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Angular Reactive Validation

Reactive Forms validation shouldn't require the developer to write lots of HTML to show validation messages. This library makes it easy.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Compatibility
• Basic usage
• Advanced validation declaration
• Changing when validation messages are displayed
• Declaring your own validator functions
• Edge use cases
  • Handling custom HTML validation messages
  • Using arv-validation-messages when not using [formGroup] or formGroupName attributes

Installation

To install this library, run:

npm install angular-reactive-validation --save

Compatibility

Basic usage

Import the ReactiveValidationModule:

import { ReactiveValidationModule } from 'angular-reactive-validation';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    ...,
    ReactiveValidationModule
  ]
})
export class AppModule { }

Declare your validation with messages:

import { Validators } from 'angular-reactive-validation';

...

form = this.fb.group({
  name: this.fb.group({
    firstName: ['', [Validators.required('A first name is required'),
      Validators.minLength(1, minLength => `The minimum length is ${minLength}`),
      Validators.maxLength(50, maxLength => `Maximum length is ${maxLength}`)]],
    middleName: ['', [Validators.maxLength(50, maxLength => `Maximum length is ${maxLength}`)]],
    lastName: ['', [Validators.required('A last name is required'),
      Validators.maxLength(50, maxLength => `Maximum length is ${maxLength}`)]]
  }),
  age: [null, [
    Validators.required('An age is required'),
    Validators.min(0, 'You can\'t be less than zero years old.'),
    Validators.max(150, max => `Can't be more than ${max}`)
  ]]
});

See Advanced validation declaration for other ways to declare your validation.

Add the component that will display the messages to your HTML:

<!-- Display validation messages for a single control. -->
<arv-validation-messages for="age"></arv-validation-messages>

<!-- Display validation messages for multiple controls in one location. -->
<arv-validation-messages [for]="['firstName', 'middleName', 'lastName']"></arv-validation-messages>

Make changes to the styling of the validation messages when needed by using the invalid-feedback class. E.g.:

.invalid-feedback {
  width: 100%;
  margin-top: .25rem;
  font-size: 80%;
  color: red;
}

Advanced validation declaration

The library supports specifying validators in a number of ways:

With a static message:

Validators.minLength(1, 'The minimum length is not reached.')

With a dynamic message, which is passed the validation value:

Validators.minLength(1, minLength => `The minimum length is ${minLength}.`)

With a dynamic validation value:

Validators.minLength(() => this.getMinimumLength(), 'The minimum length is not reached.')

Or combining the two options above:

Validators.minLength(() => this.getMinimumLength(), minLength => `The minimum length is ${minLength}.`)

Changing when validation messages are displayed

By default validation messages are displayed when the associated control is touched, or when the form has been submitted while the arv-validation-messages component was instantiated (meaning any hidden elements would not show their validation until a resubmit).

This implementation can be overridden by changing the module import as follows:

import { ReactiveValidationModule } from 'angular-reactive-validation';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    ...,
    ReactiveValidationModule.forRoot({
      displayValidationMessageWhen: (control, formSubmitted) => {
        return true; // Replace with your implementation.
      }
    })
  ]
})
export class AppModule { }

Note that formSubmitted can be undefined when it's not known if the form is submitted, due to the form tag missing a formGroup attribute.

Declaring your own validator functions

Angular provides a limited set of validator functions. To declare your own validator functions and combine it with this library use the ValidatorDeclaration class. It supports declaring validators with zero, one or two arguments.

Note that if your validator doesn't return an object as the inner error result, but e.g. a boolean such as in the examples below, then this will be replaced by an object that can hold the validation message. Thus, in the first example below { 'hasvalue': true } becomes { 'hasvalue': { 'message': 'validation message' } }.

const hasValueValidator = ValidatorDeclaration.wrapNoArgumentValidator(control => {
  return !!control.value ? null : { 'hasvalue': true };
}, 'hasvalue');

const formControl = new FormControl('', hasValueValidator('error message to show'));

const minimumValueValidator = ValidatorDeclaration.wrapSingleArgumentValidator((min: number) => {
  return function(control: AbstractControl): ValidationErrors {
    return control.value >= min ? null : { 'min': true };
  };
}, 'min');

const formControl = new FormControl('', minimumValueValidator(5, 'error message to show'));

const betweenValueValidator = ValidatorDeclaration.wrapTwoArgumentValidator((min: number, max: number) => {
  return function(control: AbstractControl): ValidationErrors {
    return control.value >= min && control.value <= max ? null : { 'between': true };
  };
}, 'between');

const formControl = new FormControl('', betweenValueValidator(5, 10, 'error message to show'));

Wrapping validator functions provided by other packages is also very simple:

const minValidator = ValidatorDeclaration.wrapSingleArgumentValidator(AngularValidators.min, 'min')

Edge use cases

Handling custom HTML validation messages

Though not the purpose of this library. There might be times when you want to declare a validation message within your HTML, because it requires some custom formatting. Therefore, all the Validators can also be used without declaring a message:

Validators.minLength(() => this.getMinimumLength())

And the following HTML can be used:

<arv-validation-messages for="age">
  <arv-validation-message key="min">
    Your custom validation message HTML for the minimum value validation.
  </arv-validation-message>
</arv-validation-messages>

If the arv-validation-messages's for attribute specifies multiple controls, be sure to declare the for attribute on the arv-validation-message element as well:

<arv-validation-messages [for]="['firstName', 'middleName', 'lastName']">
  <arv-validation-message for="firstName" key="required">
    Your custom validation message HTML for the required validation.
  </arv-validation-message>
  <arv-validation-message for="firstName" key="minlength">
    Your custom validation message HTML for the minlength validation.
  </arv-validation-message>
</arv-validation-messages>

Note that unlike the default Angular validation, parameterless functions need to be called to work properly:

Validators.required()
Validators.requiredTrue()
Validators.email()

Using arv-validation-messages when not using [formGroup] or formGroupName attributes

Supplying FormControl instances instead of names is also supported:

<arv-validation-messages [for]="[form.get('name.firstName'), form.get('name.middleName'), form.get('name.lastName')]">
  <arv-validation-message [for]="form.get('name.firstName')" key="required">
    ...
  </arv-validation-message>
</arv-validation-messages>