Angular Metaform

This project provides a directive that generates forms based on data description and not view description. Usually, directives that generate forms dynamically are based on view description, i.e. an array of html input fields described in JSON. Conversely, Angular-metaform has an approach similar to a mongoose model, where the JSON describes an actual data document. Checkout the live example

The supporting data types are:

• text Based on its subtype property it can be any text based html input.
• bool Checkbox
• enum Radio options from a list provided in the description.
• ref Reference to another object. Requires a list o references provided in the description.
• object A sub object that recursively supports every object (can recurse infinitely).
• array Array of any of the supported types

Installation

I have never made a bower package so I guess this commit is happening in order to tag and publish it. so I guess you will be able to bower install angular-metaform shortly. If not, you may checkout this repo and use the dist/metaform.min.js or dist/metaform.js. Notice that these files already contain the default templates embedded. Therefore you only need to include one of them in your project.

Usage

Creating a form

Use the xvMetaform directive for creating form. The description JSON is an array of description objects. E.g.:

// On the defining scope:
$scope.formDescription = [
  { id: 'Name', type: 'text', placeholder: 'Your Name' },
  { id: 'Email', type: 'text', subType: 'email' },
  { id: 'My Boolean', type: 'bool' },
  ...
];

$scope.model = {};

<!-- On the html -->
<div xv-metaform="formDescription" xv-metaform-model="model"></div>

The xvMetaformModel attribute declares which object will bind to the form fields.

The Description Object

There are only 2 required properties, which the directive uses internally:

• _xvKey: Name of property that binds to the model in xvMetaformModel attribute.
• type: Used to determine how and which template to compile the field.

The other properties are optional and will be passed in the scope to the template.

The Field Templates

The templates are located in src/templates. The templates have access to anything put inside the field description object.

The bool type template:

<!-- src/templates/text-bs.html (becomes text-bs.xv after build) -->
<div class="checkbox">
	<label>
		<input type="checkbox" ng-model="model.model" value="">
		{{field.label}}
	</label>
</div>

Building

The source files are in src/. In order to build (embed, aggregate, minify) just npm install in the root project folder, then grunt. The output files will be at dist/.

Node example

Simple example that uses express to create a simple webserver, watches files for changes, lints and embed templates.

npm install

grunt

Static Example

Just an index.html with a gruntfile.js that copies files from src and node example to a /examples/static/dist/ folder. Just run

grunt``

then open ```/examples/static/dist/index.html```