ngx-form-draft

Zero-dependency Angular form draft auto-save and restore. Works with Angular 14-20.

Features

• Auto-saves form values to localStorage
• Restores drafts on page reload
• Works with Reactive and Template-driven forms
• Handles nested FormGroups and FormArrays
• Visual banner with discard option
• 7-day draft expiration
• Zero external dependencies
• No Angular animations required (pure CSS)

Requirements

• Angular 14-20
• TypeScript 4.7+

Angular 21+ hasn't been tested yet. It uses stable APIs so it'll probably work, but open an issue if you run into anything.

Installation

npm install ngx-form-draft

Demo

Live demo: https://neokyuubi.github.io/ngx-form-draft/

Setup

1. Import the module

import { NgxFormDraftModule } from 'ngx-form-draft';

@NgModule({
  imports: [NgxFormDraftModule]
})
export class AppModule {}

Usage

Reactive Forms

<form [formGroup]="myForm" ngxFormDraft="uniqueFormId">
  <input formControlName="name">
  <input formControlName="email">
</form>

Template-driven Forms

<form #myForm="ngForm" ngxFormDraft="uniqueFormId">
  <input name="name" [(ngModel)]="model.name">
  <input name="email" [(ngModel)]="model.email">
</form>

Scoped drafts (per entity)

<!-- Reactive -->
<form [formGroup]="editForm" [ngxFormDraft]="'edit_' + userId">

<!-- Template-driven -->
<form #editForm="ngForm" [ngxFormDraft]="'edit_' + userId">

Options

Reactive Forms

<form 
  [formGroup]="myForm"
  [ngxFormDraft]="'myForm_' + entityId"
  [draftDebounce]="1000"
  [draftExcludeFields]="['password', 'confirmPassword']"
  [draftShowOnChange]="true"
  [draftRestoredText]="'Draft restored'"
  [draftSavedText]="'Draft saved'"
  [draftSavedLabel]="'saved'"
  [draftDiscardText]="'Discard'">
</form>

Template-driven Forms

<form 
  #myForm="ngForm"
  [ngxFormDraft]="'myForm_' + entityId"
  [draftDebounce]="1000"
  [draftExcludeFields]="['password', 'confirmPassword']"
  [draftShowOnChange]="true"
  [draftRestoredText]="'Draft restored'"
  [draftSavedText]="'Draft saved'"
  [draftSavedLabel]="'saved'"
  [draftDiscardText]="'Discard'">
</form>

Input Properties

• ngxFormDraft (string): Unique form identifier
• draftDebounce (number): Debounce time in ms (default: 800)
• draftExcludeFields (string[]): Fields to exclude from draft
• draftShowOnChange (boolean): Show banner immediately on change (default: false)
• draftRestoredText (string): Banner text for restored draft
• draftSavedText (string): Banner text for saved draft
• draftSavedLabel (string): Label before timestamp
• draftDiscardText (string): Discard button text

Clearing the draft

The draft is not cleared automatically on form submit. To clear it (e.g. after a successful submit), use FormDraftService - it works the same for both reactive and template-driven forms.

Inject the service and call clear(formId) with the same formId you use on the form:

import { FormDraftService } from 'ngx-form-draft';

export class MyComponent {
  constructor(private draftService: FormDraftService) {}

  onSubmit() {
    this.myForm.markAllAsTouched();
    if (this.myForm.invalid) return;
    // ... submit to API ...
    this.draftService.clear('uniqueFormId');  // same id as ngxFormDraft
  }
}

Users can also clear the draft at any time via the banner’s Discard button.

Internationalization (i18n)

The package has zero dependencies and supports any i18n solution. Just pass translated strings via inputs:

With ngx-translate:

<form 
  [formGroup]="myForm"
  ngxFormDraft="myForm"
  [draftRestoredText]="'form_draft.restored' | translate"
  [draftSavedText]="'form_draft.saved' | translate"
  [draftSavedLabel]="'form_draft.saved_label' | translate"
  [draftDiscardText]="'form_draft.discard' | translate">
</form>

With Angular i18n:

<form 
  [formGroup]="myForm"
  ngxFormDraft="myForm"
  [draftRestoredText]="restoredText"
  [draftSavedText]="savedText"
  [draftDiscardText]="discardText"
  i18n-draftRestoredText="@@formDraftRestored"
  i18n-draftSavedText="@@formDraftSaved"
  i18n-draftDiscardText="@@formDraftDiscard">
</form>

With component properties:

// component.ts
export class MyComponent {
  draftTexts = {
    restored: 'Brouillon restauré',
    saved: 'Brouillon sauvegardé',
    savedLabel: 'sauvegardé',
    discard: 'Supprimer'
  };
}

<!-- template.html -->
<form 
  [formGroup]="myForm"
  ngxFormDraft="myForm"
  [draftRestoredText]="draftTexts.restored"
  [draftSavedText]="draftTexts.saved"
  [draftSavedLabel]="draftTexts.savedLabel"
  [draftDiscardText]="draftTexts.discard">
</form>

Default English text:

If you don't provide any text inputs, defaults are:

• draftRestoredText: "Draft restored"
• draftSavedText: "Draft saved"
• draftSavedLabel: "saved"
• draftDiscardText: "Discard"

License

MIT