How can I add an "error" class to the input on error using simple_form?

Question

I need to add a class to the input/textarea/etc when the form is rendered and that field has an error.

<input type="text" class="custom-error-class" />

Is there an easy way to append to SimpleForm's list of CSS classes, but only when the field's corresponding object is an error?

Carruth

Answer 1

I was having the same problem. My solution for this:

I created a new class StringInput (which overrides the original one) and copied the implementation out of the rdoc. I patched that code to check if there are errors on the field itself, if so I add a class invalid.

Because I wanted to use the wrapper options I added a error_class attribute into my initializer.

The full code:

app/inputs/string_input.rb

class StringInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::StringInput
  def input(wrapper_options = nil)
    unless string?
      input_html_classes.unshift("string")
      input_html_options[:type] ||= input_type if html5?
    end

    input_html_classes << wrapper_options[:error_class] if has_errors?
    merged_input_options = merge_wrapper_options(input_html_options, wrapper_options)

    @builder.text_field(attribute_name, merged_input_options)
  end
end

config/initializers/simple_form.rb

SimpleForm.setup do |config|
  config.error_notification_class = 'alert alert-danger'
  config.button_class = 'waves-effect waves-light btn'

  config.wrappers tag: :div, class: :input, error_class: :"error-field" do |b|
    # Form extensions
    b.use :html5
    b.optional :pattern
    b.use :maxlength
    b.use :placeholder
    b.use :readonly

    # Form components
    b.use :label
    b.use :input, class: 'validate', error_class: 'invalid'
    b.use :hint,  wrap_with: { tag: :span, class: :hint }
    b.use :error, wrap_with: { tag: :span, class: :error }
  end
end

This adds a defined error class onto all of your string inputs.

Rochester

thanks!! you save me a lot of work, just exactly what i wanted to do =) – Child

Answer 2

simple_form adds field_with_errors class to the wrapper element. You can use this to make your input look different:

.field_with_errors input { ... }

Kilburn

Not sure why they downvoted your answer. But this is the one and only true way to update input error styles in a clean way out of the box. What baffles me is that people would write an entire new input class specifically for this case. – Abbieabbot

This should be the correct answer! It is not very well explained in SimpleForm docs, but it works and it is... simple. – Atween

Answer 3

It is easier now with simple_form 3.5.0.

Redefine existing input (i.e. StringInput) by creating a new class with the same name (docs). Then override input_html_classes method:

# app/inputs/string_input.rb
class StringInput < SimpleForm::Inputs::StringInput
  def input_html_classes
    has_errors? ? super.push('custom-error-class') : super
  end
end

Kielty

Answer 4

You can do so using error_html option:

<%= f.input :attr, error_html: { class: 'custom-error-class' } %>

Syllabism

This is close, but it adds the error class on the sibling error span, not the input itself. – Carruth

Answer 5

Thanks @vince-v,

Using your information I came up with this work in progress for applying the error class to all types of inputs, including labels if they're configured with an error_class.

# lib/inputs/base.rb
module SimpleForm
  module Inputs
    class Base
      def merge_wrapper_options(options, wrapper_options)
        working_wrapper_options = wrapper_options.dup

        if working_wrapper_options
          if working_wrapper_options[:error_class] && has_errors?
            working_wrapper_options[:class] =
              [working_wrapper_options[:class]] + \
              [working_wrapper_options[:error_class]]
          end
          working_wrapper_options.delete(:error_class)

          working_wrapper_options.merge(options) do |key, oldval, newval|
            case key.to_s
            when "class"
              Array(oldval) + Array(newval)
            when "data", "aria"
              oldval.merge(newval)
            else
              newval
            end
          end
        else
          options.dup
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

# config/initializers/simple_form.rb
require 'inputs/base.rb

Kristoferkristoffer

Answer 6

My solution was to create an initializer with the following:

inputs = %w[
  CollectionSelectInput
  DateTimeInput
  FileInput
  GroupedCollectionSelectInput
  NumericInput
  PasswordInput
  RangeInput
  StringInput
  TextInput
]

inputs.each do |input_type|
  superclass = "SimpleForm::Inputs::#{input_type}".constantize

  new_class = Class.new(superclass) do
    def input_html_classes
      if has_errors?
        super.push('form-control-danger')
      else
        super
      end
    end
  end

  Object.const_set(input_type, new_class)
end

Family

Answer 7

Adding a new answer, since things seem to be yet simpler these days!

In the current version of simple_form (5.2.0), I have accomplished this using error_class on either b.use :label or b.use :label_input (depending on whether or not you want labels):

b.use :label_input, error_class: 'custom-error-class'

Spinster