@kbru/form-effects

This library resulted from the wish to get the logic of complex Angular Reactive Forms out of the components. The goal is to have a Reactive Form, that can be tested without any components involved.

A standard reactive FormGroup can be converted into an Observable, that (if subscribed to) will trigger all side effects that were provided when creating the form.

Installation

npm install @kbru/form-effects

Usage

Create Form Effects

A FormEffect is just a function getting the FormGroup and returning an Observable<void>. The Effect can then interact with the form (or other data sources).

Example

let state$ = new BehaviourSubject<any>(null);

// An effect that runs only once
const setInitialValueEffect: FormEffect<FormGroup> = form => {
    form.setValue(state$.value);
    return EMPTY;
};

// An effect that interacts with "external" data
const saveOnChangeEffectA: FormEffect<FormGroup> = form =>
    form.valueChanges.pipe(
        map(value => {
            state.next(value);
        })
    );

// Alternative for the above effect. Here, the external data source can
// be mocked for testing.
const saveOnChangeEffectB =
    (state$: BehaviourSubject<any>): FormEffect<FormGroup> =>
    form =>
        form.valueChanges.pipe(
            map(value => {
                state.next(value);
            })
        );

Attention: Be sure not to create infinite Loops with your Effects ;) If you create an effect based on the valueChanges of a form and set the values inside the effect, this is happens easily!

Attach Effects to the FormGroup

For the effects to run they need to be attached to the FormGroup. Use createEffectAwareForm (which will return an Observable<FormGroup>).

Example

const form = new FormGroup({
    foo: new FormControl(null),
    // ...
});
const form$ = createEffectAwareForm(form, [effects]);

Subscribing to the form

For the effects to be run, the form returned by createEffectAwareForm needs to be subscribed. This can easily be done using the async-Pipe inside the Template:

Example

<form *ngIf="form$ | async as form" [formGroup]="form">
    <input formControlName="foo" />
</form>

Integration Tests for a form

Given you have your form set up only with effects and all logic completely independent from your components, you can easily write integration tests for your whole form logic.

See the tests in the demo app for an example.