How to persist and restore form validation state in a ClojureScript frontend?
0 reputation · 15 Oct 2025, 14:11 UTC
When building a ClojureScript application (e.g., with Reagent, Re-frame, or plain atoms) you often need to keep validation information across page reloads or accidental navigations. The goal is to capture the current validation state, store it durably, and later restore it so the user sees the same error messages and field statuses.
- Identify the validation data structure: Determine where validation results are kept (e.g., an
atomholding a map of field‑to‑error strings or a Re‑framedbslice). - Serialize the validation state: Convert the validation map to a JSON‑compatible format (using
clj->jsorpr-str) and store it in a persistent client‑side store such aslocalStorage,sessionStorage, or IndexedDB. - Trigger persistence on change: Attach a watcher (e.g.,
add-watchon the atom or a Re‑frame interceptor) that runs the serialization step whenever the validation map updates. - Restore on application start: During app initialization, read the stored value, parse it back into ClojureScript data (
js->cljorread-string), and reset the validation atom or dispatch an event to update the Re‑frame db. - Verification: After a reload, inspect the UI to confirm that previously invalid fields still show their error messages and that valid fields are unchanged.
- Rollback: If the stored data is corrupted or incompatible, catch the parsing error, clear the storage entry, and re‑initialize validation to a clean state.
Discuss trade‑offs (e.g., storage size limits, security considerations for sensitive validation data, and how to handle schema changes when the validation format evolves).