«color» Component Type

📖 Table of Contents

Introduction

The color component type extends the Input component type.

Since the native HTML type=color input field also returns a string and already ensures that the value is a valid #RRGGBB hexadecimal color string, the color component type wouldn’t had been necessary since we could have used the input component type.

But native HTML color input fields does not allow even empty string so, if we receive a #000000 value, we cannot tell if the user has intentionally selected the black color or if he just didn’t select any color at all.

The color component type, on the other hand, can take null as value (being it its default value).

  • Imports: String (Valid “#RRGGBB” or “#RGB” Hex value) or null (meaning not selected).
  • Exports: String (Valid “#RRGGBB” Hex value) or null (when not selected).
  • Singleton Pattern: Implements the Singleton Pattern
  • Data Conversion: None, but accepts null as value.

Usage

Just add the data-smark attribute to the <input"> element specifying the type:

<input data-smark='{"type":"color", "name":"myColor"}'>

Alternatively, you can also use the shorthand notation inferring the type from the <input> element type:

<input type="color" name="myColor" data-smark>

Example:

🔗
🗒️ HTML
🎨 CSS
⚙️ JS
👁️ Preview
❓
<div id="myForm">
  <input type="color" name="myColor" data-smark>
</div>

const myForm = new SmarkForm(document.getElementById("myForm"), {
    "value": {
    "myColor": "#3a7bd5"
}
});

Every example in this section comes with many of the following tabs:

  • HTML: HTML source code of the example.
  • CSS: CSS applied (if any).
  • JS: JavaScript source code of the example.
  • Preview: Live, sandboxed rendering of the example — fully isolated from the page styles.
  • Notes: Additional notes and insights for better understanding. Don't miss it‼️

✨ In the Preview tab, a JSON playground editor is available with handy buttons:

  • ⬇️ Export to export the form data to the JSON playground editor.
  • ⬆️ Import to import data from the JSON playground editor into the form.
  • ♻️ Reset to reset the form to its default values.
  • ❌ Clear to clear the whole form.

💡 The JSON playground editor is part of the SmarkForm form itself — it is just omitted from the code snippets to keep the examples focused on what matters.

🛠️ Between the tab labels and the content there is always an edit toolbar:

  • ✏️ Edit — activates edit mode: each source tab turns into a syntax-highlighted code editor (powered by Ace) pre-filled with the full, merged source. Changes are sandboxed — the original example is not affected.
  • 📋 Include playground editor — (only visible in edit mode) controls whether the JSON playground editor is included in the preview. When toggled, the HTML and JS editors update instantly so you can see exactly what code is needed to add or remove it.
  • ▶️ Run — (only visible in edit mode) re-renders the Preview from the current editor contents and switches to the Preview tab.

👉 Notice that, after selecting a color, you can clear the input field by pressing the Delete key.

But, in order to allow clearing the field from touch devices it’s advisable to add a trigger button with the clear action.

The following example uses the Singleton Pattern to group the input field and the clear button:

🔗
🗒️ HTML
🎨 CSS
⚙️ JS
👁️ Preview
📝 Notes
❓
<div id="myForm">
  <span data-smark='{"type":"color", "name":"myColor"}'>
    <input data-smark>
    <button data-smark='{"action":"clear"}'>❌ Clear</button>
  </span>
</div>

const myForm = new SmarkForm(document.getElementById("myForm"), {
    "value": {
    "myColor": "#e74c3c"
}
});

👉 Without recurring to the Singleton Pattern, you would have to specify the context in the button action, like this:

<input type="color" name="myColor" data-smark>
<button data-smark='{"action":"clear","context":"./myColor"}'>❌ Clear</button>

👉 Here we used a explicitly relative path for the context. But you could also use: → "context":"myColor" (non explicit relative path) → "context":"/myColor" (absolute path)

Every example in this section comes with many of the following tabs:

  • HTML: HTML source code of the example.
  • CSS: CSS applied (if any).
  • JS: JavaScript source code of the example.
  • Preview: Live, sandboxed rendering of the example — fully isolated from the page styles.
  • Notes: Additional notes and insights for better understanding. Don't miss it‼️

✨ In the Preview tab, a JSON playground editor is available with handy buttons:

  • ⬇️ Export to export the form data to the JSON playground editor.
  • ⬆️ Import to import data from the JSON playground editor into the form.
  • ♻️ Reset to reset the form to its default values.
  • ❌ Clear to clear the whole form.

💡 The JSON playground editor is part of the SmarkForm form itself — it is just omitted from the code snippets to keep the examples focused on what matters.

