Form Elements

Form elements are the building blocks of your forms. They come in two types:

• Controls — Input fields that connect to schema properties (text, dropdowns, checkboxes, etc.)
• Layouts — Containers that organize how controls are arranged (vertical, horizontal, tabs)

How Elements Work

Every form has a schema that defines data structure and a uischema that defines how to display it.

schema:
  type: object
  properties:
    name:              # ← Data definition
      type: string

uischema:
  type: VerticalLayout    # ← Layout element
  elements:
    - type: Control       # ← Control element
      scope: "#/properties/name"

The schema says "there's a string field called name" — the UI schema says "display it as a control inside a vertical layout."

Element Reference

Controls

Controls render input fields based on schema types:

Control	Schema Type	Renders As
Text input	string	Single-line text field
Textarea	string + multi: true	Multi-line text area
Number input	number or integer	Numeric input
Checkbox	boolean	Single checkbox
Dropdown	string + enum	Select dropdown
Radio buttons	string + enum + format: radio	Radio button group
Checkbox group	array + enum	Multiple checkboxes
Date picker	string + format: date	Calendar picker
File upload	object or array + format: file	File selector
Slider	integer + slider: true	Range slider

See Controls for detailed documentation and examples.

Layouts

Layouts organize how controls are arranged:

Layout	Description
VerticalLayout	Stack elements top to bottom
HorizontalLayout	Arrange elements side by side
Categorization	Tabbed interface
Category	A single tab within Categorization

See Layouts for detailed documentation and nesting examples.

Common Patterns

Simple Form

uischema:
  type: VerticalLayout # Column
  elements: # Column content
    - type: Control
      scope: "#/properties/name"
    - type: Control
      scope: "#/properties/email"

Form with Rows

uischema:
  type: VerticalLayout # Wrapper
  elements:
    - type: HorizontalLayout # Row
      elements: # Row content
        - type: Control # First column input
          scope: "#/properties/firstName"
        - type: Control # Second column input
          scope: "#/properties/lastName"
    - type: Control # Input below the row
      scope: "#/properties/email"

Tabbed Form

uischema:
  type: Categorization # Tabs
  elements:
    - type: Category # Tab
      label: Personal
      elements: # Tab content
        - type: Control
          scope: "#/properties/name"
    - type: Category # Tab
      label: Contact
      elements:	# Tab content
        - type: Control
          scope: "#/properties/email"

Learn More

• Controls — All control types with options
• Layouts — Layout types and nesting
• UI Schema — Complete UI schema reference
• Boilerplate — Copy-paste snippets