useForm

useForm is a custom composition API function that allows you to group fields created by useField and aggregates their state. It should be used to create logical forms or custom form components similar to the <Form/> component which is just a consumer of useForm.

Field Types

The useForm function has field typing capabilities if you need it, getting type information for your fields and their values can be very powerful when building complex forms.

By unlocking the field type you automatically get more strict information for the various properties/methods exposed by useForm like setErrors and setTouched. There are two ways you can get the advanced typing information for your fields, the first is to provide a generic type to useForm.

tsimport { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

interface LoginForm {
  email: string;
  password: string;
}

// in your setup
const { errors } = useForm<LoginForm>();

Or simply provide initial values to useForm and it will automatically pick up the type of initialValues and use it for the field types.

tsimport { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { errors, setErrors, setFieldValue } = useForm({
  initialValues: {
    email: '',
    password: '',
  },
});

Alternatively, you can use a typed schema to infer the form types from the validation schema if you are using yup or zod.

Whichever approach you prefer, you get full type information for your fields for all the functions exposed by useForm, here are a few examples.

tsimport { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

interface LoginForm {
  email: string;
  password: string;
}

// in your setup
const { errors, setErrors, setFieldValue } = useForm<LoginForm>();

errors.value; // typed as { email?: string; password?: string }

setErrors({
  email: 'This field is invalid', // auto-complete for `email` and `password`
});

setFieldValue('email', 'example@gmail.com'); // auto-complete for the field name and its value type

For example if you were to do this in the previous example:

tssetFieldValue('age', 5); // ⛔️ TypeScript error
setFieldValue('email', 5); // ⛔️ TypeScript error

It will error out because age is not defined in the LoginForm type you defined. The second line errors out because the email field is typed as a string.

API Reference

Arguments

validationSchema?: any

Enables form-level validation, uses the specified schema to validate the fields. The schema can be either valid vee-validate global validators or functions or a yup object schema.

initialValues?: MaybeRef<Record<string, any>>

The initial values for the form, can be a reactive object or reference.

jsconst { ... } = useForm({
  initialValues: {
    email: 'example@gmail.com',
    password: 'p@$$w0rd',
  }
});

initialErrors?: Record<string, string>

The initial errors for the fields, useful for non hydrated SSR applications like Laravel, errors are applied on mounted.

jsconst { ... } = useForm({
  initialErrors: {
    email: 'This email is invalid',
    password: 'Password too short',
  }
});

initialTouched?: Record<string, any>

The initial touched status for the form fields, applied on mounted.

jsconst { ... } = useForm({
  initialTouched: {
    email: true, // touched
    password: false, // non-touched
  }
});

validateOnMount?: boolean

If true, it will trigger validation for all fields once the form component is mounted.

name?: string

If set, it will be used as the form’s name in the devtools.

jsconst { ... } = useForm({
  name: 'LoginForm', // Defaults to "Form"
});

Composable API

The following sections documents each available property on the useForm composable.

errors: Ref<Record<string, string>>

An object that maps field names to their error messages, it only takes the first error message of each field if multiple exists.

jsconst { errors } = useForm();

errors.value; // access the errors value

errorBag: Ref<Record<string, string>>

An object that maps field names to all of their error messages.

jsconst { errorBag } = useForm();

errorBag.value.email; // email field errors

Here is an example of its shape:

js{
  email: ["this field is required", "this field must be a valid email"],
  password: "too short"
}

Any fields without error messages will not be included in the object. So you can safely iterate over it with Object.keys() knowing all the included fields are invalid.

isSubmitting: Ref<boolean>

Indicates if the submission handler is still running, once it resolves/rejects it will be automatically set to false again.

jsconst { isSubmitting } = useForm();

isSubmitting.value; // true or false

isValidating: Ref<boolean>

Indicates if the validate function is still running, once validate function is done it will be automatically set to false again.

jsconst { isValidating } = useForm();

isValidating.value; // true or false

meta: ComputedRef<FormMeta>

A computed property that contains an aggregated meta information/flags reflecting the state of all the fields inside the form.

tsinterface FormMeta {
  touched: boolean; // if at least one field is touched (was blurred)
  dirty: boolean; // if at least one field is dirty (manipulated)
  valid: boolean; // if the form doesn't have any error messages
  pending: boolean; // if at least one field is pending validation
  initialValues?: Record<string, any>; // a map of the form's initial values
}

usage

jsconst { meta } = useForm();

meta.value; // { valid: false, invalid: true, dirty: true, .... }

values: Record<string, any>

A reactive property that contains the current form values, you should not try to mutate it directly.

jsconst { values } = useForm();

values; // { email: 'something@gmail.com', .... }

setFieldError: (field: string, message: string | undefined) => void

Sets a field’s error message, useful for setting messages form an API or that are not available as a validation rule. Setting the message to undefined or an empty string clears the errors and marks the field as valid.

jsconst { setFieldError } = useForm();

setFieldError('email', 'this email is already taken');

// Mark field as valid
setFieldError('email', undefined);

