Can conform work with a virtualized list of inputs?

[rgosse]

Imagine a form where a dynamic number of inputs are part of a paginated or virtualized list. It seems that, whether each input is controlled or uncontrolled, I can't help losing the changes made to the input once they are unmounted (ie when unloading a chunk upon scrolling or going to the next page).

Is there a way to make such a form work in Conform?

Cheers,

[edmundhung]

Conform does not maintain values internally and relies on the DOM.

For this kind of usage, I would recommend using a controlled input: keep the value in React state and validate against that state instead. Relying on FormData will not work when the inputs are not actually rendered. The alternative would be to render hidden inputs for those values, but that mostly defeats the purpose of using a virtualized list.

[rgosse]

Ok, thank you for the clarifications. Just to confirm:

For this kind of usage, I would recommend using a controlled input: keep the value in React state and validate against that state instead.

This is a recommendation to not use conform right? Otherwise I don't see how to make it work together on this.

[edmundhung]

Yes and no. Validating React state with the current APIs is awkward, since validation is tied to formData and manually building the submission result is not what they were designed for. But we will be releasing a future version of the useForm hook in the next week or two that decouples this and makes it easier to validate against an arbitrary value if you do not want to rely on the current form data.

[rgosse]

Interesting, will keep my eyes open, thanks!