The Create and Edit Views

The Create and Edit views both display a form, initialized with an empty record (for the Create view) or with a record fetched from the API (for the Edit view). The <Create> and <Edit> components then delegate the actual rendering of the form to a form component - usually <SimpleForm>. This form component uses its children (<Input> components) to render each form input.

The `<Create>` and `<Edit>` components

The <Create> and <Edit> components render the page title and actions, and fetch the record from the REST API. They are not responsible for rendering the actual form - that’s the job of their child component (usually <SimpleForm>), to which they pass the record as prop.

Here are all the props accepted by the <Create> and <Edit> components:

title
actions

Here is the minimal code necessary to display a form to create and edit comments:

// in src/App.js
import React from 'react';
import { jsonServerRestClient, Admin, Resource } from 'admin-on-rest';

import { PostCreate, PostEdit } from './posts';

const App = () => (
    <Admin restClient={jsonServerRestClient('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com')}>
        <Resource name="posts" create={PostCreate} edit={PostEdit} />
    </Admin>
);

export default App;

// in src/posts.js
import React from 'react';
import { Create, Edit, SimpleForm, DisabledInput, TextInput, DateInput, LongTextInput, ReferenceManyField, Datagrid, TextField, DateField, EditButton } from 'admin-on-rest/lib/mui';
import RichTextInput from 'aor-rich-text-input';

export const PostCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm>
            <TextInput source="title" />
            <TextInput source="teaser" options={{ multiLine: true }} />
            <RichTextInput source="body" />
            <DateInput label="Publication date" source="published_at" defaultValue={new Date()} />
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

export const PostEdit = (props) => (
    <Edit title={<PostTitle />} {...props}>
        <SimpleForm>
            <DisabledInput label="Id" source="id" />
            <TextInput source="title" validation={{ required: true }} />
            <LongTextInput source="teaser" validation={{ required: true }} />
            <RichTextInput source="body" validation={{ required: true }} />
            <DateInput label="Publication date" source="published_at" />
            <ReferenceManyField label="Comments" reference="comments" target="post_id">
                <Datagrid>
                    <TextField source="body" />
                    <DateField source="created_at" />
                    <EditButton />
                </Datagrid>
            </ReferenceManyField>
        </SimpleForm>
    </Edit>
);

That’s enough to display the post edit form:

Tip: You might find it cumbersome to repeat the same input components for both the <Create> and the <Edit> view. In practice, these two views almost never have exactly the same form inputs. For instance, in the previous snippet, the <Edit> views shows related comments to the current post, which makes no sense for a new post. Having two separate sets of input components for the two view is therefore a deliberate choice. However, if you have the same set of input components, export them as a custom Form component to avoid repetition.

Page Title

By default, the title for the Create view is “Create [resource_name]”, and the title for the Edit view is “Edit [resource_name] #[record_id]”.

You can customize this title by specifying a custom title prop:

export const PostEdit = (props) => (
    <Edit title="Post edition" {...props}>
        ...
    </Edit>
);

More interestingly, you can pass a component as title. Admin-on-rest clones this component and, in the <EditView>, injects the current record. This allows to customize the title according to the current record:

const PostTitle = ({ record }) => {
    return <span>Post {record ? `"${record.title}"` : ''}</span>;
};
export const PostEdit = (props) => (
    <Edit title={<PostTitle />} {...props}>
        ...
    </Edit>
);

Actions

You can replace the list of default actions by your own element using the actions prop:

import { CardActions } from 'material-ui/Card';
import FlatButton from 'material-ui/FlatButton';
import NavigationRefresh from 'material-ui/svg-icons/navigation/refresh';
import { ListButton, ShowButton, DeleteButton } from 'admin-on-rest/lib/mui';

const cardActionStyle = {
    zIndex: 2,
    display: 'inline-block',
    float: 'right',
};

const PostEditActions = ({ basePath, data, refresh }) => (
    <CardActions style={cardActionStyle}>
        <ShowButton basePath={basePath} record={data} />
        <ListButton basePath={basePath} />
        <DeleteButton basePath={basePath} record={data} />
        <FlatButton primary label="Refresh" onClick={refresh} icon={<NavigationRefresh />} />
        {/* Add your custom actions */}
        <FlatButton primary label="Custom Action" onClick={customAction} />
    </CardActions>
);

export const PostEdit = (props) => (
    <Edit actions={<PostEditActions />} {...props}>
        ...
    </Edit>
);

The `<SimpleForm>` component

The <SimpleForm> component receives the record as prop from its parent component. It is responsible for rendering the actual form. It is also responsible for validating the form data. Finally, it receives a handleSubmit function as prop, to be called with the updated record as argument when the user submits the form.

The <SimpleForm> renders its child components line by line (within <div> components). It uses redux-form.

