Form Extensibility and Customization

This page describes how you can customize ADF forms to your own specification.

Note: it is assumed you are familiar with Alfresco Process Services (powered by Activiti) form definition structure.

• How components and widgets are rendered on a Form
• Replacing default form widgets with custom components
• Replacing custom stencils with custom components

Contents

• How components and widgets are rendered on a Form
  • Component type resolvers
  • Default component mappings
• Form Extensibility for APS/AAE
• See Also

How components and widgets are rendered on a Form

All form field editors (aka widgets) on a Form are rendered by means of FormFieldComponent that takes an instance of a FormFieldModel:

<form-field [field]="field"></form-field>

This component depends on FormRenderingService service to map FormFieldModel to UI component based on field type or metadata information.

Component type resolvers

FormRenderingService maps field types to corresponding instances exposing ComponentTypeResolver interface:

export interface ComponentTypeResolver {
    (field: FormFieldModel): Type<{}>;
}

Typically a ComponentTypeResolver is a function that takes FormFieldModel and returns corresponding component type. This can either be a predefined component type or dynamically evaluated based on the field properties and metadata.

Static component mapping

You can (re)map fields like in the following:

let customResolver: ComponentTypeResolver = () => CustomWidgetComponent;
formRenderingService.setComponentTypeResolver('text', customResolver, true);

or simply:

formRenderingService.setComponentTypeResolver('text', () => CustomWidgetComponent, true);

Dynamic component mapping

Alternatively your resolver may return different component types based on FormFieldModel state and condition:

let customResolver: ComponentTypeResolver = (field: FormFieldModel): Type<{}> => {
    if (field) {
        let params = field.params;
    }
    return UnknownWidgetComponent;
};
formRenderingService.setComponentTypeResolver('text', customResolver, true);

Default component mappings

Form Extensibility for APS/AAE

• Form Extensibility for APS Stencil
• Form Extensibility for AAE Form Widget

See Also

• Form field model
• Form rendering service
• Form component
• Widget component