Props
Usage guidelines
- Any time succinct data needs to be entered by a user, like a date, email address, name, or Pin title.
- Situations where long amounts of text need to be entered, since the full content of the TextField will be truncated. Use TextArea instead.
Best practices
Use helper text for important information. Helper text helps users understand how to complete the text field or to indicate any needed input.
Put essential information in the placeholder text, since it disappears when the user types. The placeholder text is not a replacement for the label.
Always ensure the text field has a visible label. The label provides context and supports users when filling in information.
Remove the label, as this creates accessibility and usability issues.
Only place related fields on the same line.
Place unrelated text fields on the same line, as this can create comprehension issues.
Provide clear and useful error messages that help the user fix the issue. Error messages should be displayed in a timely manner — typically once the field loses focus or when the form is submitted.
Display generic error messages, such as "There is an error".
Consider all text fields as required, unless explicitly noted as optional.
Mark fields as required.
Accessibility
Comprehension
Be sure to provide instructions to help users understand how to complete the form and use individual form controls.
Labels
Ensure the labels are precise and concise. Labels should only describe the text field they are associated with, and they must be visible.
Validation
When providing a validation message, make sure the instructions are clear and help users complete the field. For example, "Passwords must contain at least 20 characters". In addition, use the helper text to provide instructions to help users understand how to complete the text field or to indicate any needed input, allowed formats, timing limitations, or other pertinent information.
These practices give screen readers and users of assistive technologies more information about the form, helping them to fill it out.
TextField has conventional keyboard support.
- Users relying on the keyboard expect to move focus to each TextField by using the tab key or shift+tab when moving backwards
- Setting
disabled
will prevent TextField from receiving keyboard focus or input
Autofocus
TextField intentionally lacks support for autofocus. Generally speaking,
autofocus interrupts normal page flow for screen readers making it an
anti-pattern for accessibility.
onSubmit
TextField is commonly used as an input in forms alongside submit buttons.
In these cases, users expect that pressing Enter or Return with the input
focused will submit the form.
Out of the box, TextField doesn't expose an onSubmit
handler or
individual key event handlers due to the complexities of handling these
properly. Instead, developers are encouraged to wrap TextField
in a <form>
and attach an onSubmit
handler to that <form>
.
Localization
Be sure to localize errorMessage
, helperText
, label
, and placeholder
.
Variants
Helper text
Whenever you want to provide more information about a form field, you should use helperText
.
Read-only
Read-only TextFields are used to present information to the user without allowing them to edit the content. Typically they are used to show content or information that the user does not have permission or access to edit.
Disabled
disabled
TextFields cannot be interacted with using the mouse or keyboard. They also do not need to meet contrast requirements, so do not use them to present info to the user (use readOnly
instead).
Error message
TextField can display an error message.
Simply pass in an errorMessage
when there is an error present and we will handle the rest.
Be sure to localize the text!
Tags
You can include Tag elements in the input using the tags
prop.
Note that TextField does not internally manage tags. Tag management should be handled in the application state through the component's event callbacks. We recommend creating new tags on enter key presses, and removing them on backspaces when the cursor is in the beginning of the field. We also recommend filtering out empty tags.
This example showcases the recommended behavior. In addition, it creates new tags by splitting the input on spaces, commas, and semicolons.
Refs
TextField can accept a ref for anchoring Popover-based components.
Related
TextArea
When users need to enter long amounts of text, use TextArea to ensure the full content will be shown.
NumberField
For numerical input, use NumberField. Exceptions: for telephone numbers, use <TextField type="tel" />
. And for numerical input with possible leading 0's (e.g. ZIP codes), use <TextField type="text" />
.
SearchField
If the input is used for searching content, use SearchField.