Forms: Create / Build

Owned by Aaron Roworth
Last updated: Jul 11, 2017
2 min read



The create and build steps will create the form field templates, and then build them into a Javascript library file for you to include into your project. You can use the standard field templates (and then apply your own CSS styles for customisation), or if you prefer you can modify the templates themselves to create a highly customised form output.

Using the standard field templates

At this stage, if you're happy with your project setup, you're now able to run the bm forms create command:

bm forms create


This will create the library source by reading your forms definition and using the templates specified by the plugin you selected in the init step.


Advanced Customisation (optional)

If you would like to modify the standard templates, you can do so by using the create command with the --no-build flag. This will create the templates, but not perform the final build step:

bm forms create --no-build


Once you've run this command, you can then modify the template files.


We recommend running bm forms create before editing the templates so you can see what a default form will look lik

Modify Your Template Files

my-forms/templates contains templates used by the transforms in the plugin. You can modify them to include any HTML or JavaScript you want, and commit them to your own version control for future reusability.

For more information on editing the templates, see the template documentation.

Re-Building Your Source Code

If you have modified your source files after this process, you will need to run the build command again. This will build out the library from the source folder:

bm forms build


It is important to note that bm forms create will overwrite anything in the sourcePath folder. If you have modified anything in the sourcePath folder, running bm forms create will remove it.


Final Project Layout Example

You should now have my-forms/src and my-forms/dist  folders on your local machine:


|--my-project/
|  |--my-forms/
|  |  |--dist
|  |  |--src
|  |  |--templates
|  |--.blinkmrc.json
|  |--package.json



my-forms/dist

Will contain the Javascript libraries ready for integration into your app, as well as an index.html example file that shows you how to include the libraries and dependencies.

my-forms/src

Will contain the individual Javascript and components for your project. This does not need to be included in your project for deployment.

my-forms/templates

Will contain the template files used by the plugin to create your Javascript libraries.