# Custom Rendering
Rendering your forms in a custom manner means not relying on Formie's render methods, and constructing forms how you like. You can use as much or as little of Formie's helpers as you require. Ultimately, the maintenance of these templates will be up to you, and you'll want to keep an eye on Formie's own changes to ensure you're staying up to date.

:::warning
We recommend reading the [theming overview](docs:theming/overview) docs before getting started, for an explanation of custom rendering forms compared to other methods of theming forms.
:::

## Example
The below is the most bare-bone form rendering for a Formie form. We'll use this as a base template to add more functionality.

:::tip
This guide serves as a starter. There are several aspects of templating that should be considered, such as accessibility, usability and JavaScript integration. As such, this guide should be taken as a starter for you to continue developing for your needs. It is not meant to be a copy-and-paste, complete solution.
:::

```twig
{% set form = craft.formie.forms.handle('contactUs').one() %}

{% set attributes = {
    method: 'post',
    'data-fui-form': form.configJson,
} %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>
    {{ actionInput('formie/submissions/submit') }}
    {{ hiddenInput('handle', form.handle) }}
    {{ csrfInput() }}

    {% if form.getRedirectUrl() %}
        {{ redirectInput(form.getRedirectUrl()) }}
    {% endif %}

    {% for field in form.getFields() %}
        {% set value = field.defaultValue ?? null %}
        
        {{ field.getFrontEndInputHtml(form, value) }}
    {% endfor %}
    
    <button type="submit" data-submit-action="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
```

Stepping through the above, we prepare an array of HTML attributes, for the `<form>` element, and use Craft's `attr()` Twig function to apply them - it's a little easier than all those attributes!

:::warning
Make sure to include the `data-fui-form` attribute with JSON configuration from the form. Without this attribute, Formie's JavaScript will fail to initialise, meaning client-side validation, captchas and more will not work.
:::

We're then including the `actionInput`, `hiddenInput` and `csrfInput` to the form - all requirements and should not be changed. If the form has a redirect URL, we're also setting that with a `redirectInput`.

Finally, we're looping through all fields defined in the form. We're also using `getFrontEndInputHtml` to output the HTML for the field. You could write the individual `<input>` elements, but we'd highly recommend you use the [Template Overrides](docs:theming/template-overrides) to override individual field HTML. The reason is simple - you're keeping field HTML modular, so it's easily reusable across multiple forms.

Next, let's add some error-handling for good UX.

```twig
{% set flashNotice = craft.formie.plugin.service.getFlash(form.id, 'notice') %}
{% set flashError = craft.formie.plugin.service.getFlash(form.id, 'error') %}

{% if flashNotice %}
    <div role="alert">
        {{ flashNotice | raw }}
    </div>
{% endif %}

{% if flashError %}
    <div role="alert">
        {{ flashError | raw }}
    </div>
{% endif %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>

...
```

Here, we've added flash messages for form-wide errors and success. We'll add some more shortly.

Then, we want to add information about the submission. This is important if the form is submitted, but validation fails. You'll want to retain the submission information on the form, rather than getting the user to fill in their details from scratch. It's also important for multi-page forms.

```twig
{% set submission = form.getCurrentSubmission() %}
{% set submitted = craft.formie.plugin.service.getFlash(form.id, 'submitted') %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>
    {{ actionInput('formie/submissions/submit') }}
    {{ hiddenInput('handle', form.handle) }}
    {{ csrfInput() }}

    {% if submission and submission.id %}
        {{ hiddenInput('submissionId', submission.id) }}
    {% endif %}

    {% set errors = submission.getErrors('form') ?? null %}
    {% if errors %}
        {% for error in errors %}
            {{ error }}
        {% endfor %}
    {% endif %}

    {% for field in form.getFields() %}
        {% set value = attribute(submission, field.handle) ?? field.defaultValue ?? null %}
        {% set errors = submission.getErrors(field.handle) ?? null %}
        
        {{ field.getFrontEndInputHtml(form, value) }}

        {% if errors %}
            {% for error in errors %}
                {{ error }}
            {% endfor %}
        {% endif %}
    {% endfor %}
    
    <button type="submit" data-submit-action="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
```

We're fetching the `submission` based on the current submission for this form. For a brand-new form, this will be `null`, but if the page has reloaded with validation errors, this will be populated. For multi-page forms, this is particularly useful. We can also check the `flash` for whether the form has been submitted, to show the success message.

We also add the `submissionId` as a `hiddenInput` if we're trying to submit the form again. We also check if there are any validation errors on the `submission` element for the form, as well as for each individual field.

