How to observe touched event on Angular 2 NgForm?

Question

It is possible to subscribe a callback to an NgForm\'s valueChanges observable property in order to react to changes in the values of the controls

Answer 1

You can extend default FormControl class, and add markAsTouched method that will call native method, plus your side effect.

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { FormControl, AsyncValidatorFn, ValidatorFn } from '@angular/forms';
import { Subscription, Subject, Observable } from 'rxjs';

export class ExtendedFormControl extends FormControl {
  statusChanges$: Subscription;
  touchedChanges: Subject = new Subject();

  constructor(
    formState: Object,
    validator: ValidatorFn | ValidatorFn[] = null,
    asyncValidator: AsyncValidatorFn | AsyncValidatorFn[] = null
  ) {
    super(formState, validator, asyncValidator);

    this.statusChanges$ = Observable.merge(
      this.valueChanges,
      this.touchedChanges.distinctUntilChanged()
    ).subscribe(() => {
      console.log('new value or field was touched');
    });
  }

  markAsTouched({ onlySelf }: { onlySelf?: boolean } = {}): void {
    super.markAsTouched({ onlySelf });

    this.touchedChanges.next(true);
  }
}