If you try to set an error for a field that doesn’t exist, it will be added to the form’s errors object and it will change the form’s valid state

setErrors: (fields: Record<string, string | undefined>) => void

Sets multiple fields error messages, uses setFieldError internally.

jsconst { setErrors } = useForm();

setErrors({
  email: 'this email is already taken',
  password: 'someone already has this password 🤪',
  firstName: undefined, // clears errors and marks the field as valid
});

setFieldValue: (field: string, value: any) => void

Sets a field’s value, if a field does not exist it will not be reflected in the values ref. This will trigger validation on the field whose value changed.

jsconst { setFieldValue } = useForm();

setFieldValue('email', 'example@gmail.com');

If you try to set a value for a field that doesn’t exist, it will be added to the form’s values object and will stay there until the next resetForm is called.

setValues: (fields: Record<string, any>) => void

Sets all fields values, will trigger validation for the changed fields.

jsconst { setValues } = useForm();

setValues({
  email: 'example@gmail.com',
  password: 'p@a$$W0rD',
});

setFieldTouched: (field: string, isTouched: boolean) => void

Sets a field’s touched meta flag, if you set it for a non-existing field it will have no effect.

jsconst { setFieldTouched } = useForm();

setFieldTouched('email', true);

setTouched: (fields: Record<string, boolean>) => void

Sets multiple fields touched meta flag, does not validate.

jsconst { setTouched } = useForm();

setTouched({
  email: true,
  password: false,
});

validate: () => Promise<{ valid: boolean; errors: Record<string, string>}>

Validates all the fields and populates the errors object, returns a promise that resolves to an object containing aggregated validation result of all fields.

jsconst { validate } = useForm();

const { valid, errors } = await validate();

validateField: (field: string) => Promise<{ valid: boolean; errors: string[] }>

Validates a specific field inside the form, returns a promise that resolves to an object containing the validation result.

jsconst { validateField } = useForm();

const { valid, errors } = await validateField('email');

handleSubmit: (cb: SubmissionHandler) => (evt?: Event) => Promise<void>

This is a higher order function used to create submit event handlers, You shouldn’t use it as a handler for the events directly but rather use it to create those handlers.

The handlers created using this function will automatically prevent form submission and stop the propagation of the submit event.

It accepts a function which runs after validating the form and if all fields are valid. The callback you pass will receive the form values as the first argument, which is an object containing the fields’ values.

vue<template>
  <form @submit="onSubmit"></form>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { handleSubmit } = useForm();

// use `onSubmit` as an event handler for your forms
const onSubmit = handleSubmit(values => {
  // pretty print the values object
  alert(JSON.stringify(values, null, 2));
});
</script>

For advanced forms, you may need to trigger various actions on the form in the submit handler. Your callback receives a FormActions object as part of the second argument along with the event object that triggered the submission if available.

jsconst { handleSubmit } = useForm();

const onSubmit = handleSubmit((values, actions) => {
  // Send data to API
  alert(JSON.stringify(values, null, 2));

  // the form object contains useful methods
  // set a single field value
  actions.setFieldValue('field', 'hello');
  // set multiple fields values
  actions.setValues({ email: 'value', password: 'hi' });
  // set a single field error
  actions.setFieldError('field', 'this field is bad');
  // set multiple fields errors
  actions.setErrors({ email: 'bad email', password: 'bad password' });
  // reset the form
  actions.resetForm();
});

handleSubmit contains a withControlled function that you can use to only submit fields controlled by useField or useFieldModel. Read the guide for more information.

vue<template>
  <form @submit="onSubmit"></form>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { handleSubmit } = useForm();

const onSubmit = handleSubmit.withControlled(values => {
  // Send only controlled values to the API
  // Only fields declared with `useField` or `useFieldModel` will be printed
  alert(JSON.stringify(values, null, 2));
});
</script>

submitForm: (evt: Event) => void

Unlike handleSubmit this function can be used as an event handler for form submit event, it will prevent the propagation and submission of the forms using it as long as they are invalid. Once all the fields are valid it will submit the form with the native HTML behavior following the form element’s action and method attributes.

This is useful if you plan to handle form submissions using a backend API like Laravel or whatever.

vue<template>
  <form @submit="submitForm" action="/api/login" method="post">
    <!-- ... -->
  </form>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { submitForm } = useForm();
</script>

submitCount: number

The number of submission attempts by the user, it increments whenever submitForm or handleSubmit callback are called.

resetForm: (state?: Partial<FormState>, opts?: ResetFormOpts) => void

Clears error messages, resets the meta state for all fields and reverts their values to their initial state as well as the submitCount state. Accepts an optional object containing the new form state, useful if you need to reset the form values to different values other than their initial state.

This is the FormState interface:

tstype TouchedFlags = { [k: string]: boolean };

interface FormState {
  // any error messages
  errors: Record<string, string>;
  // touched meta flags
  touched: TouchedFlags;
  // Form Values
  values: Record<string, any>;
  // The form submit attempts count
  submitCount: number;
}

In this example, the resetForm function is updating the fields current values to the ones provided, these values will be used as the new initial values for future resetForm or handleReset calls. This also applies if the Field component or useField used their individual resetField function.

jsconst { resetForm } = useForm();

// ...
function onSubmit(values) {
  // send values to the API
  // ...

