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VA Forms Library - How to work with transformForSubmit

Sometimes you may have data that you want to reshape or adapt before sending it to the backend. The Forms Library manages this scenario by using an option called transformForSubmit.

Options

Value Type

Description

Example

transformForSubmit

function

Called during form submission to transform submitted schema data (Optional).

Calling transformForSubmit in platform/forms-system/src/js/helpers will remove view fields from the schema data. 

transformForSubmit: (formConfig, form) => {}

transformForSubmit is an optional top level property on the formConfig object. If no custom transformForSubmit function is provided, then the default transformForSubmit is run.

Example 1

In this example from the COVID-VACCINE-TRIAL Form, the following data has been transformed before being submitted to the backend: HEALTH_HISTORY, TRANSPORTATION, EMPLOYMENT_STATUS, VETERAN, GENDER and RACE_ETHNICITY.

Note: The image below shows only the GENDER and RACE_ETHNICITY sections of the form.

Screen shot showing the COVID-VACCINE-TRIAL Form with annotations to indicate which schema fields corresponds with the UI fields.

From the transform function of COVID-VACCINE-TRIAL Form:

JavaScript
const checkBoxElements = [
  'HEALTH_HISTORY',
  'TRANSPORTATION',
  'EMPLOYMENT_STATUS',
  'VETERAN',
  'GENDER',
  'RACE_ETHNICITY',
];

export function transform(formConfig, form) {
  const transformedForm = form;
  checkBoxElements.forEach(elementName => {
    Object.keys(form.data[elementName])
      .filter(key => form.data[elementName][key] === undefined)
      .forEach(filteredKey => {
        transformedForm.data[elementName][filteredKey] = false;
      });
  });
  return transformForSubmit(formConfig, transformedForm);
}

In this example, we transform the data of each item in the checkBoxElements that is not selected (undefined) to false before sending it to the backend.

Example 2

In this example from the 10182 Form, which is used to request a Board Appeal, we reshape the form data before submitting it to the backend.

JavaScript
import {
  addIncludedIssues,
  addAreaOfDisagreement,
  addUploads,
  getAddress,
  getPhone,
  getTimeZone,
} from '../utils/submit';

export function transform(formConfig, form) {
  // https://dev-developer.va.gov/explore/appeals/docs/decision_reviews?version=current
  // https://va.ghe.com/software/vets-api/blob/master/modules/appeals_api/config/schemas/10182.json
  const mainTransform = formData => {
    const result = {
      data: {
        type: 'noticeOfDisagreement',
        attributes: {
          veteran: {
            homeless: formData.homeless || false,
            address: getAddress(formData),
            phone: getPhone(formData),
            emailAddressText: formData.veteran?.email || '',
          },
          boardReviewOption: formData.boardReviewOption || '',
          hearingTypePreference: formData.hearingTypePreference || '',
          timezone: getTimeZone(),
          socOptIn: true,
        },
      },
      included: addAreaOfDisagreement(addIncludedIssues(formData), formData),
      nodUploads: addUploads(formData),
    };
    if (formData.boardReviewOption !== 'hearing') {
      delete result.data.attributes.hearingTypePreference;
    }
    return result;
  };

  // Not using _.cloneDeep on form data - it appears to replace `null` values
  // with an empty object; and causes submission errors due to type mismatch
  const transformedData = mainTransform(form.data || {});
  return JSON.stringify(transformedData);
}


In both examples, the transform is called using the option transformForSubmit in the formConfig file:

JavaScript
...
import { transform } from '../config/submit-transformer';
...
const formConfig = {
  ...
  transformForSubmit: transform,
};

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