Lead:  Liav Nadler  ONGOING 

Issues to cover

• Inputs

  • Default values

  • Field dependencies

  • Mandatory indicators

• Validations

  • Invalid values

  • Blank mandatory fields

  • Leaving the page without saving

• Grouping fields

• Form-level elements

  • Status tags

  • Messages

• Action buttons

  • Top for form-level

  • Bottom for widget-level, sticky

  • Distances between buttons (if more than 2)

• Guidance

  • Form instructions

  • Field help

• Autosave

• Preventing users from selecting labels

Description

A form is a collection of inputs, allowing users to enter data that is then sent to a server for processing. Forms may appear in workspaces, wizards or dialog popups.

Basic Flow

• There are two basic form types:

  • Configuration forms - allowing users to change predefined settings (e.g. service level indicators).

  • Creation forms - allowing users to create new entities (e.g. employee evaluations). In this case, most of the fields in the form will be blank by default.

Some forms consists of both configuration and creation elements.

• The user can fill in the fields in any order before saving or applying the form.

• After filling in a form, clicking the Save button (in configuration pages) or the main button in dialogs triggers a server-level validation (see below).

Usage & Behavior

General guidelines

Structure

• Any form consists of two areas: the input area and the action area.

• The input area may contain any set of components, including text fields, text areas, dropdown menus, checkboxes, radio buttons, date pickers, time pickers etc.

• Related inputs can be grouped together under a single title. For example, we may find Email and Phone fields under the title Contact Information.

• The action area usually consists of two buttons: Save for submitting the form and Cancel for resetting the form (see interactions below).

• In case the form takes the entire area of a workspace, the action area will appear at the top of the page, opposite to the page title. In any other case, it will appear at the bottom of the container

Placement and Positioning

• Forms may appear in workspaces, widgets, wizards or dialog popups.

• In case the form takes the entire area of a workspace, the action area will appear at the top of the page, opposite to the page title.

• If the form takes only part of the workspace (e.g., inside a dialog or a widget), the action area will appear at the bottom of the container. In this case, the action area will also be sticky, to allow users scrolling along the form, without hiding the action buttons.

Fields

• Field labels will appear on top of the inputs (e.g., a text field or a set of radio buttons).

• On mandatory fields, the mandatory icon will be shown next to the label.

• Where relevant, a help icons will appear next to the label.

• In some cases, two or more fields are dependent. In this case, selecting a value for the dependent fields will not be possible until there is a value on the main field.

• In configuration forms it is common the most or all fields have default values.

States

• Forms can have 3 states:

  • Idle - this is the default for creation forms. Exiting the form without changing anything will not add that entity.

  • Dirty state - a form switches to this state after making changes to the idle form.

  • Saved - after clicking the Save button.

• When first opening a configuration form it is defined as saved. Updating any of the fields, switches it to dirty state.

Interaction

• Forms has no intrinsic interactions. For component-specific interactions see the documentation of that component.

Validations and errors

• There are two types of validations related to forms: field validation and form validation.

Field Validation

• This category includes all validations that are related to specific inputs, including text fields, text areas, sets of checkboxes, date and time pickers, etc.

• The most common input-level errors are:

  • Invalid data, including invalid characters, invalid format and out-of-range values.

  • Missing mandatory, where a required field was left blank.

• Field validations for invalid characters or invalid format occurs while typing (“onkeydown”).

• Field validations for out of range data or missing mandatory occurs when a field looses focus (“onblur”).

• When invalid data or missing mandatory field was detected, the field changes its status to error.

• In some cases, the entered value is valid, but may call for a special attention (for example: a very large value). In this case, the field will change its status to warning, but will not prevent the form from being submitted.

• For more information, please refer to LUX Field Validation page.

Form Validation

• A form cannot be saved / submitted if one or more of its fields are in error state.

• Here is a typical saving flow:

  • When first entering a form, the Save button is disabled.

  • On updating a field, the Save button becomes enabled.

  • In case of a field error the Save button becomes disabled. An additional form-level indication may appear. Only after the error was resolved, the Save button is enabled again.

  • After clicking the Save button:

    • it becomes disabled again,

    • a toast message may appear, indicating that the form was saved.

• This flow is also relevant when the form is in a dialog popup. In this case, the cancel button is always enabled.

Saving “dirty data” in local storage

• In case a single Save button applies to multiple areas (tabs, master items in a master-detail layout, etc.), updated values will be saved in a local storage even before clicking the Save button.

• In this case, if the user updated a value in the first area, navigated to another area and went back to the first area, all updated values will remain intact.

Edge case: navigating to another area of the form while some fields has errors

• In case the user tries to navigate to another area of the form, while the current area has errors, a message popup will appear, allowing him to either continue, while loosing all the updated data, or cancel.

Edge case: exiting an updated form

• In case the user tries to navigate away from a form after updating one or more fields, a message popup will appear, allowing her to either save and exit, exit without saving, or cancel.

Best practices

Use when:

• Values have a distinct order.

• There is a default value.

• There are at least three possible values.

Don’t use:

• When?

General

• In case of large number of fields, group related fields together, providing a clear title to each group.

• Make sure that label texts are not selectable.

• Make sure there is a natural tab order between fields.

Accessibility compliance

Unless otherwise specified, see our general compliance information in Fundamentals - Accessibility

text highlight when using a keyboard + using arrows when in edit mode (left, up or home to set the insertion point at the beginning; right, down or end to set it at the end).

Design

Code

<<a box containing the code - discuss with Femi>>