Why You Need to Use a Form Library for Complex VueJS Apps

Forms are the backbone of modern web applications. Whether you're building an admin dashboard, an e-commerce checkout flow, or a complex data entry system, forms determine how users interact with your application. Yet, despite their importance, forms are often one of the most challenging aspects of Vue.js development.

If you've ever found yourself wrestling with nested form data, struggling to manage field validation states, or writing repetitive code for dynamic forms, you're not alone. These pain points are exactly why Enforma exists—to transform complex form development from a burden into a breeze.

The Real Pain Points of Vue Form Development

1. Nested Form Data Management

Traditional Vue form handling becomes unwieldy when dealing with complex, nested data structures:

// The nightmare of deeply nested v-model bindings
<input v-model="form.user.profile.personalInfo.firstName" />
<input v-model="form.user.profile.personalInfo.lastName" />
<input v-model="form.user.addresses[0].street" />
<input v-model="form.user.addresses[0].city" />

As your forms grow, managing this nested reactivity becomes increasingly complex, leading to performance issues and maintenance headaches.

2. Dynamic Field Requirements

Modern applications often require forms that change based on user input or server data. Implementing conditional fields, repeatable sections, or dynamic validation rules quickly becomes a web of reactive watchers and computed properties:

// What you end up writing
const showShippingAddress = computed(() => form.requiresShipping && form.total > 0)
const addressFields = computed(() => user.addresses.map((addr, index) => ({
  // Complex mapping logic here...
})))

3. Form State Chaos

Tracking form state—dirty fields, touched inputs, validation errors, loading states—across hundreds of fields becomes a developer nightmare. You end up with scattered state management and inconsistent user experiences.

This seems simple but many UI library have given up implementing a proper state management. The best user experience for validating a field is the following:

1. If the user enters/focuses on a field but it doesn't change its value the field should be considered "clean" and validation should not be triggered.
2. Only if the user changes the original value, the field becomes "dirty" and the validation should be triggered. And that should only happen on blur.
3. A dirty field should trigger validation on each keystroke.

Vuetify, for example, would trigger validation on blur no matter how the user interacted during with the field. Because it's easier this way (or I don't know how to configure it as I have no experience with it).

4. Validation Complexity

Cross-field validation, async validation, and nested validation rules require custom solutions that are often fragile and hard to test:

// The validation spaghetti
watch([() => form.startDate, () => form.endDate], ([start, end]) => {
  if (start && end && start > end) {
    errors.endDate = 'End date must be after start date'
  }
  // And this is just one rule...
})

What Developers Usually End Up Doing

Faced with these challenges, developers typically resort to:

• Copying and pasting form logic between components, or at best using composables or mixins.
• Building custom abstractions that work for one project but aren't reusable
• Using validation libraries and implement their own UI interactions
• Writing hundreds of lines of boilerplate for form state management
• Creating fragile validation systems that are hard to maintain

These workarounds lead to technical debt, bugs, and frustrated development teams.

The Enforma Philosophy: Flexible, UI-Agnostic, Headless

Enforma was built with a different philosophy: separation of concerns. Instead of forcing you into specific UI components or patterns, Enforma provides the logic layer while giving you complete freedom over the presentation.

Headless by Design

Enforma's started with headless architecture which means you get all the powerful form logic without being locked into specific UI components:

<HeadlessField :name="street">
  <template #default="{ model, value, attrs, error, events, id }">
    <label
      :id="attrs['aria-labelledby']"
      :for="id"
      class="block" >
      Street
    </label>
    <input
      :id="id"
      :value="value"
      class="w-full"
      v-bind="attrs"
      v-on="events"
    />
    <div v-if="error"
         :id="attrs['aria-errormessage']"
         class="text-red-500">
      {{ error }}
    </div>
  </template>
</HeadlessField>

This is just the foundation of the library on top of which we built a set of core components that reduce verbosity and that you can customize to your desire.

Because such customization is trivial Enforma comes with presets for PrimeVue, Vuetify and Quasar. And you can easily bring your own UI components

Multiple Rendering Approaches

Enforma uniquely offers four different ways to build forms, letting you choose the right approach for each situation:

1. Field-based: Explicit control for complex custom forms
2. Schema-based: JSON-driven forms for dynamic UIs
3. Headless: Complete UI freedom with just state management
4. Mixed: Combine all approaches for ultimate flexibility

How Enforma Solves These Complex Problems

1. Effortless Nested Data Handling

// Instead of complex v-model bindings
const schema = {
   'user.profile.firstName': { 
      type: 'text', 
      required: true 
    },
  'user.addresses': {
      type: 'repeatable', 
      subfields: [
        { name: 'street', type: 'text' },
        { name: 'city', type: 'text' }
      ]
    }
}

Enforma automatically handles the nested reactivity, validation, and state management.

2. Comprehensive Validation System

// Cross-field validation that just works
const rules = {
  'end_date': 'required|date_after:@start_date',
  'confirm_password': 'required|same:@password',
  'total': 'gte:@subtotal'
}

Enforma's validation system includes 30+ built-in rules, async validation support, and clean syntax for cross-field dependencies.

3. Performance at Scale

Built on Vue 3's reactivity system, Enforma is optimized for forms with hundreds of fields without sacrificing performance.

Real-World Example: Before and After

Before Enforma (traditional approach):

<template>
  <form @submit="handleSubmit">
    <div v-for="(address, index) in form.addresses" :key="index">
      <input 
        v-model="address.street" 
        :class="{ error: errors[`addresses.${index}.street`] }"
      />
      <span v-if="errors[`addresses.${index}.street`]">
        {{ errors[`addresses.${index}.street`] }}
      </span>
      <button @click="removeAddress(index)">Remove</button>
    </div>
    <button @click="addAddress">Add Address</button>
  </form>
</template>

<script>
// 100+ lines of form state management...
</script>

After Enforma (schema approach):

<template>
  <EnformaSchema 
    :schema="addressSchema" 
    :data="form"
    :submitHandler="handleSubmit"
  />
</template>

<script setup>
  const addressSchema = {
    'addresses': {
      type: 'repeatable',
      subfields: {
        street: { type: 'text', required: true },
      }
    }
  }
</script>

Ready to Transform Your Vue Forms?

Enforma eliminates the complexity of modern form development while giving you the flexibility to build exactly what your application needs. Whether you're building a simple contact form or a complex multi-step wizard, Enforma scales with your requirements.

Get started today:

npm install @encolajs/enforma

Try Enforma today. Your future self (and your team) will thank you.

Try Enforma Now →