Formstrap enhances the default Rails form helpers with Bootstrap-friendly markup and extended functionality. Simply replace your existing form_with calls with formstrap_form_with, and your forms will automatically be styled according to Bootstrap (5.3.x) conventions.

In addition to clean and responsive markup, Formstrap offers a set of extended form helpers out of the box:

• A WYSIWYG editor for rich text fields
• A date range picker
• A media picker for selecting Active Storage assets
• ...and more

Add Formstrap to your Rails application

bundle add 'formstrap'

And copy the default configuration with:

rails generate formstrap:install

We're a big believer of "BYOD" Bring Your Own Dependencies.
You need to have Bootstrap (5.3.x) already installed in your application.

Formstrap provides support for Redactor (Paid), TomSelect and Flatpickr. If you wish to make use of these dependencies you need to provide them yourself.

Use the Formstrap helpers formstrap_form_for or formstrap_form_with instead of the Ruby on Rails helpers form_for or form_with.

An example:

<%= formstrap_form_for(@user) do |f| %>
  <%= f.email :email, required: true %>
  <%= f.password :password, required: true %>
  <%= f.checkbox :remember_me, required: true %>
  <%= f.submit "Log In" %>
<% end %>

To fallback to the default form helpers add formstrap: false:

<%= formstrap_for_for(@user) do |f| %>
  <%= f.text :name, formstrap: false %>
  <%= f.text_field :name %>
<% end %>

An overview of all the Formstrap / Ruby on Rails form helpers:

Formstrap provides more helpers than what is standard in Ruby on Rails, e.g. Media, Date range, Redactor.

A visual media picker that allows you to select ActiveStorage blobs to be attached to the current record. Works with has_many_attached and has_one_attached

<%= formstrap_form_with do |form| %>
  <%= form.media :image %>
  <%= form.media :files %>
<% end %>

The default date range picker adds 2 date pickers. There's also "Flatpickr range" for a combined input which depends on Flatpickr

<%= formstrap_form_with do |form| %>
  <%= form.date_range start: {attribute: :start_date}, end: {attribute: :end_date} %>
<% end %>

This form helper depends on Redactor (paid).

<%= formstrap_form_with do |form| %>
  <%= form.wysiwyg :text %>
<% end %>

This form helper allows you to manage nested attributes in a visually appealing way. (replacement for cocoon) It adds buttons to: add and delete rows. A drag-&-drop interface allows you to reorder rows. To persist the order of rows a position attribute should be available on the associated model.

<%= formstrap_form_with do |form| %>
  <% form.repeater_for :questions do |question| %>
    <% render "admin/questions/fields, form: :question" %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

Because Formstrap uses html and Ruby on Rails helpers behind the scenes to render its helpers, editing the Formstrap helpers is straightforward.

As Formstrap is an engine, its views are within the gem. In order to have a copy of the views inside your application, run:

rails generate formstrap:views

This will create a directory ./views/formstrap, in which all the views (and its helpers) are copied in and can thus be inspected / altered. Because Formstrap is an engine, the application's local files take precedence over the engine's files.

Running the command again will override the files already present in your application.

Extending Formstrap helpers is straightforward. Add your custom Formstrap (e.g. map) helper into the map ./views/formstrap. Formstrap makes it possible to access this helper is by its filename.

<%# custom Formstrap helper file: ./views/formstrap/_map.html.erb %>

<%= formstrap_form_for(@user) do |f| %>
    <%= f.map :address %>
<% end %>

For development purposes it's helpful to have both the test project and Formstrap located in the same directory.

In Gemfile

gem "formstrap", path: "../formstrap"

In package.json

{
  "dependencies": {
    "formstrap": "link:../formstrap"
  }
}

To see frontend changes update live in development run

# Watches changes and builds them on-the-fly
yarn dev

When adding new dependencies, make sure you add them to the package.json file as well as the importmap.rb file.

Run tests with

rake test

Or to run a single file

rake test TEST=path/to/test/file.rb

If you want to test a specific feature in a staging environment without releasing the gem, you can refer to the remote repo in your Gemfile and package.json.

In Gemfile

gem 'formstrap', git: '[email protected]:frontierdotbe/formstrap.git', branch: 'feature/test'

In package.json

{
  "dependencies": {
    "formstrap": "ssh://[email protected]:frontierdotbe/formstrap.git#feature/test"
  }
}

After integration a new feature of fixing a bug, first commit and push your changes.

Update the gem

# First bundle if new runtime dependencies were added
$ bundle

# Update the version number, push commits and tag the release
$ gem bump -v {patch,minor,major,...} --push --tag

# Release to Rubygems and create a Github release tag
$ gem release

Update the node package

# Manually update the version number in package.json
$ yarn build 
$ npm publish --access public

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/frontierdotbe/formstrap. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Everyone interacting in the Formstrap project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.