Controlled_Uncontrolled_Inputs

Controlled and Uncontrolled inputs

Input components in Compose for Web have two modes: Controlled and Uncontrolled.

Controlled vs Uncontrolled behaviour

Let's create two inputs using different modes and compare them:

// Uncontrolled
Input(type = InputType.Text) {
    defaultValue("Initial Value") // optional
    onInput { event -> println(event.value) }
}

// Controlled
Input(type = InputType.Text) {
    value("Some value") // calling value(...) is necessary to make input "Controlled"
    onInput { event -> println(event.value) }
}

If you try running these snippets you'll see following behaviour:

• Uncontrolled text input will show "Initial value". Typing will make corresponding changes to the input's state.
• Controlled text input will show "Some value". But typing will not cause any changes.
• Both inputs will receive an event in onInput { } handler

In the example above, we set hardcoded value - value("Some value"). Therefore, typing does nothing. Under the hood, controlled input "restores" its state according to last known value.

Using MutableState with Controlled Input

To make Controlled Input more useful we can use MutableState<*> to keep input's value:

val inputState = remember { mutableStateOf("Some Text") }

Input(type = InputType.Text) {
    value(inputState.value)
    onInput { event -> println(event.value) }
}

We can see that, inputState never mutates. If we run such an example as is, we'll see the same behaviour as when value(...) was hardcoded. But if we had some code that updates inputState, then Input would recompose and new value would be shown.

In most cases, inputState needs to be changed in onInput event handler:

val inputState = remember { mutableStateOf("Some Text") }

Input(type = InputType.Text) {
    value(inputState.value)
    onInput { event -> inputState.value = event.value }
}

Conclusion

Uncontrolled input changes its content independently while Controlled input's content can be changed only by external state (such as MutableState).

In most cases Controlled input is the default choice.

Convenient controlled inputs

Here is a list of Composable functions which represent controlled inputs of different types:

• CheckboxInput
• DateInput
• DateTimeLocalInput
• EmailInput
• FileInput
• MonthInput
• NumberInput
• PasswordInput
• RadioInput
• RangeInput
• SearchInput
• TelInput
• TextInput
• TimeInput
• UrlInput
• WeekInput

Example:

val inputState = remember { mutableStateOf("Some Text") }

TextInput(value = inputState.value) {
    onInput { event -> inputState.value = event.value }
}