Template Form - a Rails form builder where you bring your own HTML

Template Form makes defining the HTML your form inputs generate as simple as possible: you just write it out. Most other form builders, e.g. Simple Form, add a layer of indirection and make you use their own DSL.

Templates are namespaced so you can define different HTML for different situations, e.g. stacked or horizontal, in the same Rails app.

Right now Template Form includes templates for Bulma because those are defined by Bulma. For Tailwind, or Bootstrap, you define your inputs yourself.

Template Form works with all template engines supported by Tilt.

Add it to your Gemfile:

gem 'template_form'

And then bundle install.

Let's say you use Bulma. Here's what your view might look like:

<%= template_form_with model: Post.new do |f| %>
  <%= f.input :title %>
  <%= f.input :body %>
<% end %>

This will be rendered as:

<form action="/users" method="post" data-remote="true">

  <div class="field">
    <label class="label" for="post_title">Title</label>
    <div class="control">
      <input class="input" type="text" name="post[title]" id="post_title">
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="field">
    <label class="label" for="post_body">Title</label>
    <div class="control">
      <textarea class="textarea" name="post[body]" id="post_body"></textarea>
    </div>
  </div>

</form>

Now let's say you want a horizontal form instead. The only change you need to make is to specify the form type:

- <%= template_form_with model: Post.new do |f| %>
+ <%= template_form_with model: Post.new, form_type: :bulma_horizontal do |f| %>

And then you will get this HTML instead:

<form action="/users" method="post" data-remote="true">

  <div class="field is-horizontal">
    <div class="field-label is-normal">
      <label class="label" for="post_title">Title</label>
    </div>
    <div class="field-body">
      <div class="field">
        <div class="control">
          <input class="input" type="text" name="post[title]" id="post_title">
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="field is-horizontal">
    <div class="field-label is-normal">
      <label class="label" for="post_body">Body</label>
    </div>
    <div class="field-body">
      <div class="field">
        <div class="control">
          <textarea class="textarea" name="post[body]" id="post_body"></textarea>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

</form>

Your templates live at TemplateForm.template_path which defaults to /app/forms/<FORM TYPE>/ where <FORM TYPE> is a name that makes sense to you, and the value that you use with the :form_type option to #template_form_with.

They should have these names:

• text_input.html.erb
• textarea_input.html.erb
• select_input.html.erb
• grouped_select_input.html.erb
• checkbox_input.html.erb
• date_input.html.erb

Use whatever extension goes with your template engine.

You can have several variations of a template, for example a text input with inline add-on. First, write your template at <BASE>_<VARIANT>.html.erb; say, text_input_inline_add_on.html.erb. Then use a with: <VARIANT> option in your view, e.g. <%= form.input :name, with: :inline_add_on %>.

Inside each template you can use the normal Rails form helpers. Here's the template for Bulma's text input:

<div class="field <%= options.delete(:field_class) %>">

  <% if has_label %>
    <%- label_options[:class] << ' label' %>
    <%- label_options[:class] << ' required' if options.delete(:required) %>
    <%= label attribute_name, label_text, label_options %>
  <% end %>

  <div class="control <%= options.delete(:control_class) %>">
    <%- options[:class] << ' input' %>
    <%- options[:class] << ' is-danger' if errors[attribute_name].present? %>
    <%= text_field attribute_name, options %>
  </div>

  <%- if hint_text.present? %>
    <p class="help"><%= hint_text %></p>
  <%- end %>

  <%- if errors[attribute_name].present? %>
    <p class="help is-danger"><%= errors.full_messages_for(attribute_name).to_sentence %></p>
  <%- end %>

</div>

The methods available inside the template are defined in the corresponding models' #render method. For example, here is the text input's:

def render
  template.render(
    builder,
    attribute_name: attribute_name,

    has_label:      has_label,
    label_text:     label_text,
    label_options:  label_options,

    hint_text:      hint_text,

    options:        options,
    errors:         errors
  ).html_safe
end

You also have access to the view in which the template is contained. This is handy if you need to call methods on the view inside your template. For example, translating values for data attributes.

<div data-controller="foo" data-foo-show-value=view.translate("foo.show")>
</div>

Template Form looks up the type for the attribute, falling back to :string if it can't find one. Then it uses the corresponding form input.

You can specify a type to use with :as, e.g. <%= f.input :reason, as: :text %>.