Quickly Generate Forms based on your Eloquent Models with Laravel Formello

Formello is a Laravel package designed to automate the generation of forms. Instead of manually creating forms with HTML, you can leverage your Eloquent models to define the structure of your forms. This not only saves time but also ensures consistency across your application.

According to the developer, "Formello was created for developers who need to generate forms quickly without the overhead of a complete admin panel, but who also want a simpler, more intuitive API than more complex form libraries."

#Key Features

• Easy form definition using Laravel classes
• Automatic form rendering
• Support for various field types
• Customizable widgets
• Automatic error handling and display
• Form validation integration
• Built-in support for Bootstrap 5 by default, but support for Tailwind CSS is coming soon.

#Creating a Form

To create a form, let us create a new form class ArticleForm in app/Forms that extends Formello:

<?php
 
namespace App\Forms;
 
use App\Models\Category;
use App\Models\User;
use Metalogico\Formello\Formello;
 
class ArticleForm extends Formello
{
    protected function create(): array
    {
        return [
            'method' => 'POST',
            'action' => route('articles.store'),
        ];
    }
 
    protected function edit(): array
    {
        return [
            'method' => 'PATCH',
            'action' => route('articles.update', $this->model->id),
        ];
    }
 
    protected function fields(): array
    {
        return [
            'title' => [
                'label' => __('Title'),
            ],
            'content' => [
                'label' => __('Content'),
            ],
            'category_id' => [
                'label' => __('Category'),
                'widget' => 'select',
                'choices' => Category::pluck('name', 'id')->toArray(),
            ],
            'author_id' => [
                'label' => __('Author'),
                'widget' => 'select',
                'choices' => User::pluck('name', 'id')->toArray(),
            ],
 
        ];
    }
}

If you already have a model, then you can use the artisan command to generate the above file based on your existing models. For example:

php artisan make:formello --model=Article

#Rendering the Form

First, update your controller action:

public function create()
{
    $form = new ArticleForm(Article::class);
 
    return view('articles.create', [
      'form' => $form
    ]);
}

Update your Blade layout template to include Bootstrap 5 and the Formello assets:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Laravel News Formello Demo</title>
 
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.7/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-LN+7fdVzj6u52u30Kp6M/trliBMCMKTyK833zpbD+pXdCLuTusPj697FH4R/5mcr" crossorigin="anonymous">
 
    <!-- Formello CSS -->
    @formelloStyles
</head>
<body>
    @yield('content')
 
 
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.7/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js" integrity="sha384-ndDqU0Gzau9qJ1lfW4pNLlhNTkCfHzAVBReH9diLvGRem5+R9g2FzA8ZGN954O5Q" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
 
    <!-- Formello JS -->
    @formelloScripts
</body>
</html>

Now, in your Blade template, you can render the form:

@extends('layouts.app')
 
@section('content')
<div class="container">
    <h2>Create New Article</h2>
    {!! $form->render() !!}
</div>
@endsection

When using Formello, you can also facilitate conditional logic using the isCreating() and isEditing() methods in your form class to dynamically change fields.

It's also possible to create your own Custom Widget classes and extend the Metalogico\Formello\Widgets\BaseWidget class.

By leveraging the power of Formello, Eloquent models, and Bootstrap 5, it enables efficient development and maintenance of forms throughout your application. Start integrating Formello into your Laravel projects to simplify your form creation process.

Install it via Composer and publish the Formello assets:

composer require metalogico/laravel-formello
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=formello-assets

Learn more about Formello and view the source code on GitHub.