Display form inputs for unpopulated properties

General information

• json-editor version: latest

Expected behavior

I’m not sure if the library is supposed to be able to do this, but here is what I am trying to do:

1. Use jsonschema to describe a form with many fields
2. Seed the form using startval with values some (but not all) fields
3. Display the entire form, including all empty fields

Here is the code that I’ve tried:

<div id="holder"></div>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@json-editor/json-editor@latest/dist/jsoneditor.min.js"></script>
<script>
var schema = {
    "foo": {
        "type": "object",
        "title": "Foo",
        "properties": {
            "bar": {
                "type": "string",
                "title": "Bar"
            },
            "baz": {
                "type": "string",
                "title": "Baz"
            }
        }
    }
};
var settings = {
    "foo": {
        "bar": "Hello world"
    }
};
var editor = new JSONEditor(document.getElementById('holder'), {
   schema: schema,
   startval: settings
});

Actual behavior

I was hoping to see “Bar” filled in with “Hello world” and “Baz” as an empty text input. But so far I am only seeing “Bar” filled in with “Hello world”. The “Baz” field does not appear.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, if there is an easy way to get what I’m looking for. Thank you!

[kameelyan]

Hey @brockfanning, it’s a common misconception that fields in the ‘required’ array must have data. It only means ‘required’ properties must be included in the data object, not that they have data in them. If you want to control what data is them, you’d give them a type, minLength/maxLength validations, etc. All that can be seen in the schema definition/validation documentation on the site I provided.

[brockfanning]

@kameelyan Aha, thanks very much. The problem you point out in my schema explains why required_by_default and show_opt_in did not appear to be changing anything.

I think I may be trying to use the library in a way that was not intended - to display a form to non-technical users. In my case, I want all the properties to appear, but I don’t want them to be required; and because the users are non-technical, I don’t want users to have to go into “Object properties” in order to see them (in fact to prefer to hide those buttons altogether).

I’m trying a workaround where I rely on default in the schema, in combination with custom code, in order to force these non-required properties to appear as form elements. However it’s not ideal.

I’m wondering if my use-case is too far outside the intended function of the library. If you agree, feel free to close this ticket. If not, do you think there should/could be a config setting which would force all properties to appear, even if unpopulated and non-required?