formidable-modules

What is Formidable?

Formidable is the new solution to manage Forms with Jahia. It will fully replace Jahia Forms. It is currently in development.

Main architecture principles

Formidable is based on Jahia standard technologies:

• Forms, steps, fieldsets and fields are regular content items
• Rendering / views use JavaScript modules, built in React / TSX
• Actions are declared in Java / OSGi, as per any other action inside Jahia
• The editor extension (custom selectors, form results admin) uses Module Federation via @jahia/vite-federation-plugin

Prerequisites

• Jahia 8.2.2+
• JavaScript modules 1.2.0+
• jContent 3.6+

Documentation

• CND module ownership - where JCR types and mixins belong, and how to choose between formidable-elements and formidable-engine
• Form submission flow - request lifecycle, pipeline steps, and server-side safeguards
• CAPTCHA server-side validation - provider verification endpoints and token handling
• How to create a form action - step-by-step guide for implementing a custom FormAction OSGi service
• How to extend views and elements from a third-party module - rendering contract for external container views and custom form elements
• Save to JCR - how submissions and uploaded files are stored in JCR
• Results permissions - per-form access control for submission results (fmdb-results-reader role)
• Export - multi-format export architecture (CSV, JSON) with date range filtering
• Styling a form - class hooks, CSS variables and edit-mode cues for template sets and custom CSS
• Custom validation - inline validation messages replacing native browser tooltips, with per-field contributor overrides
• Conditional logic field resolution - weakref-based model for conditional logic dependencies
• Error codes - server-side error codes returned on form submission failure
• Dependency decisions - rationale for embedded vs. provided dependencies in Java modules

Alpha version

Scope

Alpha version is targeted for June 2026. It will include the ability to:

• Create forms, with multi-step support, fieldsets, and 12 field types:
  • Text input (with optional pattern, mask, datalist)
  • Textarea (with resize, spellcheck, autocomplete options)
  • Email (with pattern, datalist, multiple recipients)
  • Select (dropdown, with multiple selection and size options)
  • Checkbox (single or group)
  • Radio (single or group)
  • Date (with min/max/step)
  • Datetime-local (with min/max/step)
  • File upload (with MIME type filtering, multiple files, image/video/PDF support)
  • Color
  • Hidden
  • Rich text (embeddable HTML content block)
• Create form references (reuse an existing form via weak reference)
• Conditional logic (show/hide fields based on other field values, using weakref-based dependency resolution)
• 4 built-in form actions:
  • Save to JCR (persists submissions and uploaded files under formidable-results/)
  • Send email notification (with ${fieldName} interpolation in subject and body)
  • Send email content (sends the full submission by email, with optional file attachments)
  • Forward to external endpoint (multipart/form-data POST to operator-configured targets)
• CAPTCHA support (tested with Google reCAPTCHA, Cloudflare Turnstile and hCaptcha)
• Require authenticated user (reject anonymous submissions server-side)
• Server-side submission validation (field constraints, allowed MIME types, choice value allowlists, cross-origin request checks)
• Form results admin panel in jContent (only for forms using the Save to JCR action):
  • Browse saved submissions per form
  • Detail panel with metadata, field values, file cards with thumbnails and preview
  • Keyboard navigation (arrow keys)
  • Multi-format export (CSV, JSON) with date range filtering
  • Per-form access control via fmdb-results-reader role (results are private by default)
  • Submission deletion (admin-only in v1)
• Custom CSS injection per form (see Styling a form for the class hooks and CSS variables)
• Extension points:
  • Create your own action (implement FormAction OSGi service via org.jahia.modules.formidable.engine.api)
  • Overwrite the view for a field type
  • Create a new field type (CND + server view + optional client Island)

Packaging

• 2 modules:
  • formidable-elements — provides the fields, form structure and rendering views
  • formidable-engine — provides the action framework (Java/OSGi), CAPTCHA verification, editor extensions (custom selectors, form results panel)

Current known limitations

• When selecting a field, users don't know what it will look like. This pain point will be addressed globally inside Jahia in 2026.
• Forms are currently built using jContent list or structured view. There is no support for Page Builder / visual building. This issue should be resolved over the summer.