
Ask HN: Is there a markup language for forms? - benkarst
I&#x27;ve been coding web and mobile apps for 12 years and I&#x27;ve worked on countless forms. It seems like there should exist a formal way to define them (field names, data types, validation, endpoints, etc.), compatible with backend and frontend languages. Then a library, in each given language to render the form. Anyway, I&#x27;d like to define a form once and render it or process it without any extra work. Do any hackers know of such a thing?
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sheeeep86
I've seen several decent implementations based on [https://json-
schema.org/implementations.html#web-ui-generati...](https://json-
schema.org/implementations.html#web-ui-generation)

Json schema also has many tools for validation, which is nice if you're
passing the form data around.

~~~
benkarst
JSONForm
([https://github.com/jsonform/jsonform](https://github.com/jsonform/jsonform))
looks very promising. Thanks!

~~~
emorning3
Also check out [https://github.com/rjsf-team/react-jsonschema-
form](https://github.com/rjsf-team/react-jsonschema-form)

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andrei_says_
I ended up creating my own, in yaml, with rails backend.

Includes multiple nested field sets, fields shown/activated by other fields
etc.

The gist is: structure in yaml/json, then field code templates in partials,
and validations on the back end. Included Salesforce list validations which
was pretty neat.

The code is nowhere near reusable unfortunately.

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ughitsaaron
This might not be exactly what you’re looking for — it’s meant more for
interactive editorial features than simple forms — but Idyll looks really cool
and is worth a look.

[https://idyll-lang.org/](https://idyll-lang.org/)

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kkreuning
XForms
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XForms](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XForms)

~~~
wenc
Just be aware, XForms is a fairly niche standard. I worked with XForms a bit
in 2004 and had high hopes for it, but it never reached a critical mass in
terms of adoption.

[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40325231/is-xforms-
still...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40325231/is-xforms-still-a-
standard-that-is-being-implemented-and-developed-or-is-there)

Like most XML standards, it favors generality over simplicity. There are some
indications that while this is good for complicated forms, it could be
overkill for simple forms.

[https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-
forms/2014Oct/00...](https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-
forms/2014Oct/0016.html)

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zzo38computer
I once started inventing such a thing called FORMCARD, which supports paper
forms as well as computer, and also includes transport protocol to submit the
forms, as well as the file format to describe the form, but not much has been
done with that since then.

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tyzerdak
Use html5 and make code snippets in editor. So when typing form it will create
form with all input elements and you del not needed.

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benkarst
Dream Features \- one to many

