Scaling Forms in React: My Personal Journey with a Custom useForm Hook

Introduction

After more than a decade in software development, I’ve learned that building scalable, maintainable, and performant applications is as much an art as it is a science. Throughout my career, I’ve witnessed firsthand the challenges that arise as an application evolves—from its early codebase to managing complex forms in large-scale projects. Today, I want to share my journey and explain how creating a custom useForm hook helped me streamline form management and validation in React.

My Story: Lessons from a Decade in Development

When I first started coding, I was thrilled by every new technology that came my way. Over time, I realized that the true value wasn’t in writing more code, but in writing code that’s easy to maintain, read, and scale. I’ve encountered countless forms—from simple login pages to intricate multi-step workflows—and each presented its own set of challenges. This experience led me to focus on several key aspects:
• Scalability: Preparing code to handle growing complexity.
• Maintainability: Ensuring that code is easy to update and debug.
• Readability: Writing clear, self-explanatory code that my teammates (and future me) can quickly understand.
• Performance: Optimizing for speed, especially in high-traffic applications.

The Challenge with Forms in Large-Scale Applications

Forms are an integral part of any application. Whether you’re collecting user data, processing payments, or filtering search results, forms must be robust and flexible. However, I noticed that standard patterns often resulted in repetitive code and scattered validation logic. That’s when I asked myself: How can I create a highly scalable form solution that reduces redundancy and enhances performance?

Enter the Custom useForm Hook

To tackle these challenges, I built a custom useForm hook that centralizes state management, error handling, and validations. This hook abstracts away much of the boilerplate, allowing my components to remain clean and focused. Below is a simplified version of the hook:

import { useState } from 'react';

function useForm(initialValues, validate) {
  const [values, setValues] = useState(initialValues);
  const [errors, setErrors] = useState({});

  // Handle input changes and update form values
  const handleChange = (e) => {
    const { name, value } = e.target;
    setValues((prevValues) => ({
      ...prevValues,
      [name]: value,
    }));
  };

  // Validate on form submission and execute callback if valid
  const handleSubmit = (callback) => (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
    const validationErrors = validate(values);
    if (Object.keys(validationErrors).length === 0) {
      callback();
    } else {
      setErrors(validationErrors);
    }
  };

  return { values, errors, handleChange, handleSubmit };
}

export default useForm;

Interactive Demo

I’ve created an interactive demo on CodeSandbox where you can see this custom hook in action. In this demo, I built a simple sign-up form that uses the hook for handling form state and validations—disabling default HTML5 validation in favor of our custom logic.

Check out the live demo on CodeSandbox »

Feel free to explore the demo, tweak the validation rules, or even extend the form fields. It’s a great way to see how a custom hook can transform your approach to handling forms in React.

Conclusion

Building a custom useForm hook was a game changer for my projects. Not only did it make my codebase cleaner and more modular, but it also significantly improved the user experience in my applications. If you’re facing challenges with form management in React, I hope my story and this solution inspire you to take control of your code and scale your forms for success.

Feel free to share your thoughts or ask questions in the comments—I’d love to hear about your experiences with building scalable applications!