Angular Material - show mat-error on button click

Question

I am trying to do validation using the <mat-form-field> and <mat-error>. This works fine when user tabs out of the input without filling. But how do I force this error to show when I click a button? I am not using submit. Also, using template-driven forms.

This is my code:

HTML:

<mat-form-field>
    <input matInput placeholder="Due Date" name="dueDate" [(ngModel)]="dueDate" [formControl]="dueDateValidator" required>
    <mat-error *ngIf="dueDateValidator.invalid">Due Date is required for Tasks</mat-error>
</mat-form-field>

TS:

dueDateValidator: FormControl = new FormControl('', [Validators.required]);

Answer 1

See how to use a form with a custom ErrorStateMatcher

If you wish to override this behavior (e.g. to show the error as soon as the invalid control is dirty or when a parent form group is invalid), you can use the errorStateMatcher property of the matInput. The property takes an instance of an ErrorStateMatcher object. An ErrorStateMatcher must implement a single method isErrorState which takes the FormControl for this matInput as well as the parent form and returns a boolean indicating whether errors should be shown. (true indicating that they should be shown, and false indicating that they should not.)

I would make a separate file such as default.error-matcher.ts

/** Error when invalid control is dirty or touched*/
export class MyErrorStateMatcher implements ErrorStateMatcher {
  isErrorState(control: FormControl | null, form: FormGroupDirective | NgForm | null): boolean {
    return !!(control && control.invalid && (control.dirty || control.touched));
  }
}

Then in the TS file add:

matcher = new MyErrorStateMatcher();

Then change the input to use matcher:

<mat-form-field>
    <input matInput placeholder="Due Date" name="dueDate" [(ngModel)]="dueDate" [formControl]="dueDateValidator" [errorStateMatcher]="matcher" required>
    <mat-error *ngIf="dueDateValidator.invalid">Due Date is required for Tasks</mat-error>
</mat-form-field>