Improve this Doc View Source

## Overview

Directive that instantiates FormController.

If the `name` attribute is specified, the form controller is published onto the current scope under this name.

## Alias: `ngForm`

In AngularJS, forms can be nested. This means that the outer form is valid when all of the child forms are valid as well. However, browsers do not allow nesting of `<form>` elements, so AngularJS provides the `ngForm` directive, which behaves identically to `form` but can be nested. Nested forms can be useful, for example, if the validity of a sub-group of controls needs to be determined.

## CSS classes

- `ng-valid` is set if the form is valid.
- `ng-invalid` is set if the form is invalid.
- `ng-pending` is set if the form is pending.
- `ng-pristine` is set if the form is pristine.
- `ng-dirty` is set if the form is dirty.
- `ng-submitted` is set if the form was submitted.

Keep in mind that ngAnimate can detect each of these classes when added and removed.

## Submitting a form and preventing the default action

Since the role of forms in client-side AngularJS applications is different than in classical roundtrip apps, it is desirable for the browser not to translate the form submission into a full page reload that sends the data to the server. Instead some javascript logic should be triggered to handle the form submission in an application-specific way.

For this reason, AngularJS prevents the default action (form submission to the server) unless the `<form>` element has an `action` attribute specified.

You can use one of the following two ways to specify what javascript method should be called when a form is submitted:

- ngSubmit directive on the form element
- ngClick directive on the first button or input field of type submit (input[type=submit])

To prevent double execution of the handler, use only one of the ngSubmit or ngClick directives. This is because of the following form submission rules in the HTML specification:

- If a form has only one input field then hitting enter in this field triggers form submit (`ngSubmit`)
- if a form has 2+ input fields and no buttons or input[type=submit] then hitting enter doesn't trigger submit
- if a form has one or more input fields and one or more buttons or input[type=submit] then hitting enter in any of the input fields will trigger the click handler on the first button or input[type=submit] (`ngClick`) and a submit handler on the enclosing form (`ngSubmit`)

Any pending `ngModelOptions` changes will take place immediately when an enclosing form is submitted. Note that `ngClick` events will occur before the model is updated. Use `ngSubmit` to have access to the updated model.

## Directive Info

- This directive executes at priority level 0.

## Usage

- as element:

      <form
        [name="string"]>
      ...
      </form>

### Arguments

Param | Type | Details
--- | --- | ---
name (optional) | string | Name of the form. If specified, the form controller will be published into related scope, under this name.

## Animations

Animations in ngForm are triggered when any of the associated CSS classes are added and removed. These classes are: `.ng-pristine`, `.ng-dirty`, `.ng-invalid` and `.ng-valid` as well as any other validations that are performed within the form. Animations in ngForm are similar to how they work in ngClass and animations can be hooked into using CSS transitions, keyframes as well as JS animations.

The following example shows a simple way to utilize CSS transitions to style a form element that has been rendered as invalid after it has been validated:

    //be sure to include ngAnimate as a module to hook into more
    //advanced animations
    .my-form {
      transition:0.5s linear all;
      background: white;
    }
    .my-form.ng-invalid {
      background: red;
      color:white;
    }

Click here to learn more about the steps involved in the animation.

## Example

    <script>
      angular.module('formExample', [])
        .controller('FormController', ['$scope', function($scope) {
          $scope.userType = 'guest';
        }]);
    </script>
    <style>
     .my-form {
       transition:all linear 0.5s;
       background: transparent;
     }
     .my-form.ng-invalid {
       background: red;
     }
    </style>
    <form name="myForm" ng-controller="FormController" class="my-form">
      userType: <input name="input" ng-model="userType" required>
      <span class="error" ng-show="myForm.input.$error.required">Required!</span><br>
      <code>userType = {{userType}}</code><br>
      <code>myForm.input.$valid = {{myForm.input.$valid}}</code><br>
      <code>myForm.input.$error = {{myForm.input.$error}}</code><br>
      <code>myForm.$valid = {{myForm.$valid}}</code><br>
      <code>myForm.$error.required = {{!!myForm.$error.required}}</code><br>
     </form>

    it('should initialize to model', function() {
      var userType = element(by.binding('userType'));
      var valid = element(by.binding('myForm.input.$valid'));

      expect(userType.getText()).toContain('guest');
      expect(valid.getText()).toContain('true');
    });

    it('should be invalid if empty', function() {
      var userType = element(by.binding('userType'));
      var valid = element(by.binding('myForm.input.$valid'));
      var userInput = element(by.model('userType'));

      userInput.clear();
      userInput.sendKeys('');

      expect(userType.getText()).toEqual('userType =');
      expect(valid.getText()).toContain('false');
    });