Then, for each field, we're fetching the field value from the `submission` element, if it doesn't exist, we use the `defaultValue`. We're also checking for validation errors for the specific field.

Last, but not least - we'll want to include Formie's CSS and JS. If you'd rather include your own, either exclude this, or turn these off in your [Form Template](docs:feature-tour/form-templates).

```twig
{% set form = craft.formie.forms.handle('contactUs').one() %}

{% do craft.formie.registerAssets(form.handle) %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>

...
```

It's important to include this `registerAssets` before the `<form>` rendering tag. You could also include them separately as below:

```twig
{% set form = craft.formie.forms.handle('contactUs').one() %}

{% do craft.formie.renderFormCss(form.handle) %}
{% do craft.formie.renderFormJs(form.handle) %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>

...
```

### Captchas
If your form uses captchas, it's important that you include a template hook to tell the form where to inject required HTML generated by the captcha. Be sure your form includes the following hook to ensure captchas work:

```
{% hook 'formie.buttons.before' %}
```

That should provide us with a working example to continue building. Here's the template combined:

```twig
{# Fetch the form we require #}
{% set form = craft.formie.forms.handle('contactUs').one() %}

{# Ensure the CSS/JS is rendered, according to the Form Template location #}
{% do craft.formie.registerAssets(form.handle) %}

{# Fetch the current submission - if there is one #}
{% set submission = form.getCurrentSubmission() %}
{% set submitted = craft.formie.plugin.service.getFlash(form.id, 'submitted') %}

{# Show any error or success messages for the submission #}
{% set flashNotice = craft.formie.plugin.service.getFlash(form.id, 'notice') %}
{% set flashError = craft.formie.plugin.service.getFlash(form.id, 'error') %}

{% if flashNotice %}
    <div role="alert">
        {{ flashNotice | raw }}
    </div>
{% endif %}

{% if flashError %}
    <div role="alert">
        {{ flashError | raw }}
    </div>
{% endif %}

{# Generate required attributes for the `<form>` element #}
{% set attributes = {
    method: 'post',
    'data-fui-form': form.configJson,
} %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>
    {{ actionInput('formie/submissions/submit') }}
    {{ hiddenInput('handle', form.handle) }}
    {{ csrfInput() }}

    {# Ensure we update the same submission on subsequent saves (if validation fails) #}
    {% if submission and submission.id %}
        {{ hiddenInput('submissionId', submission.id) }}
    {% endif %}

    {# Show any validation errors for the form #}
    {% set errors = submission.getErrors('form') ?? null %}
    {% if errors %}
        {% for error in errors %}
            {{ error }}
        {% endfor %}
    {% endif %}

    {# Render each field, according to its field template #}
    {% for field in form.getFields() %}
        {# Fetch the value if one exists, or use the default #}
        {% set value = attribute(submission, field.handle) ?? field.defaultValue ?? null %}
        {% set errors = submission.getErrors(field.handle) ?? null %}
        
        {{ field.getFrontEndInputHtml(form, value) }}

        {# Show any field-specific errors #}
        {% if errors %}
            {% for error in errors %}
                {{ error }}
            {% endfor %}
        {% endif %}
    {% endfor %}

    {% hook 'formie.buttons.before' %}
    
    <button type="submit" data-submit-action="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
```

### File Uploads
If your form contains File Upload fields, you'll need to set the `<form>` element to use `multipart/form-data`.

```twig
{% set attributes = {
    method: 'post',
    enctype: 'multipart/form-data',
    'data-fui-form': form.configJson,
} %}

<form {{ attr(attributes) }}>

```

Without this, file uploads will not work.

### What's Not Covered
Whilst we've covered the basics, there's still plenty of things left to address, such as handling the different forms of submission (redirecting the user away, hiding the form, only showing a message), and multi-page forms. That's beyond the scope of this guide, and we'd encourage you to consult the templates on [Formie's GitHub](https://github.com/verbb/formie/tree/craft-5/src/templates/_special).

### Next Steps
The above is a quick guide to the basics, but be warned that you'll be required to keep an eye on Formie's templates and development, in order to keep up with any core changes for your templates. We highly recommend you test your template code to ensure Formie's JavaScript works with your HTML markup as well, particularly for things like Captchas.

:::tip
Check out the raw templates on [Formie's GitHub](https://github.com/verbb/formie/tree/craft-5/src/templates/_special/form-template) - they'll be the most up to date. This example serves as a brief, cut-down version of what Formie does under the hood, to use these templates as further inspiration for your own templates.
:::
