Do Devise forms require a label for each textfield? - html

Question

Does Devise require a label for each textfield in its forms (ie: registration/new)?
When i delete the label in my code, ie:"<%= f.label :name %>", the textfield also disappears on the page. I want to show the textfield, but not the label.
devise/registrations/new.html.erb
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-8">
<%= form_for(resource, as: resource_name, url: registration_path(resource_name)) do |f| %>
<%= devise_error_messages! %>
<div class="form-group>
<%= f.label :name %>
<%= f.text_field :name, autofocus: true, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Name' %>
</div>
<div class="form-group>
<%= f.label :email %>
<%= f.text_field :email, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Email' %>
</div>
<div class="form-group>
<%= f.label :password %>
<%= f.text_field :password, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Password' %>
</div>
<div class="form-group>
<%= f.label :password_confirmation %>
<%= f.text_field :password_confirmation, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Confirm password' %>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<%= f.submit "Sign up", class: 'btn btn-success' %>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<%= render "devise/shared/links" %>
</div>
<% end %>
</div>
</div>
After deleting label
Before deleting label
I've read its bad practice to exclude a label outside of a a textfield in a form, but Facebook does it ;)
I'm still new to RoR and any guidance is appreciated.

Answer 1

Does Devise require a label for each textfield
No.
Devise is a gem.
It's built using the same helpers and code as every other Ruby/Rails app. It does not have any special requirements to use labels.
In fact, the form helpers of Rails, and indeed every other helper, outputs vanilla HTML. If you can get away with not having labels in html, you can do it with your form helper.
Here's our code for a devise registration form (in HAML):
#app/views/devise/registrations/new.haml
.authenticate
= render "devise/shared/title"
= simple_form_for(User.new, as: resource_name, url: registration_path(resource_name)) do |f|
- if flash[:error]
.form-errors= flash[:error]
= f.error_notification
.form-inputs
= f.input :email, required: true, autofocus: true, placeholder: "Email"
%hr
= f.input :password, required: true, placeholder: "Password"
= f.input :password_confirmation, required: true, placeholder: "Confirm"
.form-actions
.bar
= link_to "", "#", rel: "submit", class: "ion-forward", title: "Register", data: { placement: "right" }
= render "devise/shared/links"
You should try the following:
<%= form_for(resource, as: resource_name, url: registration_path(resource_name)) do |f| %>
<%= devise_error_messages! %>
<%= f.text_field :name, autofocus: true, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Name' %>
<%= f.text_field :email, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Email' %>
<%= f.text_field :password, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Password' %>
<%= f.text_field :password_confirmation, class: 'form-control', placeholder: 'Confirm password' %>
<%= f.submit "Sign up", class: 'btn btn-success' %>
<%= render "devise/shared/links" %>
<% end %>
Remove any HTML elements to make sure they're not preventing Rails from showing the elements properly. If it works, you'll be able to rebuild the HTML and CSS to see what the problem is.