# gitana/alpaca

Alpaca provides the easiest way to generate interactive HTML5 forms for web and mobile applications. It uses JSON Schema and simple Handlebars templates to generate great looking, dynamic user interfaces on top of Twitter Bootstrap, jQuery UI, jQuery Mobile and HTML5.

Repository: https://github.com/gitana/alpaca
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/gitana-alpaca
Homepage: http://www.alpacajs.org
Language: JavaScript
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-07-22T00:57:36+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 65/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 93, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5803, "days_push": 43, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1305, forks 357 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:18.737598+00:00)

## What it is
Alpaca is a JavaScript forms engine that generates interactive HTML5 forms from JSON Schema using Handlebars templates. It renders forms on top of Twitter Bootstrap, jQuery UI, jQuery Mobile, or plain HTML5, with extensible controls, layouts, validation, and I18N support.

## Use cases
- generate forms from json schema
- build interactive html5 forms for web and mobile
- render bootstrap-styled forms dynamically
- create form wizards with validation
- build json-driven forms for a cms backend
- internationalize form labels and messages
- render the same form across multiple ui frameworks

## When to choose
- you need schema-driven forms rendered across Bootstrap, jQuery UI, or jQuery Mobile
- you want a mature, extensible forms engine with many built-in field types
- your stack is jQuery-based and you want forms without rewriting per device

## When to avoid
- you use a modern framework like React or Vue with its own form ecosystem
- you need active community development - the latest release dates to 2019
- you want a dependency-free forms solution without jQuery and Handlebars

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: form-handling, ui-components, templating, serialization, internationalization
- domain: web-development, frontend, web-design, cross-platform
- platform: browser
- tags: json-schema, jquery, bootstrap, handlebars, html5-forms, form-generator, jquery-mobile, jquery-ui, validation, wizards, javascript, web-server, mobile

## Member repositories
- gitana/alpaca (main) score 65

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:18.737598+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:51:02.087833+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/gitana/alpaca (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:18.737598+00:00, sha 78dd231a5741)
  - homepage: http://www.alpacajs.org (fetched 2026-08-29T12:09:14.057176+00:00, sha ec4bb48a1c5e)
  - site_page: http://www.alpacajs.org/documentation.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:09:14.066462+00:00, sha 8e5b13454d93)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/alpaca (fetched 2026-08-29T12:09:14.070295+00:00, sha 1e22e271d92b)
  - site_page: http://www.alpacajs.org/download.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:09:14.068593+00:00, sha 0332db80712d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.