Added a generateForm() Method to vadacl

Today I published a new version of my vadacl library that includes a new convenience method:  generateForm().  The generateForm() method accepts a data object and returns a FormGroup with FormControl instances generated from the properties and any vadacl-based validation configurations associated with the data object.

So instead of declaring the FormGroup and FormControl instances manually:

export class CruiseShipComponent extends Vadacl implements OnInit {
  cruiseShip: CruiseShip;
  shipForm: FormGroup;

  ngOnInit() {
    this.cruiseShip = new CruiseShip();
    this.shipForm = new FormGroup({
      'name': new FormControl( this.cruiseShip.name, this.applyRules( this.cruiseShip, 'name' ) ),
      'cruiseLine': new FormControl( this.cruiseShip.cruiseLine, this.applyRules( this.cruiseShip, 'cruiseLine' ) ),
      'yearBuilt': new FormControl( this.cruiseShip.yearBuilt, this.applyRules( this.cruiseShip, 'yearBuilt' ) )
    });
  }

...you can simply invoke generateForm() with the data object:

...
ngOnInit() {
  this.cruiseShip = new CruiseShip();
  this.shipForm = this.generateForm( this.cruiseShip );
}

generateForm() also accepts a second arguments:  a "mods" object that allows you to customize the FormGroup returned by the method.  The possible modification properties are:

• exclude:  an array of data object properties you don't want to create a FormControl for.
• only:  an array of the only data object properties you want to create FormControls for (overrides the "exclude" property if you mistakenly use both).
• rename: an object literal for remapping a data object property name (key) to a different FormControl name (value).
• validations: an object literal of additional validations to apply to particular data object properties.

An example of using the mods argument:

this.shipForm = this.generateForm( this.cruiseShip, {
  exclude: [ 'yearBuilt' ],
  rename: { cruiseLine: 'company' },
  validations: {
     name: { maxLength: { maxLength: 100, message: 'Ship name cannot be longer than 100 characters' } }
  }
});

The Angular application I maintain on GitHub to demonstrate vadacl has been updated with a demo that uses generateForm().