Here are all the props accepted by the <SimpleForm> component:

defautValue
validation

export const PostCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm>
            <TextInput source="title" />
            <RichTextInput source="body" />
            <NumberInput source="nb_views" />
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

The `<TabbedForm>` component

Just like <SimpleForm>, <TabbedForm> receives the record prop, renders the actual form, and handles form validation on submit. However, the <TabbedForm> component renders inputs grouped by tab. The tabs are set by using <FormTab> components, which expect a label and an icon prop.

Here are all the props accepted by the <TabbedForm> component:

defautValue
validation

import { TabbedForm, FormTab } from 'admin-on-rest/lib/mui'

export const PostEdit = (props) => (
    <Edit {...props}>
        <TabbedForm>
            <FormTab label="summary">
                <DisabledInput label="Id" source="id" />
                <TextInput source="title" validation={{ required: true }} />
                <LongTextInput source="teaser" validation={{ required: true }} />
            </FormTab>
            <FormTab label="body">
                <RichTextInput source="body" validation={{ required: true }} addLabel={false} />
            </FormTab>
            <FormTab label="Miscellaneous">
                <TextInput label="Password (if protected post)" source="password" type="password" />
                <DateInput label="Publication date" source="published_at" />
                <NumberInput source="average_note" validation={{ min: 0 }} />
                <BooleanInput label="Allow comments?" source="commentable" defaultValue />
                <DisabledInput label="Nb views" source="views" />
            </FormTab>
            <FormTab label="comments">
                <ReferenceManyField reference="comments" target="post_id" addLabel={false}>
                    <Datagrid>
                        <TextField source="body" />
                        <DateField source="created_at" />
                        <EditButton />
                    </Datagrid>
                </ReferenceManyField>
            </FormTab>
        </TabbedForm>
    </Edit>
);

Default Values

To define default values, you can add a defaultValue prop to form components (<SimpleForm>, <Tabbedform>, etc.), or add a defaultValue to individual input components.

Global Default Value

The value of the form defaultValue prop can be an object or a function returning an object, specifying default value for the created record. For instance:

const postDefaultValue = { created_at: new Date(), nb_views: 0 };
export const PostCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm defaultValue={postDefaultValue}>
            <TextInput source="title" />
            <RichTextInput source="body" />
            <NumberInput source="nb_views" />
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

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

Per Field Default Value

Alternatively, you can specify a defaultValue prop directly in <Input> components. Admin-on-rest will merge the child default values with the form default value (input > form):

export const PostCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm>
            <DisabledInput source="id" defaultValue={() => uuid()}/>
            <TextInput source="title" />
            <RichTextInput source="body" />
            <NumberInput source="nb_views" defaultValue={0} />
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

Validation

To validate a form, you can add a validation prop to the form component, to individual inputs, or even mix both approaches.

Global Validation

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

const createValidation = (values) => {
    const errors = {};
    if (!values.firstName) {
        errors.firstName = ['The firstName is required'];
    }
    if (!values.age) {
        errors.age = ['The age is required'];
    } else if (values.age < 18) {
        errors.age = ['Must be over 18'];
    }
    return errors
};

export const UserCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm validation={createValidation}>
            <TextInput label="First Name" source="firstName" />
            <TextInput label="Age" source="age" />
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

Per Field Validation: Function Validator

Alternatively, you can specify a validation prop directly in <Input> components. Admin-on-rest will mash all the individual functions up to a single function looking just like the previous one:

const firstNameValidation = (value, values) => {
    if (!value) {
        return ['The firstName is required'];
    }
    return [];
};

const ageValidation = (value, values) => {
    if (!value) {
        return ['The age is required'];
    }
    if (age < 18) {
        return ['Must be over 18'];
    }
    return [];
}

export const UserCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm>
            <TextInput label="First Name" source="firstName" validation={firstNameValidation} />
            <TextInput label="Age" source="age" validation={ageValidation}/>
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

Input validation functions receive the current field value, and the values of all fields of the current record. This allows for complex validation scenarios (e.g. validate that two passwords are the same).

Tip: You can use both Form validation and input validation.

Per Field Validation: Constraints Object

Validation constraints often look the same: asserting presence, size, format, etc. Instead of passing a function as validation, you can pass a constraints object:

export const UserCreate = (props) => (
    <Create {...props}>
        <SimpleForm>
            <TextInput label="First Name" source="firstName" validation={{ required: true }} />
            <TextInput label="Age" source="age" validation={{ required: true, min: 18 }}/>
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

As Admin-on-rest translates these constraints objects to functions, the result is the same as before.

Constraints Reference

You can use the following validation constraint names:

required if the field is mandatory,
min to specify a minimum value for integers,
max to specify a maximum value for integers,
minLength to specify a minimum length for strings,
maxLength to specify a maximum length for strings,
email to check that the input is a valid email address,
regex to validate that the input matches a regex (must be an object with pattern and message keys),
choices to validate that the input is within a given list,
custom to use the function of your choice