  // Reset the form values
  resetForm({
    values: {
      firstName: '',
      lastName: '',
      email: '',
      password: '',
    },
  });
}

By default resetForm merges the previous initial values with the new one provided, meaning only the provided ones will be overwritten. You can overwrite all the fields by passing force: true in the second argument.

jsconst { values, resetForm } = useForm({
  initialValues: { fname: '123', lname: '456' },
});

// values: { fname: '123', lname: '456' }
resetForm({ values: { fname: 'test' } });

// values: { fname: 'test' }
resetForm({ values: { fname: 'test' } }, { force: true });

handleReset: () => void

Clears error messages, resets the meta state for all fields and reverts their values to their initial state as well as the submitCount state. you can use this function as handler for the reset events on native form elements.

vue<template>
  <form @reset="handleReset">
    <!-- ... -->
  </form>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { handleReset } = useForm();

// you can use it in your code
handleReset();
</script>

useFieldModel

This creates a bindable two-way model value for the specified fields, there are a couple of signatures for useFieldModel. Must be called in the setup function.

useFieldModel accepts either a single field path or multiple via an array. You can use either root field paths or nested paths like some.user.path with dot notation.

vue<template>
  <input name="email" v-model="email" />
  <span>{{ errors.email }}</span>

  <input name="password" v-model="password" type="password" />
  <span>{{ errors.password }}</span>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { errors, useFieldModel } = useForm();

const email = useFieldModel('email');
const password = useFieldModel('password');

// or multiple models at once
const [email, password] = useFieldModel(['email', 'password']);
</script>

defineInputBinds

This creates a bindable object for the specified field. The bindable object only works with native HTML input elements, for components use defineComponentBinds instead.

The defineInputBinds must be called in the setup function.

defineInputBinds accepts a single field path, You can use either root field paths or nested paths like some.user.path with dot notation.

vue<template>
  <input v-bind="email" />
  <span>{{ errors.email }}</span>

  <input v-bind="password" type="password" />
  <span>{{ errors.password }}</span>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { errors, defineInputBinds } = useForm();

const email = defineInputBinds('email');
const password = defineInputBinds('password');
</script>

defineComponentBinds

This creates a bindable object for the specified field. The bindable object only works with components, for native HTML input elements use defineInputBinds instead.

The defineComponentBinds must be called in the setup function.

defineComponentBinds accepts a single field path, You can use either root field paths or nested paths like some.user.path with dot notation.

vue<template>
  <MyTextInput v-bind="email" />
  <span>{{ errors.email }}</span>

  <MyTextInput v-bind="password" type="password" />
  <span>{{ errors.password }}</span>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';
import MyTextInput from '@/components/MyTextInput.vue';

const { errors, defineComponentBinds } = useForm();

const email = defineComponentBinds('email');
const password = defineComponentBinds('password');
</script>

defineField

This function returns a model and a props/attributes pair.

The defineField must be called in the setup function.

defineField accepts a single field path, You can use either root field paths or nested paths like some.user.path with dot notation.

vue<template>
  <input v-model="email" v-bind="emailProps" />
  <span>{{ errors.email }}</span>

  <input v-model="password" v-bind="passwordProps" type="password" />
  <span>{{ errors.password }}</span>
</template>

<script setup>
import { useForm } from 'vee-validate';

const { errors, defineField } = useForm();

const [email, emailProps] = defineField('email');
const [password, passwordProps] = defineField('password');
</script>

This function also works with custom components.

You can configure the props/attributes that are bound to the component by passing a second argument to defineField. You can use this configuration to adjust the field validation behavior and more with the individual elements you are using or the component library of your choice. Check the UI library examples for live examples.

tsconst [field, props] = defineField('field', {
  // A getter that computes and adds any additional props to the component
  // It receives the current field state as an argument
  props(state) {
    // This is just an example, by default this is an empty object
    return {
      'aria-invalid': state.errors.length > 0 ? 'true' : 'false',
    };
  },
  // A label for the field, only used with global validation rules
  label: 'a label',
  // Validates when `blur` event is emitted from the element/component
  validateOnBlur: true,
  // Validates when `change` event is emitted from the element/component
  validateOnChange: true,
  // Validates when `input` event is emitted from the element/component
  validateOnInput: false,
  // Validates when the returned model value changes
  validateOnModelUpdate: true,
});

You can also have a lazy configuration by passing a function that returns the configuration object. The only difference is props is now a plain object instead of a getter function.

This means you can change any of the configuration based on the field state:

tsconst [field, props] = defineField('field', state => {
  return {
    // A getter that computes and adds any additional props to the component
    props: {
      // This is just an example, by default this is an empty object
      'aria-invalid': state.errors.length > 0 ? 'true' : 'false',
    },
    // Validates when `blur` event is emitted from the element/component
    validateOnBlur: true,
    // Validates when `change` event is emitted from the element/component
    validateOnChange: true,
    // Validates when `input` event is emitted from the element/component
    validateOnInput: false,
    // Validates when the returned model value changes
    validateOnModelUpdate: true,
  };
});