> JavaScript Frameworks & Tools > The Delightful World of Vue Part 2
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The goal of this page is to hold a checkout form. When the user submits that form, we will send an AJAX request to our API to create a "purchase" in the database, which will contain the customer's info from the form plus the list of the items in the user's cart.

To truly live our low-budget, minimum viable product hip startup mentality, instead of having a credit card form, after success, we'll redirect the user to a page with information about where to mail a check to. Very cutting edge.

Setting up the Data

Open assets/components/checkout/index.vue:

14 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
A cool checkout form will appear right here!
</div>
</div>
</template>
<script>
export default {
name: 'CheckoutForm',
};
</script>

This component will hold a bunch of form fields like customer name, email address, etc. And it's going to need to store those field values as data. Add a data function and return an object with a form key set to another object. Add a key for every field: customerName initialized to an empty string, customerEmail, customerAddress, customerZip, customerCity and customerPhone.

26 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
// ... lines 1 - 8
<script>
export default {
name: 'CheckoutForm',
data() {
return {
form: {
customerName: '',
customerEmail: '',
customerAddress: '',
customerZip: '',
customerCity: '',
customerPhone: '',
},
};
},
};
</script>

Next, because we are definitely going to add form validation, add a validationErrors data set to an empty object:

27 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
// ... lines 1 - 8
<script>
export default {
name: 'CheckoutForm',
data() {
return {
form: {
// ... lines 15 - 20
},
validationErrors: {},
};
},
};
</script>

This will eventually hold a map of which fields are currently invalid with their error message.

Adding the First Field

Nice! Up in the template, add the first field. Replace the text with a form tag, no action needed, then some Bootstrap markup: a div, the label - with "Name:" and a for attribute set to customerName. It's not necessary, but I've made this consistent with the data key... so I can keep my sanity. Add class="col-form-label":

42 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
<form>
<div class="form-group">
<label
for="customerName"
class="col-form-label"
>
Name:
</label>
// ... lines 12 - 17
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</template>
// ... lines 23 - 42

then add the <input and make sure its id matches the for label attribute. Also add v-model="form.customerName".

42 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
<form>
<div class="form-group">
<label
for="customerName"
class="col-form-label"
>
Name:
</label>
<input
id="customerName"
v-model="form.customerName"
// ... lines 15 - 16
>
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</template>
// ... lines 23 - 42

Thanks to this, whenever the user updates this input, v-model will also make sure that the form.customerName data is also updated. Finish with type="text" and class="form-control".

42 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
<form>
<div class="form-group">
<label
for="customerName"
class="col-form-label"
>
Name:
</label>
<input
id="customerName"
v-model="form.customerName"
type="text"
class="form-control"
>
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</template>
// ... lines 23 - 42

Good start! And if we check it in the browser... it's there! Inspect element, open the Vue dev tools and find the CheckoutForm component. We can watch the form.customerName data stay in sync thanks to v-model.

Oh, but to be extra cool, we can use v-model.trim, which is a shortcut to trim off any extra whitespace:

42 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
<form>
<div class="form-group">
// ... lines 6 - 11
<input
id="customerName"
v-model.trim="form.customerName"
// ... lines 15 - 16
>
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</template>
// ... lines 23 - 42

Now if I go back... and put a bunch of spaces at the start, the data does not have those.

Rendering Validation Errors

We don't have any form validation logic yet, but let's prepare our field to be able to render the validation message based on the validationErrors data. To help, add a new methods section at the bottom of the component with one function: isFieldValid() with a fieldName argument. Inside, return not fieldName in this.validationErrors.

56 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
// ... lines 1 - 32
<script>
export default {
name: 'CheckoutForm',
// ... lines 36 - 48
methods: {
isFieldValid(fieldName) {
return !(fieldName in this.validationErrors);
},
},
};
</script>

Use this above. First, on the input, if validation fails, this needs an extra class. Change to use :class and set form-control to true so that it always renders. We also want an is-invalid class if not isFieldValid('customerName').

56 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
<form>
<div class="form-group">
// ... lines 6 - 11
<input
id="customerName"
// ... lines 14 - 15
:class="{
'is-invalid': !isFieldValid('customerName'),
'form-control': true,
}"
>
// ... lines 21 - 26
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</template>
// ... lines 32 - 56

Then, after the input, add a span with v-show set to that same thing: not isFieldValid('customerName') so that this only shows when the field is invalid. Give this class="invalid-feedback" and print the validation error inside: validationErrors.customerName.

56 lines | assets/components/checkout/index.vue
<template>
<div class="row p-3">
<div class="col-12">
<form>
<div class="form-group">
// ... lines 6 - 20
<span
v-show="!isFieldValid('customerName')"
class="invalid-feedback"
>
{{ validationErrors.customerName }}
</span>
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</template>
// ... lines 32 - 56

And... hmm... ah! ESLint is mad because I messed up my indentation. Good work ESLint!

Vue Router?

Let's try this! Back at the browser, the page already refreshed... which highlights one annoying thing about our setup: when we refresh, it takes us back to the cart page! This is because we are not changing the URL when we go back and forth between the cart and checkout. And so, our component can't remember that we're on a different page.

Depending on your situation, this might be ok... or it might totally not be ok! This is something that could be improved by using the Vue Router: a topic we'll talk about in a future tutorial.

Anyways, click back to the checkout form, find the Vue dev tools, locate the CheckoutForm component, edit the validationErrors data and set it to an object with a customerName key and some message. Hit save. That looks lovely!

So... our customerName field is ready! There's just one problem: do we really want to copy and paste all of this 5 more times for the other 5 fields? Um... no. We can do better. Next, let's create a new form input component that we can re-use for every field.