🛠️ Between the tab labels and the content there is always an edit toolbar:

  • ✏️ Edit — activates edit mode: each source tab turns into a syntax-highlighted code editor (powered by Ace) pre-filled with the full, merged source. Changes are sandboxed — the original example is not affected.
  • 📋 Include playground editor — (only visible in edit mode) controls whether the JSON playground editor is included in the preview. When toggled, the HTML and JS editors update instantly so you can see exactly what code is needed to add or remove it.
  • ▶️ Run — (only visible in edit mode) re-renders the Preview from the current editor contents and switches to the Preview tab.

Requirements

The number component will throw a RenderError if the target field is not an INPUT element or its type is explicitly defined and different to “color”.

🔗
🗒️ HTML
🎨 CSS
⚙️ JS
👁️ Preview
❓
<div id="myForm">
  <span data-smark='{"type":"color", "name":"myColor"}'>
    <input type="text" name="myColor" data-smark>
    <button data-smark='{"action":"clear"}'>❌ Clear</button>
  </span>
</div>

const myForm = new SmarkForm(document.getElementById("myForm"));

Every example in this section comes with many of the following tabs:

  • HTML: HTML source code of the example.
  • CSS: CSS applied (if any).
  • JS: JavaScript source code of the example.
  • Preview: Live, sandboxed rendering of the example — fully isolated from the page styles.
  • Notes: Additional notes and insights for better understanding. Don't miss it‼️

✨ In the Preview tab, a JSON playground editor is available with handy buttons:

  • ⬇️ Export to export the form data to the JSON playground editor.
  • ⬆️ Import to import data from the JSON playground editor into the form.
  • ♻️ Reset to reset the form to its default values.
  • ❌ Clear to clear the whole form.

💡 The JSON playground editor is part of the SmarkForm form itself — it is just omitted from the code snippets to keep the examples focused on what matters.

🛠️ Between the tab labels and the content there is always an edit toolbar:

  • ✏️ Edit — activates edit mode: each source tab turns into a syntax-highlighted code editor (powered by Ace) pre-filled with the full, merged source. Changes are sandboxed — the original example is not affected.
  • 📋 Include playground editor — (only visible in edit mode) controls whether the JSON playground editor is included in the preview. When toggled, the HTML and JS editors update instantly so you can see exactly what code is needed to add or remove it.
  • ▶️ Run — (only visible in edit mode) re-renders the Preview from the current editor contents and switches to the Preview tab.

When a SmarkForm component fails to render due to a RenderError, it is replaced by a flamboyant placeholder that shows the error code and provides a handy button to “replay” it to the console making it easier to debug the issue.

👉 Take a look to the Preview tab of the previous example to see it in action.

Notice that you’ll need to open your browser console if you want to see the error details when pressing the “Replay Error” button.

API Reference

Actions

Actions are special component methods that can be triggered both programmatically (by directly calling the function) or by user interaction with a trigger component. Each action is associated with a specific behavior that can be performed on the component.

👉 Actions receive an options object as an argument, which contains the necessary information to perform the action.

👉 When called from triggers, the properties defined in their data-smark object, are passed as options to the action. Those expecting a path(★ ) to other components are resolved to the actual component.

The color component type supports the following actions:

(Async) export (Action)

Exports the selected color as a #RRGGBB hex string, or null if no color has been selected.

Options (export)
  • action: (= “export”)
  • origin: Origin is automatically set to the trigger component that called the action (and cannot be overridden). In case of a manual call, it is set to Null.
  • context: Path★ (absolute or relative to its natural context) to the component that is the context of the action. If not provided, the context is set to its natural context.
  • target: Path★ (absolute or relative to its context). Pipes the exported data to the import action of the target component.
  • data:

(Async) import (Action)

Imports a color value into the field. Accepts a #RRGGBB or #RGB hex string, or null to clear the selection.

Options (import)
  • action: (= “import”)
  • origin: Origin is automatically set to the trigger component that called the action (and cannot be overridden). In case of a manual call, it is set to Null.
  • context: Path★ (absolute or relative to its natural context) to the component that is the context of the action. If not provided, the context is set to its natural context.
  • target: Path★ (absolute or relative to its context). Pipes the imported data from the export action of the target component, overridding the “data” option if specified.
  • data: (number or string)
  • focus: (boolean, default true)

(Async) clear (Action)

Clears the color selection (sets the value to null).

Options (clear)
  • action: (= “clear”)
  • origin: Origin is automatically set to the trigger component that called the action (and cannot be overridden). In case of a manual call, it is set to Null.
  • context: Path★ (absolute or relative to its natural context) to the component that is the context of the action. If not provided, the context is set to its natural context.

(Async) reset (Action)

Reverts the color field to its configured default value. If no default was configured, the field reverts to null (same as clear).

Options (reset)
  • action: (= “reset”)
  • origin: Origin is automatically set to the trigger component that called the action (and cannot be overridden). In case of a manual call, it is set to Null.
  • context: Path★ (absolute or relative to its natural context) to the component that is the context of the action. If not provided, the context is set to its natural context.
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