReactNode`	-	A list of `<Input>` elements
`cardinality`	Optional	`number`	-	A number to be displayed next to the label in TOC, to quantify it
`sx`	Optional	`object`	-	An object containing the Material UI style overrides to apply to the root component

`cardinality`

The cardinality prop allows to specify a numeral quantity to be displayed next to the section label in the TOC.

LongForm.Section cardinality

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import {
    Edit,
    TextField,
} from 'react-admin';

import { LongForm } from '@react-admin/ra-form-layout';

const CustomerEditWithCardinality = () => {
    const [publications, setPublications] = useState([]);
    useEffect(() => {
        setTimeout(() => {
            setPublications([
                { id: 1, title: 'Publication 1' },
                { id: 2, title: 'Publication 2' },
                { id: 3, title: 'Publication 3' },
            ]);
        }, 500);
    }, []);

    return (
        <Edit component="div">
            <LongForm>
                <LongForm.Section label="Identity">
                    ...
                </LongForm.Section>
                <LongForm.Section label="Occupations">
                    ...
                </LongForm.Section>
                <LongForm.Section label="Preferences">
                    ...
                </LongForm.Section>
                <LongForm.Section
                    label="Publications"
                    cardinality={publications.length}
                >
                    <ul>
                        {publications.map(publication => (
                            <li key={publication.id}>
                                <TextField
                                    source="title"
                                    record={publication}
                                />
                            </li>
                        ))}
                    </ul>
                </LongForm.Section>
            </LongForm>
        </Edit>
    );
};

AutoSave

In forms where users may spend a lot of time, it’s a good idea to save the form automatically after a few seconds of inactivity. You turn on this feature by using the <AutoSave> component.

import { LongForm, AutoSave } from '@react-admin/ra-form-layout';
import { Edit, TextInput, DateInput, SelectInput, Toolbar } from 'react-admin';

const AutoSaveToolbar = () => (
    <Toolbar>
        <AutoSave />
    </Toolbar>
);

const PersonEdit = () => (
    <Edit mutationMode="optimistic">
        <LongForm
            resetOptions={{ keepDirtyValues: true }}
            toolbar={<AutoSaveToolbar />}
        >
            <LongForm.Section label="identity">
                <TextInput source="first_name" />
                <TextInput source="last_name" />
                <DateInput source="dob" />
                <SelectInput source="sex" choices={[
                    { id: 'male', name: 'Male' },
                    { id: 'female', name: 'Female' },
                ]}/>
            </LongForm.Section>
        </LongForm>
    </Edit>
);

Note that you must set the <LongForm resetOptions> prop to { keepDirtyValues: true }. If you forget that prop, any change entered by the end user after the autosave but before its acknowledgement by the server will be lost.

If you’re using it in an <Edit> page, you must also use a pessimistic or optimistic mutationMode - <AutoSave> doesn’t work with the default mutationMode="undoable".

Check the <AutoSave> component documentation for more details.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Fine-grained permissions control can be added by using the <LongForm> and <LongFormSection> components provided by the @react-admin/ra-enterprise package.

import { LongForm } from '@react-admin/ra-enterprise';

const authProvider = {
    checkAuth: () => Promise.resolve(),
    login: () => Promise.resolve(),
    logout: () => Promise.resolve(),
    checkError: () => Promise.resolve(),
    getPermissions: () =>Promise.resolve([
        // 'delete' is missing
        { action: ['list', 'edit'], resource: 'products' },
        { action: 'write', resource: 'products.reference' },
        { action: 'write', resource: 'products.width' },
        { action: 'write', resource: 'products.height' },
        // 'products.description' is missing
        { action: 'write', resource: 'products.thumbnail' },
        // 'products.image' is missing
        { action: 'write', resource: 'products.Section.description' },
        { action: 'write', resource: 'products.Section.images' },
        // 'products.Section.stock' is missing
    ]),
};

const ProductEdit = () => (
    <Edit>
        <LongForm>
            <LongForm.Section name="description" label="Description">
                <TextInput source="reference" />
                <TextInput source="width" />
                <TextInput source="height" />
                <TextInput source="description" />
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section name="images" label="Images">
                <TextInput source="image" />
                <TextInput source="thumbnail" />
            </LongForm.Section>
            <LongForm.Section name="stock" label="Stock">
                <TextInput source="stock" />
            </LongForm.Section>
            // delete button not displayed
        </LongForm>
    </Edit>
);

Check the RBAC <LongForm> documentation for more details.

<LongForm>

Usage

Props

children

defaultValues

id

noValidate

onSubmit

sanitizeEmptyValues

sx: CSS API

toolbar

validate

warnWhenUnsavedChanges

<LongForm.Section>

cardinality