# How do I extract the data from the JSON Form in React?

**URL:** <https://jsonforms.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-extract-the-data-from-the-json-form-in-react/531>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [December 15, 2021, 12:20pm UTC](https://jsonforms.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-extract-the-data-from-the-json-form-in-react/531 "2021-12-15T12:20:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![sdirix](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/jsonforms.discourse.group/sdirix/32/1073_2.png) [@sdirix](https://jsonforms.discourse.group/u/sdirix)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 7:45am UTC](https://jsonforms.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-extract-the-data-from-the-json-form-in-react/531/2 "2021-12-16T07:45:03Z")

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Hi @don,

the `onChange` method is exactly the way to extract the information out of `JsonForms`. This is standard practice in React because React lacks data binding, so this is the only way to actually perform it.

> I am aware of using the onChange handler to detect changes, however this will not work for me if I assign defaults to the form and the user doesn’t actually change those values. I still want to be able to capture those defaults.

I don’t understand. When you pass in some default values then they will also be emitted again by JSON Forms.

> Also note that I want to avoid providing the ‘initialData’ into the data prop using \<JsonForms … /\> and keeping tracking of it using onChange/useState. I want to just provide the defaults in the schema and extract the values when I’m ready to submit the form.

You can pass `undefined` for the `data` prop of `JsonForm` if you’d like to. Still you need to capture the current state of the formData via the `onChange` handler, there is no other way, e.g.

```tsx
const [formData, setFormData] = useState();

<JsonForms
  data={undefined}
  schema={mySchema]
  onChange={({data}) => setFormData(data)}
/>

```

Then `formData` will always contain the current state of the form. To handle the defaults you can use AJV’s support for that. See [here](https://jsonforms.discourse.group/t/help-with-default-values/31/2) on how to set it up.

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